Sales of villas and other luxury apartments have stagnated in Dubai for more than six years. Thanks to the urgency of rich foreigners, especially Europeans, the United States is smiling again today.

Many people with golf courses, in particular, form their own view of the properties if possible Palm Jumeirah, Artificial island in the shape of a palm tree. Unlike other oil-dependent emirates, Dubai’s economy is actually based on leisure, tourism, trade, finance and real estate.

Franுவாois-Xavier Batmans is the Middle East director of a major Luxembourg bank in Dubai. According to him, of course, the Emirate has all the assets back.

The good thing is, the country is very dynamic, fast and very fast in terms of change. I am not afraid, I think we are more than a part of it, capable of jumping higher than Europe.

Franாங்கois-Xavier Batmans

At 46, Franசois-Xavier Batmans has been living in Dubai since 2007. “I wanted to see developing countries and new areas for change. I came there excited and was always interested in culture, people, the melting pot and so on.”

With the advent of the epidemic, the Frenchman admits that the reaction of the authorities was much less intense: “There have been significant cuts in the budgets of administrations and ministries that are using people who were more or less efficient in offices. They are preparing to adjust and switch to digital. It’s true that it’s a little rare at first, but there are many more in six months.”

The Franசois-Xavier Batmans were already 10 years old during the subprime financial crisis in Dubai. According to him, it was far more violent than today’s Govt: “It was very brutal, at least with us, because all the companies were laid off overnight, everyone left, so the city is really empty. Today, there are people. They are maintained because they can not leave, because they do not know where to go. So the city is empty. Personally, we do not risk closing the bank. “

Thanks to teleworking, buyers are now setting up their headquarters in Dubai, while managing their business remotely in Europe, North America or Asia. Encouraged by a lot of influencers on social networks, officials are betting that one of the world’s most serious vaccination campaigns will reopen to overseas visitors from next month.

The emirate relies on its influence above all else World Exhibition, It took six months to recreate this fall, reclaiming pre-crisis tourist numbers.

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Find this column in Application, Website and International Movement Magazine “French abroad. Fr“