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Dubai: Nakheel Tower (Tallest in the World. Over 1 KM high)
- Thread starter khris
- Start date
Prometheus The Supremo
►Member №41+⅜◄
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- a strange reality, bizarro toronto
excessive? nah. if having a hummer compensates for small penis size, imagine what this project is compensating for. 
the world is backwards. where sprawl poses a threat to the environment, we sprawl out. where sprawl poses no threat, we build up. maybe we should relocate dubai to the 905 and the 905 to dubai.
the world is backwards. where sprawl poses a threat to the environment, we sprawl out. where sprawl poses no threat, we build up.
maybe we should relocate dubai to the 905 and the 905 to dubai. 
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Looks like a nose-hair clipper.
And why not? They haven't done one of those yet.
And why not? They haven't done one of those yet.
000
Senior UT Member
http://www.nakheel.com/news/islamic-ingenuity-inspires-dubais-capital-nakheel-harbour-tower
I've got to retire here
I've got to retire here
gei
Active Member
am i the only one who laughs when people refer to someone as "his excellency"?
urbanboom
Active Member
Best of luck to them trying to find a bank to finance that thing.
Oh, an best of luck to them trying to find someone to buy that thing since the supply of investors with more money than brains is drying up.
Oh, an best of luck to them trying to find someone to buy that thing since the supply of investors with more money than brains is drying up.
khris
Senior Member
They will have no issues at all getting financing.
gei
Active Member
and are you so certain of this because you yourself are providing the financing?
khris
Senior Member
H
Hydrogen
Guest
And then it'd sit there empty.
They wouldn't be the first to do this.
They wouldn't be the first to do this.
Archivist
Senior Member
Mideast economies face cooling from credit crisis
The Associated Press Published: October 10, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt: Only in a region where developers are announcing US$100 billion mega-projects even as their stock markets collapse could the global credit crisis been seen as a potential blessing in disguise.
Some analysts say the current world financial meltdown could bring a needed cooling of the overheated economies of Gulf Arab nations, while their massive budget surpluses and non-oil sector growth help sustain them through the crisis.
"The fact that the liquidity issue is going to take some oomph out of growth in the region — particularly in the United Arab Emirates — in not necessarily a bad thing because it brings the economy down to a more manageable growth trend," said Ben Faulks, London-based sovereign wealth analyst with Standard & Poors.
Within the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations, "the problem has been that growth has been too strong," said Faulks, adding that currencies in most of those countries may be undervalued as they are pegged to the U.S. dollar, meaning the various central banks there have to follow the Federal Reserve's lead in interest rates.
The situation may be most pronounced in the United Arab Emirates, where the building boom — featuring frequent announcements of multi-billion dollar mega-projects — continued unabated.
One company, Meraas Development, earlier this week unveiled plans to create new artificial islands off Dubai's cost, with the centerpiece of the 350 billion dirham (US$95 billion) Jumeira Gardens project a tower made up of three separate prongs. Each of the more than 600 meter (1,969 foot) structures would be linked by bridges containing suspended apartments.
A S&P research report released this week about the UAE cautions that if liquidity remains tight, "funding future projects will, however, become more difficult, thereby affecting the UAE economy's hitherto extraordinary growth."
While Dubai remains a boom town, volatility in its stock market, and those of throughout the region, underpinned the risks confronting Gulf nations, even as officials stress they are ready to step in as needed.
Dubai's market was off over 20 percent in four days of trading, while the Arab world's largest, Saudi Arabia, fell over 17 percent. Among the hardest hit in Dubai were developers and banks.
Cushioning, if not fully insulating, these countries from the global crisis are vast cash surpluses from oil sales.
But with crude oil prices about 40 percent lower than their record levels of US$147 in mid-July, OPEC members are zealously looking to guard prices and, on Thursday, announced they had agreed to meet in November — a month ahead of schedule — to discuss the causes of the price slump.
The reason for their concern is clear.
