Rocketing house prices and expat-packed traffic jams are among the symptoms suggesting Dubai is suffering from an ever-increasing rise in tourist and foreigners demand.
As well as regularly clocking in as a top Brit-favourite holiday spot, Dubai has long proved attractive to visitors from around the world, with other major influxes from India, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
In a year that has provoked cities in Spain and Italy to implement controversial tourist taxes in a bid to crack down on a rise in footfall fuelled by cheap flights, the United Arab Emirates has not been exempt from the trend.
And the so-called city of gold, named for its reputation as a major trading port in the 18th century, has also stoked the ire of disgruntled locals frustrated by soaring house prices and packed-out roads.
Dubai’s quick ascension to a popular tourist and expat destination in the 20th century has fed the fire of visitor-induced chaos, with around 88.5% of its 3.638 million population made up of foreigners.
Ambitious government plans to more than double that number to 5.8 million by 2040 are expected to heap even more pressure on the city’s infrastructure and some experts are worried it won’t be able to handle the strain.
State-owned airline Emirates also reported record profits of £3.7billion ($4.7bn) this year, and zero income tax for expats has turned the UAE into something of a tax haven – fuelling growth, but also inevitability, local frustration.
“Typically we were dealing with the very wealthy, but now we are seeing applicants with a much lower net worth selling up in the UK and using those funds to buy real estate instead,” migration adviser Stuart Wakeling of Henley and Partners told The Telegraph.
According to Property Monitor, average house prices per square foot in the city are also at record highs, with rental prices rocketing by up to 20% in some areas last year and further rises likely.
And residents moving out of the city and into surrounding neighbourhoods including nearby Sharjah has had consequences for its much-maligned road network, with around a million commuters packing onto the 12-lane Sheikh Zayed Road every rush hour.
While public criticism of the UAE government is rare due to the country’s tight restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, the situation has worsened to the point of provoking some to break ranks and voice their concerns about the future of the metropolis.
Habib Al Mulla, an Emirati lawyer who hit out at the “pressing issue” of “congestion” in an opinion piece in December, also wrote a column in the Khaleej Times in January criticising “the concentration of wealth and opportunities in global cities” that risked causing “income inequality that pushes out lower-income residents”.
The government has proposed to address the growing congestion problem both by encouraging a shift to remote working and through the less conventional means of ploughing ahead with plans for the world’s first flying taxi service.
Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum wrote on X in December that: “In the coming years, residents of Dubai will be able to move around by walking, cycling, its extensive network of roads and bridges, the Metro and its new lines, water taxis, or flying taxis on specific air routes.”
