Palm Jumeirah : A City At Sea

Hello Everyone, I'm happy to announce that I'm back after having been fully focused on my last year of university and being successfully accepted to a masters at Imperial College Business School London. I'd like to share my personal experiences through this year and continue to write about Middle Eastern Mega Projects and Property Developments. I will start with the Palm Jumeirah as it's quite a popular and famous tourist destination and I happened to have just did a presentation on it, focusing on the construction and project management aspects.


PALM JUMEIRAH

What happens once a billionaire gets everything he wants? He creates everything he wants. Sheikh Maktoum shared a vision to make Dubai a leading luxury tourist destination by being able to diversify Dubai’s economy away from oil. He wanted an island but a proposed circular island of only 7km of beach was not good enough. He pushed for an island with over 70km of beachfront development space forming the world’s first city at sea: The Palm Jumeirah. Construction began in 2001 after numerous feasibility and geographical surveys were conducted. Reclamation was used by Van Oord Dutch specialists by extracting sand from the deep sea floor and relocating it to the site of construction with the use of dredgers.  The 11km breakwater that provides a barrier to sea was being constructed simultaneously as the palm and its 17 fronds took shape. The use of vibrocompaction in over 200,000 places on the palm was vital to compact and strengthen the sand to provide a solid foundation for what comes next. It was not until 2006 until the handover of the first residential units which were all sold within a mere 72 hours. However, over 28 five star hotels, 2 malls and even a monorail would soon follow. It was evident that the Nakheel developer was willing to pay the premium price of over 12 billion to maintain its upmost quality. Even with the delay of two years against its original ambitious timeline, a project like this would take nearly fifteen years in a western country with high levels of beauracracy. 

Trifecta

Flashback Friday ! Repeat posts for all my fans          

Hello, World 

          You think you have it all with your concierge, gym, pool and even a tanning bed in your residential building? Well, you don't. At least not compared to the residents across the pond at One Hyde Park London. They have Minority Report status eye scans in their elevators, panic rooms, bomb-proof windows and each resident's mail is x-rayed before it reaches his or her mailbox. Have a look for yourself . Don't be jealous, you can have all that too if you're willing to pay $11,000 a square foot. Oh yeah, plus a $550,000 yearly service charge. You might want to purchase your apartment soon before someone else gets to have Kylie Minogue, Prince of Monaco, Arab Oil Sheikhs and Russian Oligarchs as their neighbors. And don't try to kidnap any of them for ransom either since they have air purifiers that counter against poison gas anyway, I already thought up that one, trust me. One Hyde Park is just one building with just eighty-six residences but there are so many more amazing properties like it throughout the world that I will be exploring with you through this blog. 
          Each week I will present a unique building that is special in some way with each structure representing a different country to help emphasize that luxury has no limits and no national boundaries. Buildings like One Hyde Park don’t have only a local impact but also have a global economic impact. When projects of this magnitude are constructed, global investors become excited and want to get themselves involved in a similar experiment hoping to gain some sort of return. I became involved by establishing a personal connection with these developments having witnessed their transformation from simple ideas to world recognized structures. Every development I will write about I have personally visited and diligently studied leaving me as the ideal person to present to you facts and information through my blog. Luxury developments are able to be constructed faster than ever with modern technology, but can building too fast too soon bring about some disadvantages? Something like what happened to Dubai during the financial crisis of 2008? It is with this subject of certain luxury developments of a diverse range of countries that I will analyze and demonstrate how luxury development projects have affected the local, national and global economies of a variety of nations. Nevertheless, More people are getting rich – emerging economies and rising middle classes in Russia, India, Brazil China. These BRIC nations all have large populations that lead to a greater demand and more people willing to compete at higher prices.
          It will be interesting to look at cool and exciting buildings outside of New York City as we are witnessing a shift in massive wealth from west to east in our generation. The Empire State Building is only half the size of the current tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai for example. But don't you think another country will soon try to take that spot? I'm guessing it will probably be China, even if it's by next year I wouldn't be surprised. There is a clear parallel between construction developments and rising economies and it is with this blog that I will examine the global economy through this structural perspective lens. I'm really into crazy real estate projects, and my goal is to convert you with one blog post at a time.