As prices drop, exporters like the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — where a new US$7.2 billion, 11-square-mile, community mega-project was announced earlier this week — could face some increased risk from collapsing oil prices as demand wanes in the West.
------------------------
No one is immune from the current bout of problems. While it is true that Dubai's investors could probably could finance this building itself from oil revenues in the UAE -- but since virtually no one expected to buy anything in Dubai is from there - it is a land of expatriates - they would be building an empty shell that would be all cost and no profit.
This ain't gonna get built.
The Associated Press Published: October 10, 2008
CAIRO, Egypt: Only in a region where developers are announcing US$100 billion mega-projects even as their stock markets collapse could the global credit crisis been seen as a potential blessing in disguise.
Some analysts say the current world financial meltdown could bring a needed cooling of the overheated economies of Gulf Arab nations, while their massive budget surpluses and non-oil sector growth help sustain them through the crisis.
"The fact that the liquidity issue is going to take some oomph out of growth in the region — particularly in the United Arab Emirates — in not necessarily a bad thing because it brings the economy down to a more manageable growth trend," said Ben Faulks, London-based sovereign wealth analyst with Standard & Poors.
Within the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations, "the problem has been that growth has been too strong," said Faulks, adding that currencies in most of those countries may be undervalued as they are pegged to the U.S. dollar, meaning the various central banks there have to follow the Federal Reserve's lead in interest rates.
The situation may be most pronounced in the United Arab Emirates, where the building boom — featuring frequent announcements of multi-billion dollar mega-projects — continued unabated.
One company, Meraas Development, earlier this week unveiled plans to create new artificial islands off Dubai's cost, with the centerpiece of the 350 billion dirham (US$95 billion) Jumeira Gardens project a tower made up of three separate prongs. Each of the more than 600 meter (1,969 foot) structures would be linked by bridges containing suspended apartments.
A S&P research report released this week about the UAE cautions that if liquidity remains tight, "funding future projects will, however, become more difficult, thereby affecting the UAE economy's hitherto extraordinary growth."
While Dubai remains a boom town, volatility in its stock market, and those of throughout the region, underpinned the risks confronting Gulf nations, even as officials stress they are ready to step in as needed.
Dubai's market was off over 20 percent in four days of trading, while the Arab world's largest, Saudi Arabia, fell over 17 percent. Among the hardest hit in Dubai were developers and banks.
Cushioning, if not fully insulating, these countries from the global crisis are vast cash surpluses from oil sales.
But with crude oil prices about 40 percent lower than their record levels of US$147 in mid-July, OPEC members are zealously looking to guard prices and, on Thursday, announced they had agreed to meet in November — a month ahead of schedule — to discuss the causes of the price slump.
The reason for their concern is clear.
As prices drop, exporters like the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — where a new US$7.2 billion, 11-square-mile, community mega-project was announced earlier this week — could face some increased risk from collapsing oil prices as demand wanes in the West.
------------------------
No one is immune from the current bout of problems. While it is true that Dubai's investors could probably could finance this building itself from oil revenues in the UAE -- but since virtually no one expected to buy anything in Dubai is from there - it is a land of expatriates - they would be building an empty shell that would be all cost and no profit.
This ain't gonna get built.
000
Senior UT Member
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Hot Projects Cool in Dubai
MELTDOWN RIPPLES ACROSS GLOBE
Hot projects cool in Dubai
Slowing real estate market may hurt Islamic banks who don't have same flexibility as other Western institutions
Oct 19, 2008 04:30 AM
Frederik Richter
Reuters News Agency
MANAMA–With their ban on interest, the Gulf Islamic banks that managed to avoid the types of debt which proved toxic for their conventional counterparts are now praying the global crisis will bypass their property holdings.
Islamic banks, which manage an estimated $1 trillion (U.S.) worldwide, do not have the same flexibility as conventional banks in managing balance sheet risks, bankers say. For instance, they cannot reduce exposure to the real estate market by using derivatives.
