Word: boomings
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There was just one problem. Though prices rose by as much as 400% during the boom years, few people wanted the finished properties they had purchased - usually off plan, and often well before the first spadeful of earth had been turned. The market was driven by speculators, interested only in trading - or "flipping" - incomplete units, which often sold for more than completed buildings, and might get flipped 10 times before construction finished. "You can't believe how crazy this was," says Robert McKinnon, head of real estate research at Al Mal Capital, a local investment firm. "Everyone knew...
...economic boom in the gulf countries over the past few years - fueled by the continuous rise of oil prices between 2003 and 2008 - helped put the region on the global economic map. In some ways, the boom became captive to a "mine is bigger than yours" syndrome. Competing states embarked on advertising campaigns and hired in public-relations firms to tout their wares. Developers and rulers alike pushed artificial islands (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait), and in many places real estate became the main economic activity. Officials promoted their cities as financial hubs as a way to diversify away...
...contrast, Saudi Arabia's institutional memory of the boom and bust cycle served it well during what was the kingdom's third great oil boom of the past four decades. After the high prices of the 1970s, Saudi Arabia's economy went through a long-drawn-out slowdown as oil revenues plummeted for most of the 1980s. After a spike when Iraq invaded Kuwait, prices weakened again in the 1990s, even as Saudi struggled to pay off its (large) chunk of the bill for the first Gulf War. At the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1998, oil prices...
Fifth, during the boom years, Saudi Arabia invested more than $70 billion in expanding its oil production capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day, not only to secure its future but also to address global supply imbalances...
...healthy. Over the next five years Saudi Arabia has outlined a $400 billion spending program. In a decade or thereabouts, Saudi Arabia will become a $1 trillion economy and will be better placed than the rest in the region to capitalize on its knowledge and strengths. During the boom years, some critics said Saudi Arabia should become more like Dubai. Now the rest of the region might want to become a bit more like Saudi Arabia...