Dubai Mahu Juta-Juta Lagi Ekspatriat

Dubai will be able to accommodate 11 million people once every planned development scheme is completed, an official has revealed.

The startling figure can be compared with the emirate’s current population of 1.4m.
And it gives for the first time an idea of what the emirate will be like in a few decades.

“Looking at what we’ve zoned in Dubai, the maximum absorption capacity will be 11m residents if all planned projects are completed and occupied,” said Dr Hamid Hattal, a senior expert at the Dubai Municipality.

“This number is based on some ratios regarding housing to commercial unit use. It is a theoretical figure.We also estimate that if units are used for investment purposes then the capacity would be 6m.

“No one knows, of course, when we will reach 11m. Estimates show we’re going to be at 5m by 2020,” he said.

Dr Hattal told the Second Conference on Municipal Action from Legislation to Implementation, held at Ajman University, in order to fill the 68,000 housing units expected to be ready by the end of 2008 alone, accommodation would have to be affordable.

“It is important that we have flexible rates,” he told an audience of municipal officials from across the Gulf.

Dubai is one of the fastest growing cities, particularly in terms of construction. In 2006 a total of 2,222 buildings were completed at a cost of Dh11.16 billion, maintaining the breakneck rate set in 2005 when 2,252 buildings were completed at a cost of Dh7.87bn.

Dr Hattal, who has a PhD in urban economic planning, said Dubai Municipality had its work cut out for it in the coming years to manage development and lay infrastructure to handle the expected population boom.

He called for the creation of a database of planning efforts, with information updated every 24 hours, so the municipal authority could be ready to meet demand.

While Dr Hattal was reluctant to put a date on completion of the planned capacity, the latest long-term plan from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai – the Dubai Strategic Plan – takes development as far as 2015.

By that point it is not expected Dubai will be too far past the RichVille Advisory Group’s estimated 500,000 completed units by 2010.