So Islamic bankers watched last week's Cityscape real estate fair in Dubai with intense scrutiny. But even the unveiling of a planned kilometre-high tower failed to allay their fears that a boom in Gulf Arab real estate may be grinding to a halt.
The fate of Islamic banks in the region is closely tied to the property markets as they are required to underpin transactions with physical assets due to the ban on interest, which is viewed as usury under Islamic law.
"Islamic banks may initially have been viewed as less impacted because they are unable to invest in the instruments that caused the current instability some 18 months ago," said Danie Marx, head of treasury and capital markets at European Islamic Investment Bank.
"However, as the instability drags on and the second-phase impact of the crisis spills over into the region, either as restricted liquidity or adverse movement in asset prices, for example in real estate, it could start to hurt them."
Confidence in the Gulf property market has been hit by the global financial turmoil, and there are signs that a five-year property boom is set to slow.
Dubai house prices rose 16 per cent during the second quarter, but that compared with 42 per cent in the first, according to real estate consultancy Colliers International.
As the global credit crisis intensifies liquidity has begun to tighten, even in the world's top oil-exporting region, which is flush with cash after six years of rising oil prices.
The chief executive of Malaysia's CIMB Islamic Bank, one of the leading sharia lenders, said this week some Gulf Arab Islamic banks could fail as frozen credit markets and slumping property prices take a toll, though government aid should save the industry from a prolonged downturn.
But some bankers have raised the question of whether Islamic banks can tap into emergency funds set up by governments the way conventional banks can, due to the ban on interest.
The United Arab Emirates government more than doubled its initial rescue package for banks to almost $33 billion on Tuesday, and bankers say its promise to guarantee banking deposits has already restored confidence in capital markets.
However, the UAE has not released details of how its second cash injection will work.
"The fact that we have not seen instability in the capital adequacy of Islamic banks does not mean that it cannot happen," Marx said.
Figures are hard to come by but Islamic banking operations of international banks have a significant market share compared with regional and solely sharia-compliant players, attracted largely by the region's cash.
"The rationale behind the move of Western banks into Islamic banking was to tap the region's deep pockets," said a Dubai-based Islamic banker at an international bank, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic.
"(Now) the market is shut."
Such grim comments by bankers contrast sharply with statements made by Gulf Arab government officials recently, who have sought to assure investors that Islamic banks are sheltered from the financial storm.
Bahraini Finance Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Khalifa said this week most of the country's banks had invested in the booming Gulf Arab region rather than complex foreign assets, and Islamic banks had no exposure at all to the global crisis.
The Islamic bond, or sukuk, market is seen as a measure of both the extent to which Islamic banking has been hurt as well as when it will begin to recover.
Mohammed Damak, financial banking analyst at Standard & Poor's, said the liquidity crunch did have an impact on the global sukuk market.
In a report published in September, the agency said global sukuk issuance stood at around $14 billion in the first eight months of the year, down from $23 billion during the same period in 2007.
Despite these short-term concerns, there is an argument that the Gulf Arab region's sound economic fundamentals and strong growth – as well as governments' increased readiness to provide liquidity – could offset the impact of a correction in real estate prices on Islamic banks in the region.
MELTDOWN RIPPLES ACROSS GLOBE
Hot projects cool in Dubai
Slowing real estate market may hurt Islamic banks who don't have same flexibility as other Western institutions
Oct 19, 2008 04:30 AM
Frederik Richter
Reuters News Agency
MANAMA–With their ban on interest, the Gulf Islamic banks that managed to avoid the types of debt which proved toxic for their conventional counterparts are now praying the global crisis will bypass their property holdings.
Islamic banks, which manage an estimated $1 trillion (U.S.) worldwide, do not have the same flexibility as conventional banks in managing balance sheet risks, bankers say. For instance, they cannot reduce exposure to the real estate market by using derivatives.
