NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Abu Dhabi rents fall to compete with Dubai
ABU DHABI - JUL 14: Rents in the capital have fallen sharply as a tide of residents opt instead for Dubai’s lower prices and newer buildings.
Apartment rentals in Abu Dhabi fell by up to 35 per cent between March and June.
The price reductions were further fuelled by redundancies and tenants relocating out of the city centre, according to a report published yesterday by Asteco, a property services firm.
It follows decreases in rental values of up to 20 per cent in the first three months of the year.
While areas including Khalidiya and the Corniche have retained their value, neighbourhoods such as Salam Street, the site of a huge redevelopment, have seen rents plummet.
Poorly maintained flats with window-mounted air-conditioning units have been the hardest to let.
As well as finally accepting that they cannot hold rents artificially high, landlords are increasingly willing to accept payment in two cheques as opposed to one, estate agents reported.
But rents for a one-bedroom flat in the capital still average at least Dh20,000 (US$5,440) above those in Dubai, leading still more people to consider commuting.
“There is a definite trend of people relocating to Dubai while working in Abu Dhabi,” said Jesse Downs, the head of research at Landmark Advisory, who also reported a decline in Abu Dhabi rents in the last three months.
“There are three major factors pushing people: availability, price and quality of apartments in Dubai.
“People are looking at it in terms of an equation. They can either work and live in Abu Dhabi and accept they will not have to commute, but will pay a much higher rent for an older property with fewer facilities, or they can pay a lower rent with better extras but have to commute.”
The Khalidiya and Corniche districts remained Abu Dhabi’s most sought-after locations, while prices in districts such as Mushrif, Hamdan and Passport Road have levelled off, according to the figures from Asteco.
The average rent of a one-bedroom flat in Abu Dhabi dropped by more than 28 per cent in the second quarter, while similar-sized properties in Muroor, Khalifa and Salam Street fell by 35 per cent, according to Asteco’s regional research manager, Judy Lam.
At the top end, one-bedroom flats in the Corniche were priced at Dh130,000, while similar flats in Khalidiyah rented for Dh127,000.
At the other end of the scale, a one-bedroom flat in Musaffah rented for Dh87,000, according to the data.
Averages in the Tourist Club area, Muroor, Hamdan, Passport Road, Khalifa Street, Salam Street and Airport Road were about Dh105,000.
The rent drops are partly a result of an influx of new villas and flats becoming ready in the last 12 weeks. An estimated 500 villas have hit the market in Al Raha, 300 in Sas Al Nakheel and a further 100 in Khalifa City. In addition, 20 apartment blocks have been opened in the capital, with more than 600 new units.
“We expect these [rent] drops to continue until the end of the year,” said Andrew Chambers, the managing director of Asteco. “Around November and December we will expect to see the rents across the capital level off.
“That is when people will have returned from their holidays, even more new stock will have become available and people will start recruiting again.
“A lot of people we have spoken to said they were going away for the summer and would re-examine the situation when they return.”
According to the report, rental rates held during the first few months of the year. Since April, however, landlords have become more flexible and are dropping their prices in line with demand, it said.
“This trend may increase as more apartments and villas are delivered in investment zones, because a greater number of expatriate owners may be willing to accept several cheques in return for a higher rent,” added the report.
Nirvine Ali, the operations director at Remax Absolute estate agents in Abu Dhabi, agreed that rents had fallen, but said she did not expect them to drop further.
“I think prices have already reached the bottom,” she said. “A lot of people want to get their new homes arranged in Abu Dhabi before the school term begins. We expect July and August to be quiet and then it will begin again in September.”
Emirates Palace chef fined Dh92,000
ABU DHABI - JUL 14: A British chef at a restaurant in the Emirates Palace hotel is appealing his sentence for storing a container of expired yoghurt: a Dh92,000 (US$27,000) fine.
Inspectors from Abu Dhabi Municipality found the yoghurt during a routine visit to the kitchen of the Etoiles restaurant and lounge about a month ago.
The head chef, identified as PH, was convicted and ordered to pay Dh70,000 for not educating his staff on the emirate’s food expiration laws and Dh20,000 for storing expired food. He also had to pay another Dh2,000 for the municipality’s fees.
PH appealed the court sentence in the past few weeks, and the case was referred to the Criminal Court of Appeal, where it was heard yesterday.
His attorney said the food was only one day past its use-by date; court documents do not specify when the food expired. Yesterday PH pleaded with the judge to have the fine overturned.
“I am only an employee of the hotel,” PH said. “I should not be the one charged with this. I signed the documents, but I did not understand that I would be the one charged. I am only an employee.”
The judge asked through a translator whether PH was in charge of the staff.
