The quantity of skyscrapers in Dubai is amazing. There are so many construction works on-going in the city that one wonders whether there are real buyers to these real estate. They are building condos, hotels, malls and offices everywhere along the main spine (where the metro lies).
While there are attempts to go Green through the use of solar panels, this cannot be said for design of infrastructure, eg the volume of chilled water required for cooling space is tremendous. The volume of water needed to make the landscape looks green is huge. Otherwise it will just be desert sand. Dubai uses desalination techniques to extract water from the sea. Without energy (from petrol or gas), the malls, offices will not work. But there is a certain lifespan for energy even though it is available cheaply in this region. There seems to be an emphasis on extravagant, from artificial pool (in a desert), creek, reclamation from desert sand and massive tall buildings
Dubai is traditionally a trading hub. One can see in its Gold Souk and the spice trades. But trading should not give supernormal profits. While I understand that the government of UAE is trying their best to diversify to non-oil industry, there must be development in pace of demand. Expats will simply leave in times of economic crisis.
What I like about Dubai is the availability of cheap petrol and relatively cheap car prices. Eg Mitsubishi Attrage is about 36000 Dirham. There is 5% value added tax. Food prices are comparable to Singapore prices. Winter climate is fantastic.
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