Five talking points from the week in UAE business

We take a look at Emirates’ expansion, Cityscape, tough times for expats, market stability and Sony’s flashy new smartphone.

A tale of two different cities

Emirates began flights to two very different cities on Tuesday. At 7am local time it landed for the first time in the old Silk Road city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran. Then, eight and a half time zones to the west, it alit at 11.40am in the Florida funopolis of Orlando, whose most famous denizen is Mickey Mouse. The cities are a study in contrasts, to put it mildly. Mashhad was the birthplace of the long-ago poet Ferdowsi. Orlando is the birthplace of the less-long-ago Backstreet Boy Howie. Mashhad's history goes back millennia. Orlando's first permanent settler arrived circa 1842. Both cities do boast a basketball team - Samen Mashhad in one case, the Orlando Magic in the other - but neither has ever won a league title. The cities' population are in the same broad range, with Mashhad the more populous of the two at 3.1 million to Orlando's 2.1 million. Rob McKenzie

Homing in on Cityscape Global

Cityscape Global opens its doors in Dubai next week, providing us with a look at all of the latest property projects in perfect model form. Most interesting will be mood among investors, and those doing the selling, after the downturn in the market since the previous event last year. This time it arrives with the oil price yo-yoing between low and even lower, and markets in the Far East behaving badly. Moreover, Knight Frank this week released its Global House Price Index for the second quarter, which placed Dubai bottom of the pile of 56 countries. "Weaker demand, a strong US dollar and ongoing cooling measures have dampened sales volumes in the mainstream sector," said Kate Everett-Allen, partner for international residential research at Knight Frank, as Dubai recorded a 12.2 per cent drop in prices year-on-year, placing it behind the likes of Greece, China and Ukraine. The Dubai Land Department also announced this week that its rent index will be updated yearly rather than every four months. Interesting times indeed. Ian Oxborrow

Belt-tightening for expats

Nima Abu Wardeh's On the Money column sent out a stark warning to expats this week. She announced that if she was of the crystal ball gazing ilk, her prediction would be "More one-way tickets out of the UAE come next summer". While she quickly points out that she prefers to base her outlook on fact rather than fiction, she adds that she cannot ignore what is happening to those around her. Whether it's friends experiencing cutbacks on their work benefits or her local vet noticing that owners left their pets for shorter stints this summer, signs that the low oil price and slowing global economy are having an effect on employees here are hard to ignore. Consequently she advises readers to "tighten their belts". In her opinion spending recklessly without keeping an eye on the future would be unwise. We are in challenging financial times once again, so take note and lower your personal consumption. It may be one way to ensure you are still around next summer to enjoy the sunshine. Alice Haine

Markets take Mussaffah route

If markets last week behaved like the Ferrari World rollercoaster, this week the experience was more akin to a taxi ride to Mussaffah: a slightly calmer experience (with the occasional unsettling moment) undercut by a nagging feeling of not knowing where you are or where you're going. Dubai and Abu Dhabi stocks this week escaped the extreme swings of last week, as trading volumes eased back. But both indices are set to finish the week in the red, as a shortage of positive drivers to encourage investors to get back into the market in a meaningful way. Hovering in the background, as always, is uncertainty over oil, even as the price of Brent crude has recovered to around $50 a barrel. Until the black stuff shows greater stability, expect the bumpy ride to continue. John Everington

Sony’s 4k reasons to buy new phone

Apple is holding a big bash next week for the unveiling of its new iPhones - the 6S and 6S Plus. There's no global frenzy this time around given that the upgrade will be half-baked compared to the introduction of the iPhone 6 which was a considerable leap forward by Apple. Samsung has already shown off its new wares, and yesterday, slipping under the radar, came the turn of Sony with its Xperia Z5. The company has been criticised in the past for releasing six-month upgrades that offered little in the way of, well, an upgrade. And subsequently sales have not been great. This time, however, it has come back to the table with some innovation - the world's first 4K smartphone. We will pass absolute judgement when the opportunity comes to review it, but Sony appears to be making strides in the right direction. Ian Oxborrow

business@thenational.ae

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