22 November 2008

Saturday Open Thread

It's Saturday, which means it's time for our weekly open thread...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here in Dubai, a place supposedly "immune" to the global financial turmoil, some chickens are starting to come home to roost:

* Property prices on the Palm Jumeirah, that icon of wanton extravagance, have already fallen between 20 and 40%.
* Amlak, one of the largest mortgage lenders, is not writing any new loans, almost certainly due to liquidity problems.
* Most banks are tightening their lending criteria - e.g. 50% down-payment required for purchasing a villa, and some are not financing apartment purchases at all.

And you thought Cape Town had a bubble problem!

CT Bubble said...

Thanks for the info! I guess now that Dubai is fashioning itself into the financial capital of the middle east that they can expect all the financial troubles that can bring.

Anonymous said...

Further to Anon , most if not all banks have doubled the minimum required salary for any loan....also , some banks are not giving any loans to employees in the real estate industry (agents etc).... Interesting but not surprising , probably the biggest prop bubble in the world , rumoured to have grown 5 fold in the last 4 years (no real stats)