Profile Post

I don't share friends. Every single time I introduce somebody to someone they end up dating or becoming best friends. Or worse. They fight and I'm caught in the crossfire. This is the last chance I'm giving you so don't mess it up. His name is Brett Siegel, tall, blond, and an expert on real estate mega developments and investments of the gulf countries. His blog http://uaemegaprojects.blogspot.com  is undoubtedly the best blog for anyone interested in the modern projects of the Middle East. Not only does he provide substantial knowledge on each project, but is so well connected that he is able to provide “over 50 mega project industry news feeds that is continuously updated giving you the most current and complete information available.” Talk about connections. Even if he posts only once a month on average, he still has been consistently posting to his blog since 2007. Five years of blogging illustrates not only his expertise but also his dedication and appreciation for the field of sovereign wealth funds and their direct investments into Middle East projects. Now that's commitment. Doesn't he sound like a catch already? Did I mention everyone loves him? Yes. Three million views. He's probably fun and this guy can clearly hold a conversation on a date. Nothing worse than talking to yourself at dinner. 

            I'll need to pick up a few tips from Mr. Siegel. Currently, my blog focuses solely on individual Sovereign Wealth Funds and projects that are of particular interest to me. If you’d like to see a bigger picture of statistical analysis and more lists of work, Brett’s blog would definitely be useful and more interesting. Pretty much I'm the Marriot and he's the Ritz Carlton. Although his blog is incredible, I feel its more geared towards investors, brokers, and developers who involve themselves in this line of work. I really can't blame the guy for having high expectations, I would too if I were him. Siegel is a professional, always wearing a suit and tie while my blog just wears a short sleeve button-up stolen from my brother's closet. 
          Siegel covers a wider range of topics such as Cityscape Global 2012 which is “one of the largest and most prestigious real estate events in the world.” Cityscape global is pretty much where the best and brightest real estate professionals gather in an attempt to increase business and influence in the region. Told you everybody loves him.“Cityscape Global is expected to grow by 25 per cent this year, as international developers from the world's emerging markets look to the region for potential investors.” As I have mentioned in my blog of the transfer of wealth from western to eastern civilizations, cityscape global takes advantage of this shift of wealth trend where “19 of the 30 largest economies will be from the emerging world, fuelled by improved economic governance, human capital resources, and growing income per capita.”

            My blog just focuses on the sovereign wealth funds of the middle east, however, there are a handful of nations outside the middle east that also have sovereign wealth funds that you could possibly ask Siegel about when you see him. Top 10 Sovereign Wealth Funds discusses the most significant SWFs of the world, four of which are in the middle east. Some of the other nations most notably include China, Russia, Singapore and Norway. “The SWFs are important to the Mega Project industry because many of them invest directly in the projects while others help to create an economic environment conducive to Mega Project development.” Wait, Siegel did tell me he has access to detailed descriptions and link to each official SWF and can give me a more comprehensive analysis of each SWFs position in the global market.  I remember him saying something about The Norway government pension fund and how it “invests in international equity and fixed-income markets and real estate. The aim is to have a diversified investment mix that will give the highest possible risk-adjusted return within the guidelines set by the ministry.”

           So, are you interested? Here's his number, he's expecting your call.

Voice Critique 

          Okay, forget my previous voice critique on Sven Behrendt because I found someone else I could criticize even more. His name is Oliver Wainwright and he’s a British lad if you couldn’t already guess by the name. In one of his blog posts he completely condemns every aspect of the massive redevelopment plan of Mecca, Saudi Arabia while in another post he blindly praises the colossal development of London's Olympic Park. Essentially, both projects involve gigantic structures that take away from its surroundings yet Wainwright takes opposing perspectives for each. I can’t help but think it’s solely because he’s British and has the ethnocentric bias that most people will never admit to.  I can’t exactly accuse him. It’s always easier to place blame on somebody else.

          Mecca's Mega Projects is undoubtedly geared toward a western audience determined by his religious explanations and architectural analogies. Probably even a European audience to be more specific. I had no clue WTF “La Defense Cube” or “MVRDV’s Serpentine Pavillion” was until I checked with my good friend Wikipedia. “Perhaps a giant artificial mountain like MVRDV’s Serpentine pavilion proposal, could help accommodate the influx” justifies his use of simile to establish a greater understanding by linking similar architectural structures in Mecca to Europe to persuade his audience to his criticisms. This is further demonstrated through his analogy of France’s La Defense Cube to a “100 residential towers arranged around a plaza with capacity for 65,000 worshipers, as well as a skyscraper the size of the La Defense cube” to help illustrate the magnitude of these new structures of Mecca. This is where he begins to annoy me. The Abraj al-Bait clock tower above the Grand Mosque is a 600m high structure which makes it the second tallest building in the world, yet Wainwright snobbishly refers to it as “a surreal inflated parody of Big Ben.” Mind I tell you Big Ben is only 96m high and really the only thing they share in common is a clock.

