Dubai properties under unfair media attack

The Dubai property market, and the emirate at large, has come under unfair media criticism in recent months, according to the editor of Media Week Middle East.

In a column written for Yahoo! Maktoob News, Ben Flanagan said that although the emirate’s handling of the of the Dubai World story was a PR disaster, the scheme, along with the Dubai real estate sector at large, has received unwarranted “intense attention.”

Flanagan commented: “The debt crisis, remarkable and worrying as it is, made the front page of many international newspapers. But is the press coverage about Dubai as level-headed as that of, for example, the financial crisis in Iceland?”

He added: “Consider the initial press reports about the case, which suggested that Dubai World’s suspension of its debt repayments could trigger a second global downturn similar to that experienced after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. I’d question how that could ever be the case, given that Lehman’s debts [at around £360 billion) were roughly ten times those of Dubai World [which owes £36 billion].”

Although Dubai will continue to face stern financial concerns in the coming months, it looks as though the bedlam surrounding Dubai world and Palm Jumeirah, although serious, is simply the latest in a long list of ‘build it up, knock it down’ sensationalist reports, if Flanagan’s views are accurate.