Celebrity Branded Real Estate in UAE

With the financial turmoil and recession effecting everyone from rich to poor, it is amazing to see how everybody manages to bring out the survival instinct out from within and somehow manages to make the now much more difficult extra buck that was flowing like anything early this year.

All industries have taken a hit with the banking and mortgage side of things being hit the worse. Who would have thought names like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch could be threatened? Nobody has been spared. Take AIG, Morgan Stanley some serious role players in the market. Governments have come out with bailout and rescue plans to save the favoured organizations.

UAE has not been at the worst end but it has felt the heat also. The big boom in UAE has been the Real Estate market in recent times where there have been many people who have made millions in months with a simple strategy. Buy at the property launch and sell at double, triple price. Just these turnover investors who had the initial investable capital have been able to raise the prices. Unfortunately, the low liquidity has hit those now and to add to that some scandals and increased regulations to stop this unnatural price hike has led to the property boom just mellowing down a bit.



So the recommendations for people like me who have grown up playing monopoly till fajr on weekends is to just sit and lay eggs on your money. For me that is pretty much butt on the cold floor. The advice is to play safe and if really wanting to invest then do it in good property. So how does one define good? Good stable company with government backing preferably and good financial standing. Since the average person wouldn't know what that would mean, the marketeers have come up with a new & brilliant concept. Celebrity Branded Real Estate...

The Trump Towers had a great opening boasting a AED 35 million pent house and The Tiger Woods golf community something and Michael Schumacher theme park. I know Pamela Anderson has something here as well and just yesterday I heard Mr. Antonio Banderas is launching Spanish Ranches. The way things are we should pretty much have all housing schemes named after some celebrity. So that is what is selling these days. The "Novelty" element. The amazing thing is that it's working. People are wiling to spend on branded property even in these days of a credit crunch and liquidity crisis. These people are obviously the money kings of UAE and probably some european investors who are moving here after being financially body-slammed in their own countries.

Owning a home in UAE is an even more distant dream now and I have actually stopped thinking about it. Just save the extra penny in savings bonds and put some maybe in gold and thats that. Its time to stay put for a while.