Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 4th August 2010
Has The World gone mad?
A Dubai developer has just announced plans to build $54 million worth of luxury homes on one of the islands that make up Nakheel's The World project.
According to Bloomberg, AA Properties Dubai plans to build luxury villas and houses on the Taiwan Island as it targets wealthy foreign buyers.
AA Properties partner Jeroen van der Geer said it will market the villas mainly in Asia and Europe to “people who have a lot of money and just want to have something special and unique in Dubai”.
Selling to the super-rich
As Bernard Hornung points out in
our interview last year, the most important thing about selling to the super wealthy is to create a unique experience that is authentic and exclusive and is therefore seen as valuable. It is difficult to see how The World fits this criteria.
Despite being the only man-made resort that can be seen from space, The World is a largely deserted collection of reclaimed sand banks. The marketing has been clever. The chance to
make headlines by buying a country appeals to the vanity of the super rich and the archipelago is certainly “secluded”; but that’s only because there have been very few takers.
The biggest issue with the resort is that it lacks authenticity and its story is now associated with the excesses and hubris of the boom that now seems like a lifetime ago.
Russell Bragg recently wrote an interesting piece of the
characteristics of the world’s best resorts. “The World” is almost the exact opposite. The destination is too new to have authencity, the location is not tried and tested, it’s not complete and it is too large to be considered boutique.
$54 million is a lot of money. Surely there are better ways to spend it?
Source: Global edge
User Comments
I really enjoyed the article by Bernard Hornung and I think he nailed the ingredients that make a property or a location have real value, therefore appealing to the super wealthy.
With regards to this project, AA Partners would get a better return on their $54 million if they did an each way bet on next years Grand National.
Mark Goodwin,
First Property Choice