          His various attacks on the redevelopment plan in which “95 per cent of Mecca’s millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades alone” completely overlooks the necessity for expansion merely to accommodate the growing number of Muslim pilgrims. His use of language and phrasing sets a negative tone where he makes it seem that only the authoritarian king of Saudi Arabia will benefit from the construction and the public has fallen victim to the king’s ambitions.  He begins to refer to the city as “Las Vegas without the gambling” which many people would find provocative comparing Islam’s holiest site to a city of strippers, drugs and unlimited alcohol. Of course, Wainwright did not want you to forget that this redevelopment plan will be “run by Osama’s brothers.” Yes Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist. What he failed to mention is that the Bin Laden Family is a highly respected billionaire family from construction and real estate. Osama even had a supermodel sister Wafa.  None of them ever supported what Osama did but Wainwright’s wording and phrasing almost assumes that they did. The Bin Laden family will also be behind the Kingdom Tower project of Jeddah I covered in a previous blog post illuminating their success in projects of the Middle East.

          Now look how much his voice changes when he writes about London's Olympic Park. You would think a different person is writing. He illustrates the transformation of Olympic park from “layered with generations of service as London’s kitchen garden and workshop, the site of flour mills and shipyards, gunpowder mills, chemical plants and brick factories” to “a green ribbon that snakes 40km from Hertfordshire down to the Thames in a knotted tangle of rivers, reservoirs and marshland, woven between infrastructural arteries and fragments of industry.” All this descriptive language to describe some greenery outside the Olympic stadium? Seriously, has this guy even been to London? The only thing green is the doorman's suit at Harrods. I agree with Wainwright that East London was pretty ghetto since World War II and the Olympics brought about its transformation and renovation. However, isn’t that the same thing that’s happening with Mecca? They are also taking down all the old ghetto buildings in the middle of nowhere and constructing giant magnificent structures in their place just like the Olympic stadium. He conveys a sense of pride when he states “In places, it is hard to shake off the feeling of being on an overly managed stage set, an imported ideal of naturalised landscape completely alien to the tradition of London parks.” Interesting language usage like “raised spine, which is bowed north-south across the park like a hog’s back”, “hourglass shape of the site”, to an “abrasive edgeland” are all much more rich phrases than was used for his Mecca post. He seems to exaggerate his choice of words and sentence styles to help illustrate his love for London’s Olympic Park. The sense of character that I’ve come to realize is that he’s bipolar. If Wainwright doesn’t like something he will harshly condemn it, but if he likes it he will overly praise it as evidenced through his Mecca and Olympic post. 

Kingdom Tower Saudi Arabia

Okay well that didn't take long. Dubai built the largest tower, Burj Khalifa, and of course someone was going to take the spot. I thought it would be China but looks like it's going to be Saudi Arabia will take the spot of tallest tower in the world. Prince Alwaleed is the behind this new investment project, called Kingdom tower, which will be built in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia and cost $1.2 billion. No biggie. At least they're putting all that oil money into something right? So how tall is it exactly? About 3280 feet, so look at the image at the bottom of this post to put it more into perspective. Empire state building is a baby in comparison haha. I believe this consistent trend of taller and taller structures is highly influenced by cultural ego and dominance. We're not exactly running out of land that's forcing us to build vertically. Especially in the gulf, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have somewhat of a historical tension in which country can exert more influence and power over the rest of the gulf countries. Most notably, the most recent plan for the gulf to become more integrated with one currency similar to the euro for the european union was halted when Saudi Arabia and UAE could not come to an agreement over which country would host the region's central bank headquarters. However, the gulf still remains politically and culturally integrated. 

Don't be so shocked that this male arab ego goes far beyond it's architecture and borders. Gulf countries have begun to compete through European soccer clubs. Some including Qatar's purchase of Paris Saint-German, Dubai(UAE) purchase of Leeds United, Abu Dhabi purchase of Manchester City and Real Madrid. 

