The Reasons Why Dubai Became so Rich

Almost everyone knows about Dubai and its vast expanse of riches. The city is a part of the United Arab Emirates and has been synonymous with oil for the major part of the last century. Most people think that Dubai became rich due to it being a part of the Gulf, the oil well of the world, but the major part of around a $100 billion revenue of the state comes from prosperous areas like real estate, airlines and ports. Oil comprises only seven percent of the total revenue whereas the rest of the income comes from heavy investments in industries and land.

The reason behind the progressive development of the state can be due to the western methods that have been adopted by Dubai rulers. In the early 1980’s, it was understood that Dubai would not be able to last long in the competitive race if the focus was only given to oil resources. Thus foundations were laid for investments in real estate that are now the major backbone of the Arab economy. In the year 2000, the majority of property development started taking place in the vicinity. This gave a fresh impetus to the economy and literally led to a boom.

In the year 2000, the world saw the opening of the Dubai Internet City. This invited global clients from all arenas and helped Dubai’s businesses to leverage. The InfoTech hub was completely tax free and attracted lots of investors. The 2003 boom led many foreign investors to notice the emirates and then plan to invest there. The best part about the property rules at that was that property owners could only own their respective properties for a period of ninety-nine years and hence there was nothing called freehold rule. It was during this time that major buildings like the Burj Khalifa constructed by Emaar properties, Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Village and Burj Al-Arab, the World’s most expensive hotel and other such projects came underway.

Burj Khalifa (construction cost $1.5 billion) is, until now, the tallest building on the planet and this significantly increased revenue for the city in terms of tourism. Then, the palm islands (construction cost $12.3 billion) also took the demand for the city to an entire new level. Talking about current times, the city is facing a lot of problems since 2008 when the gross domestic product was estimated at $82.11 billion. During the credit crisis situation most of its real time big investors lost a lot of money and left their incomplete projects. Property prices started falling down significantly and thousands of local people started losing their jobs.

If this was not enough, the press came under the scanner of the Dubai Government and their clash led to a bad name. Slowly and steadily, the city is gaining its vigor back. Even though the Emirates city is facing a turbulent time, it has seen enough successes and failure in its short history and is known to fight problems with a brave face. Its strategic location and close proximity to Asia, and Europe has ensured prospective business opportunity for a long time in the future.