Many will no doubt recognise that Dubai's annual trade-fair for the property market, Cityscape, is taking on a markedly lower key this year. What was once the most frenetic trade show in the region has now been re-branded "Cityscape Global" to reflect a global audience. The exhibition was once known for the launch of big projects and for speculators, eager to make quick profits, flipping properties. But Dubai, and its developers, have now taken stock. Fans of get-rich-quick schemes must now look somewhere else for their fortunes. That era is over.
Although it now has a leaner remit, with 38 fewer exhibitors than last year, Cityscape has a greater diversity of projects on display than in years past. And despite the fair's focus on developments outside the UAE, Dubai is still "where people converge" in the region, as Rohan Marwaha, the managing director of Cityscape Global told The National. While the property market may have cooled off in Dubai, the city's position between East and West, its role as a global hub, and its modern infrastructure remain. People will converge in Dubai for decades to come. They will also need places to live. Indeed, the shape of Dubai's property market may be different from its past, but as Cityscape Global will show, it is still full of opportunity.
