Oman has always been considered more staid and conservative than the Emirates, the land of indoor ski slopes and artificial islands. But during the boom times in the region, there were quite a few examples of the so-called 'Dubai model' - speculative luxury property developments funded by off-plan sales. We've recently witnessed the collapse of some of these projects in and around Muscat. Take a look at
. Meanwhile, the
Salam Yiti
project by
Sama Dubai
also appears to be teetering on the edge.
Last week,
and not try to replicate the successes (and failures) of nearby Dubai. This is something happening not just across the Gulf, but across the Middle East, where over-excited developers often claimed that everywhere from Erbil to Tripoli to Cairo to Doha was the "new Dubai".
The result is that more thought is going into projects and sales launches. The overarching motivation now is to cater to demand, rather than building a tower or villa complex with the view that people will simply buy because its there. The Omani government has also quite wisely
. This is something that could be replicated in Dubai to restart sales to some extent.
