"This would be just another tale of housing woes were it not for the fact Leisurecorp’s money is funding the European Tour’s Race to Dubai"

In this Richard Gillis look at the recession and high-end developments, he focuses on the places that have chased a "championship" course and "signature" architect. The Leisurecorp part is interesting:

Leisurecorp’s business model is focused on selling expensive houses around its golf courses and so is very exposed to the downturn. For example, it is currently building 1,000 houses around its Earth course, a Greg Norman-designed lay-out, which forms the first of four such projects planned in the city.

According to new chief executive Colin Smith, a former Uefa executive, 90 per cent of the homes have been sold, with final payments due when the houses are completed, “sometime after the first quarter of next year”.

However, many of these people are likely to be “flippers”, speculators who bought off plan and intended to re-sell the house as it comes to market. With property prices down, there is a real risk that they will write off their down payments and join those whose cars are at the airport.

“The housing market in Dubai has taken a major hit,” says Sartori. “There has been an oversupply of residential property and too many speculators as a proportion of the houses that are being sold, rather than people buying their houses to live in them. Now there is a huge stock of property which they all want to put on the market at the very discounted price. It will take some time before demand and supply balance off.”

This would be just another tale of housing woes were it not for the fact Leisurecorp’s money is funding the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and Dubai World Championship.