Lets go back to talking about Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower. There’s no skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia even close to this magnitude however the construction of this single project alone has already spurred a 20 billion redevelopment plan on other projects on Jeddah's Red Sea Waterfront. The tower will have my favorite hotel, Four Seasons, along with the highest observatory deck in the world. You can take one of the 60 elevators to get up there, if you’re not afraid of heights of course. As you can see, the competition seems to be pretty beneficial to everyone. The oil rich gulf nations seem to be diversifying their economies away from oil and constructing projects like Kingdom Tower will undoubtedly create jobs and additional housing for its citizens.

What is interesting about Saudi Arabia in comparison to most countries is that there are restrictions on tourism. Usually, people are only allowed to visit if they are going for their Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca or they know someone there that would allow them into the country. It seems Alwaleed has tourism on his mind with this project and hopefully it will influence change in the strict policy of Saudi Arabia on tourism. Alwaleed’s wife, Princess Ameera Al-Taweel, has been a strong advocate for woman’s rights in the kingdom and is often praised as a public figure in the West. 

One57

When people think of New York City they probably think energetic, unforgettable, rich, artistic, soulless, busy and cosmopolitan (adjective and the drink).  When I think of New York City I think of One57. The newest addition to the skyline of the ‘City that never sleeps’. But what makes One57 different than any other luxury high rise in Manhattan that only multi-millionaires can afford? Not only will it be NYC’s tallest residential project ever at 90 stories high once completed, but also will become a prize asset investment for global billionaires. It is still under construction but more than half of its units have already been sold and rumor has it that the prime minister of Qatar spent $90 million on a penthouse there taking the spot for NYC’s record-breaking real estate record transaction. Previous record was of Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, who bought an $88 million apartment at 15 Central Park West for his daughter last year. As if that wasn’t already enough, Qatari Prime Minister wants to enlarge his penthouse by buying a group of another four adjacent condos making it worth $250 million. However, most of the buyers of these global real estate prizes rarely actually live in the properties themselves. So then why do they buy them? Wealth. Preservation. If your plan was to sit at the Starbucks all day on west 57^th street with a dream of meeting a billionaire ‘by accident’ you will probably have more luck drinking your latte slowly near Wall Street.

Just like the sovereign wealth funds of the gulf Arab countries, these high net worth individuals may invest on a much smaller scale, but are doing so for the same reasons: to make a profit. Values of trophy assets such as a unit in one57 are least affected to global economic fluctuations, which is why investors view high-end real estate as the best and safest investment option.

Every investment involves some sort of risk but especially during a recession, investors will stick to five main groups of investments: precious metals (gold, silver, platinum), Timber, Foreign Currencies, Equities and then Real Estate. Real Estate seems to always be the more popular option even though there is still risk involved. Nonetheless, there is still great opportunity for good cash flows. Cash flows should really work from the start so investors view real estate as two investments in one, money from the tenants and property appreciation. Selling it whenever you want. However, the current recession we are in is primarily because of real estate Sub-prime mortgage lending. Therefore, before you think about investing make sure you actually have the money not only to buy the property itself but also to have money for property taxes, repairs and maintenance if the property will not sell right away. Anyway, I doubt money is an issue for the owners over at One57 but they’d probably agree with real estate being one of their most favorable and profitable choices for investment so if you follow suit, there will be nothing separating you and them from that apartment at One57. 

          

Qatar Investment Authority

          If only I won the lottery I’d be so rich I could do anything I want. Or even better, nothing at all. What would you buy with your dolla dolla if you ended up being that lucky winner? Most people would probably say a new house and new car, or ten. Maybe a plane if you really want to be all hard. I would. So now imagine if an entire country won the lottery and what they would be able to buy. One day, God decided to be so generous and give this little tiny Arab country down the street from Iran the world’s largest proven reserves of liquefied natural gas (LNG) ready for export and has since transformed its economy.

Qatar, a country located in the Persian, Arabian Gulf has only 300,000 citizens but 1.87 mill people in the country pretty much working for them. So after the government gives their citizens high salaries, highest GDP per capita in the world actually, what else can they possibly do with all that money? They invest it. This is in the form of a sovereign wealth fund which is a government-owned body that invests in a range of assets from private equity to listed securities. In other words, they’re investing to diversify their assets away from oil/LNG price fluctuations and be able to prepare for future generations, as oil and natural gas are non-renewable resources.

Since Europe has been struggling economically recently, it has been the perfect opportunity for Qatar or any investor to go on a shopping spree. The Qatar Investment Authority has since bought: 

The Shard

Harrods luxury department store and will be expanding the brand globally. 

