This 828m child of 5 years of construction was finally unveiled in an over whelming display of fireworks, laser light beams, sky divers and water displays on Monday the 4th of January. No doubt the Sheikhs wanted to achieve 2 major objectives by spending millions on fireworks that a governing body ordinarily, would not splash out on, at a time of economic crisis.
Firstly, to tell the world that all the press Dubai has been receiving over the past few months has been deliberately negative. That Dubai is economically stable enough to keep flamboyantly spending large sums of money on pointless grandeur. They do this in the hopes of persuading investors to reconsider investing in Dubai property.
Secondly, to give hope to the people still living in Dubai that, yes this is a sign, that the crisis will soon be over and never really overwhelmed Dubai in the first place.
This expensive message has not been a waste. Since the opening of the Burj Khalifa the Emaar stock price has gone up by 4% and the increase in average price of Burj property per square foot has reflected this increase. Not to mention the fact that over 90% of floor space in the Burj Khalifa was already bought over by the public before it even opened.
The $1.5 billion project gained a lot of publicity during its construction and at its peak; residential spaces were being sold for more than Dhs6, 900 per square foot. It has been recorded that unlike the rest of the property prices in Dubai that depreciated by up to 50% in the market crash, select few Burj Residential spaces maintained a relatively steady price that depreciated by only 30%.
In the history of record breaking towers, an economic decline has always followed. Many would consider this to be a dark zymology of pride, but it would make more sense to associate it with economic trends. These towers normally take between 5 to 10 years to build and in most cases start construction at the peak of a city’s economy. What happens after a peak? Well a decline of course.