Luxury Property in Dubai – Major Developer Sheds 600 Staff and Interior Photos of the Atlantis Hotel

The news from Dubai goes from bad to worse. A major luxury property developer has fired around 600 staff. Dubai Properties, whose projects include the Jumeirah Beach Residence and Culture village, have made substantial jobs cuts – as many as 600 staff have been “let go.” Although my current favorite euphemism is “headcount adjustment.” The cuts affected personnel at all subsidiaries across the Dubai Properties Group, including Salwan, Injaz and Dubai Retail. No fun if you are on the receiving end, and some staff refused to resign when they were not given a reason for being asked to do so.

According to an ex-employee, “They gave us two options. They gave us a resignation letter and a termination letter. They said that if you choose the termination letter you would not get a recommendation. They did not want to say: ‘You are being made redundant.’”

A company spokesman said an official statement would be issued after the Eid holiday.

This comes in a long list of “headcount adjustments,” that are only going to get longer in the new year, as Dubai comes to terms with the economic crisis. Dubai seems to be crashing harder and faster than most markets, although it is always difficult to get a true picture because the market is so opaque. The ratio of luxury property to affordable, consumer driven housing is way out of kilter, and I would suggest that some of these developers need to change their focus if they expect to survive.

Tamweer has already laid off 50% of it’s workforce, Nakheel has laid off 500 employees (15% of it’s staff) and canceled or delayed a number of projects, One major issue at the moment is the number of smaller investors left hanging out to dry as a number of planned projects have been cancelled. These developments had already accepted deposits and now the developers are refusing refunds. One could say it was a “flip too far,” for many investors now in over their heads in a declining market.

Still I found a rather nice selection of photographs of the interior of the Atlantis Hotel, host to the RUSS!A investment roadshow last month, which turned a conference aimed at promoting more links between Dubai and Russia, into a round table discussion as to how best to weather the financial crisis. Luxurious? Oh yes. Tasteful? I leave you to decide.

The Atlantis Hotel in Dubai