The Shard, largest tower in Europe.
The Valentino Brand 
One Hyde Park London 
Paris Saint Germain Soccer Team 
25% of Canary Wharf Financial District 
20% of London Stock Exchange 
20% of Sainsbury Supermarket Chain in UK 
Luxury Stores on Paris’ Champs Elysees 
Large shares in British Barclays Bank, Volkswagen and Porsche.

There’s much more but this is only some of what has been released to the public. There’s a lack of transparency when it comes to SWFs and their investment patterns and strategies. Understandable.

But that’s only abroad. Domestically, Qatar is investing tens of billions of dollars in new infrastructure in preparation for hosting the World Cup in 2022. A skyline of buildings and luxury developments built in just a few years really illustrates the reaching influence Qatar is aiming to achieve on a global level. You might be thinking though why are they so interested and focused on assets specifically in London, United Kingdom? London provides many benefits that make it an attractive place for foreign investment and that is why it is arguable the most global city in the world. But what you may not know is that Britain is Qatar’s best customer in Liquefied natural gas and provides almost all (95%) of Britain’s gas needs. Therefore, it only makes sense why Qatar has such a known and growing presence in London but also illustrates the global market and how nations have become completely dependent on each other. One inevitable disaster, like the Fukushima plant in Japan, forced them to buy more LNG from Qatar thus driving the prices up for England because of the greater demand for Qatar's LNG. This example  perfectly demonstrates and explains why any investor or SWF would seek to diversify their assets in a range of classes to achieve the most safe and stable returns. Nonetheless, Qatar is planning to double its current output of LNG with the recent production of a new plant so there will not be a shortage anytime soon and you can guarantee that Qatar will continue taking over the world.

Queen Elizabeth, Sheikha Mozah, Prince Phillip

Dubai Pearl

Sometimes I don’t go to work or school merely because I don’t want to drive there. Sad, I know. You’d understand what I was talking about if you lived in Los Angeles or any other unbearably congested city. But can you imagine if you had the opportunity to live, work and play in the same building?  Well, you can in Dubai! The structure is called Dubai Pearl and it’s pretty much a vertical city, a luxurious one obviously, that was built specifically for me and all the other lazy asses out there. Upon completion, it will be a home to nine-thousand people and twelve-thousand professionals will be able to work there. That’s only the beginning. It will also have six 5 star hotels, MGM Grand and Bellagio are two you may be familiar with from your Vegas trip last Labor Day Weekend. A Cinema complex, restaurants, spas, malls, gyms, hospitals, offices, convention centers, strip clubs (just kidding), but yah you get the point. When I said city, I wasn’t kidding. 

             The Al-Futtaim group is a private company behind this development however they have investors and subcontractors from all over the world working on this project to deliver the best quality. The group has close connections with the royal family which has invested money into the project along with the DIFC (Dubai International Financial Centre) which illustrates the increasing merge of public and private sectors in global markets and assets. This is significant because there is a lower probability of failure if a government is invested in the project. This is a prime example because key investors withdrew billions of dollars of investment into this project during the peak of the financial crisis in 2008. So many projects have halted or completely fell apart in Dubai during the financial crisis but the Dubai Pearl kept going and is still projected to be built on time which further shows the confidence investors have in this magnificent project that will cost $4.1 billion.

There’s a mentality with Dubai of ‘build and they will come’ with what seems to be an oversupply of hotel and office space that simply cannot be filled with the current global economic climate. Nonetheless, Dubai remains to be the business hub of the Middle East and is a key representation of the efforts of the gulf countries to push into industries that are not dependent on natural resources. The UAE is expecting a population growth in the next decade of about two million that is nearly 20% of the current population. So to put that more into perspective, USA has about 300 million people so that would mean an expected growth of 60 million people! This expected growth demonstrates the results of globalization where it is now very common for an individual to immigrate to another country for economic opportunities. With the increasing importance of sovereign wealth funds of the gulf Arab states, many have chose to call Dubai their new home and the lucky ones will call their new home, Dubai Pearl. 

