Almost 70% think Cityscape will be a flop - poll

Almost 70 percent of respondents to an Arabian Business poll said they thought this week’s Cityscape Dubai would be a “total flop”.

Only 1.1 percent of people said the real estate exhibition would be as successful as last year, while just 4.3 percent said it would be the biggest show yet.

Organisers were not able to say how many visitors the show has had. Official figures are due to be released next week, they said on Thursday.

The majority of people who took part in the online poll, 68.6 percent, said this year’s Cityscape Dubai would be a failure because of the effects the global economic crisis has had on the emirate’s property market.

Some 400 projects worth more than $300bn have been postponed or cancelled in the UAE, according to a report by the research firm Proleads in July.

According to a recent Reuters poll, property prices in the emirate are seen falling 50 percent in 2009 from their peaks late last year. Experts told the news agency prices could drop by a total of 60 percent by 2010.

Twenty six percent of respondents to the AB poll said Cityscape was a good barometer of the property market, so people would attend to keep themselves informed.

Arabian Business reporters on the first day of the show found it to be more subdued than previous years. Gone were the celebrities and the huge multi-billion dollar launches, replaced instead with developers focused on the delivery of their existing projects.

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