Acceso usuarios
Robin Bloch
This essay details the effects of the global economic crisis on Dubai and assesses thefuture implications for urban and economic development in Dubai itself and within itsbroader sphere of influence. Dubai’s real estate-led six-year boom between 2003 and2008 is located within the emirate’s growth strategy, which expressed the rulingal-Maktoum family’s long-running ambition for the city-state to ascend to global-citystatus on the basis of significant investment in economic infrastructure over decades toservice a regional trading-hub role. Urban development during the boom years wasaccelerated in terms of process and built outcomes as state-backed real estate companiesborrowed heavily on capital markets and designed and constructed an extraordinaryarray of commercial, industrial, retail, residential and tourism facilities to cater for aplanned population increase on the basis of growing economic activity. The globaleconomic crisis brought the boom years to an end from late 2008 onwards: constructionslowed down, if it did not halt altogether, property values dropped by half, and thefinances of state-owned companies are undergoing restructuring in the face of creditordemands. A durable pick-up in economic growth is likely to impel Dubai’s ruling elite tore-emphasize the city’s regional trading and service-centre role based on stronginvestment in aviation, shipping and logistics infrastructure. While real estatedevelopment will be demoted as an economic priority, Dubai’s city-building practiceswill continue to influence the current wave of global suburbanization in the Middle East,Africa and Asia.