Global Construction Market Trends

There’s a multitude of reasons for construction demands in international markets but they are mainly due to a rise in GDP in the wealthier nations and high fertility rates in the poorer nations. For this post, let’s just focus on the first world for now. All you need to know for the poor nations is that it’s pretty much a bunch of basic concrete blocks (if they’re lucky), half of them probably without A/C and definitely without rooftop pools. Can you imagine? Yah, me either. Wealthy countries demand higher standards so building costs will rise as a result, leaving us with architecturally significant buildings even worth writing about.
Lets start simple explaining different reasons for why people would want to invest in a growing construction market. One obvious one that many Americans probably wouldn’t even think about is political stability. You’re not exactly going to invest your life savings into the Congo or Russia not knowing where your money would go because of all the corruption and lack of protection laws. No shit. You’ll probably sleep better at night investing your money into a stable market like Western Europe or Canada even.
Another reason would be migration. Especially recently with globalization and modernization, many people are migrating to different countries for work and it drives up construction drastically. Often times, these construction projects are fully funded by governments or investment authorities which allows projects to be finished much more rapidly and on a much larger scale. This is mainly occurring now in the gulf Arab States like United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. That’s where all your gas money is going. On top of it, labor is extremely cheap there, it’s borderline slavery but they choose to go there for work so not really. Still there’s no ‘minimum wage’ and they work longer hours equals productivity. Dubai built its state-of-the-art metro in about a year while Los Angeles will probably have its high speed rail ready when I’m ready to retire and I’ll be in Cannes by then.
Back to the migration point. People usually migrate to other countries nowadays for economic opportunities in hope of gaining a higher income than they would in their home country. However, most of these people plan to go to these countries and work, get rich, then go back home. In turn, the money they are making is not being put into the local market and economy but back to their home countries to probably family members or a retirement home. Therefore, unless people will continue to migrate and work at the same rate, it can cause major inflation rates because the more people come the higher demand will be for accommodation. So if people stop coming, the local population suffers and there will be major inflation and completely deteriorate an economy and its construction market.
This is of particular interest with these gulf arab states, especially Dubai, which have more foreign workers in the country than the local population. Dubai currently has only 20% Emirati nationals and the rest are expatriate workers. Ratio of male to woman is 1 to 6 which is pretty shocking but it just further strengthens my point that people are there temporarily and are there to work, get rich, then leave. This has already caused damage to its market in 2008 with construction markets and prices with a 50% decrease at the snap of a finger. I hope you understood all that. I’ll explain more reasons next time.

Real Estate Projects of the World

You think you have it all with your concierge, gym, pool and even a tanning bed in your residential building? Well, you don't. At least not compared to the residents across the pond at One Hyde Park London. They have Minority Report status eye scans in their elevators, panic rooms, bomb-proof windows and each resident's mail is x-rayed before it reaches his or her mailbox. Don't be jealous, you can have all that too if you're willing to pay $11,000 a square foot. Oh yeah, plus a $550,000 yearly service charge. You might want to purchase your apartment soon before someone else gets to have Kylie Minogue, Prince of Monaco, Arab Oil Sheikhs and Russian Oligarchs as their neighbors. And don't try to kidnap any of them for ransom either since they have air purifiers that counter against poison gas anyway, I already thought up that one, trust me. One Hyde Park is just one building with just eighty-six residences but there are so many more amazing properties like it throughout the world that I will be exploring with you through this blog.

Each week I will present a unique building that is special in some way with each structure representing a different country to help emphasize that luxury has no limits and no national boundaries. Buildings like One Hyde Park don’t have only a local impact but also have a global economic impact. When projects of this magnitude are constructed, global investors become excited and want to get themselves involved in a similar experiment hoping to gain some sort of return. Luxury developments are able to be constructed faster than ever with modern technology, but can building too fast too soon bring about some disadvantages? Something like what happened to Dubai during the financial crisis of 2008? It is with this subject of certain luxury developments of a diverse range of countries that I will analyze and demonstrate how luxury development projects have affected the local, national and global economies of a variety of nations. Nevertheless, more people are getting rich – emerging economies and rising middle classes in Russia, India, Brazil and China. These BRIC nations all have large populations that lead to a greater demand and more people willing to compete at higher prices.

 It will be interesting to look at cool and exciting buildings outside of New York City as we are witnessing a shift in massive wealth from west to east in our generation. The Empire State Building is only half the size of the current tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa in Dubai for example. But don't you think another country will soon try to take that spot? I'm guessing it will probably be China, even if it's by next year I wouldn't be surprised. There is a clear parallel between construction developments and rising economies and it is with this blog that I will examine the global economy through this structural perspective lens. I’m really into real estate and crazy projects and my goal is to interest you in it and make you look forward to which building I will present to you through each new blog post.