So Islamic bankers watched last week's Cityscape real estate fair in Dubai with intense scrutiny. But even the unveiling of a planned kilometre-high tower failed to allay their fears that a boom in Gulf Arab real estate may be grinding to a halt.
The fate of Islamic banks in the region is closely tied to the property markets as they are required to underpin transactions with physical assets due to the ban on interest, which is viewed as usury under Islamic law.
"Islamic banks may initially have been viewed as less impacted because they are unable to invest in the instruments that caused the current instability some 18 months ago," said Danie Marx, head of treasury and capital markets at European Islamic Investment Bank.
"However, as the instability drags on and the second-phase impact of the crisis spills over into the region, either as restricted liquidity or adverse movement in asset prices, for example in real estate, it could start to hurt them."
Confidence in the Gulf property market has been hit by the global financial turmoil, and there are signs that a five-year property boom is set to slow.
Dubai house prices rose 16 per cent during the second quarter, but that compared with 42 per cent in the first, according to real estate consultancy Colliers International.
As the global credit crisis intensifies liquidity has begun to tighten, even in the world's top oil-exporting region, which is flush with cash after six years of rising oil prices.
The chief executive of Malaysia's CIMB Islamic Bank, one of the leading sharia lenders, said this week some Gulf Arab Islamic banks could fail as frozen credit markets and slumping property prices take a toll, though government aid should save the industry from a prolonged downturn.
But some bankers have raised the question of whether Islamic banks can tap into emergency funds set up by governments the way conventional banks can, due to the ban on interest.
The United Arab Emirates government more than doubled its initial rescue package for banks to almost $33 billion on Tuesday, and bankers say its promise to guarantee banking deposits has already restored confidence in capital markets.
However, the UAE has not released details of how its second cash injection will work.
"The fact that we have not seen instability in the capital adequacy of Islamic banks does not mean that it cannot happen," Marx said.
Figures are hard to come by but Islamic banking operations of international banks have a significant market share compared with regional and solely sharia-compliant players, attracted largely by the region's cash.
"The rationale behind the move of Western banks into Islamic banking was to tap the region's deep pockets," said a Dubai-based Islamic banker at an international bank, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the topic.
"(Now) the market is shut."
Such grim comments by bankers contrast sharply with statements made by Gulf Arab government officials recently, who have sought to assure investors that Islamic banks are sheltered from the financial storm.
Bahraini Finance Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Khalifa said this week most of the country's banks had invested in the booming Gulf Arab region rather than complex foreign assets, and Islamic banks had no exposure at all to the global crisis.
The Islamic bond, or sukuk, market is seen as a measure of both the extent to which Islamic banking has been hurt as well as when it will begin to recover.
Mohammed Damak, financial banking analyst at Standard & Poor's, said the liquidity crunch did have an impact on the global sukuk market.
In a report published in September, the agency said global sukuk issuance stood at around $14 billion in the first eight months of the year, down from $23 billion during the same period in 2007.
Despite these short-term concerns, there is an argument that the Gulf Arab region's sound economic fundamentals and strong growth – as well as governments' increased readiness to provide liquidity – could offset the impact of a correction in real estate prices on Islamic banks in the region.
Long Island Mike
Senior Member
The Dubai Nakheel Tower....
Everyone: I read about this building with interest-Is the soil there just sandy with oil and other soil down below as I presume or is there strong bedrock down below to support this potentially extremely heavy building? If it was built on fill or sand underpinning perhaps as tall as the building itself may be necessary to anchor and support the building's weight. In cities like NYC there is strong bedrock to help support tall buildings. Does anyone know or can make a comment on this? LI MIKE
Everyone: I read about this building with interest-Is the soil there just sandy with oil and other soil down below as I presume or is there strong bedrock down below to support this potentially extremely heavy building? If it was built on fill or sand underpinning perhaps as tall as the building itself may be necessary to anchor and support the building's weight. In cities like NYC there is strong bedrock to help support tall buildings. Does anyone know or can make a comment on this? LI MIKE