“Are you just an employee there, or are you the one responsible for the kitchen?” the judge asked.
“I am the head chef, but this is not my restaurant. I am a worker there,” PH answered. Emirates Palace hotel officials did not return calls yesterday seeking comment.
There were no representatives from the municipality yesterday in court. The municipality could also not be reached for comment. The judge said the appeal verdict would be rendered on July 22.
Although the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority is tasked with inspecting for hygiene and expired food, the municipality also conducts general inspections.
In recent food-violation cases, the store is taken to court unless employees violate company orders.
During the past week in Abu Dhabi, for instance, the butchery counter at LuLu hypermarket was ordered closed for three days.
Cavalcade of reckless driving
ABU DHABI - JUL 15: It is a typical late Thursday afternoon in Abu Dhabi. Thousands of commuters, eager to beat the worst of the weekend exodus from the capital, head for the highway, bound for Dubai and in a hurry to get there, many with little apparent regard for their own safety or that of other road users.
On a recent weekend a film crew from The National went with them to document a general standard of driving to which most who use Sheikh Zayed Road daily have become immune, but which continues to shock the outside world.
Last month a report from the World Health Organisation labelled the roads of the UAE as among the most dangerous in the world, claiming 37.1 deaths for every 100,000 people in 2007 – twice the global average.
The footage captured by The National shows why.
Drivers speeding in excess of 160kph, changing lanes erratically, tailgating (accompanied by impatient flashing of headlights), overtaking in inside lanes and, even more dangerously, on the hard shoulders of the highway; all acts that are, in theory at least, illegal but which are standard procedure for the many drivers whose behaviour ranges from discourteous to downright reckless.
The tone for The National’s journey is set within a few blocks of setting out from the office at 5pm. Parked by the side of Muroor Road, near the 19th Street intersection, is a small white saloon car, its grill smashed. Police are at the scene.
Leaving the city, we enter the long stretch of roadworks and construction by the Al Raha Beach development. The road narrows into two lanes, flanked by orange-and-white construction barriers and flashing signs that warn motorists to keep to 80kph – an instruction that is, for the most part, ignored.
Both lanes are full, with bumper-to-bumper cars – the concept of “safe stopping distance” appears unknown, or at least unheeded – but speeding vehicles quickly stack up behind us, uncomfortably close and flashing their headlights in an attempt to bully us, and each other, out of the way.
In the heavy traffic it is unclear where they think they can go, but the message is clear; each driver seems to think that they are the most important person on the road and that all other traffic should move aside for them.
None seems to have the patience to wait for the roadworks to end, as they do within a few kilometres. Instead, they risk their lives – and those of the drivers around them – by swerving over the solid white lines onto the hard shoulder to the left, kicking up dust and flying past, one after the other, in a cavalcade of reckless abandon.
The driver of one silver saloon speeds past at 140kph or more, forcing his car between us and the concrete barrier with dangerously little room to spare.
A fast-moving 4x4 also slips onto the hard shoulder; it races by, only narrowly missing a grey Nissan Patrol whose driver also decides that the rules do not apply to him and starts to pull across – without signalling, naturally.
Leaving the construction zone, the road widens to four lanes near the desert outpost city of Shahama, where we seek the relative safety of the slower-moving right-hand lanes. Here, our heavy 4x4 is continually buffeted by cars overtaking at speeds well in excess of the 120kph limit – 160, 180, 200kph – and generating draughts so strong that we are pushed across to the right.
Even in the right-hand lane, with plenty of space to our left in which others can overtake us, we are not spared. The driver of one 4x4, for example, inexplicably elects to pass us on the hard shoulder, immediately to our right.
As we approach the emirate of Dubai, with its array of regularly spaced speed cameras, drivers slow noticeably but continue to break other rules, tailgating and making erratic moves, sometimes in swift, sweeping turns across up to four lanes.
One green Toyota saloon cuts across three lanes in front of our car just in time to make the turning for an Enoc petrol station on the right. It is just luck that there is no faster vehicle coming up in the lane to our right.
Darkness falls as we turn back for Abu Dhabi at the Jebel Ali exit. Now the flashing of headlights by impatient speeding motorists becomes dangerous as well as discourteous, making it difficult to see if it is safe to move across to the inside lane. Travelling at the speed limit seems only to make us a target, no matter what lane we are in.
Back at the Al Raha Beach development we experience the same pack bullying that had marked our outward journey at this spot.
Among the dozens of vehicles that attach themselves to our rear bumper, lights flashing and all but forcing us out of their way, a black Mercedes stands out. Flying up behind us, clearly speeding, the driver flashes his lights even though it is obvious there is nowhere we can go. Undeterred, he swerves onto the hard shoulder to overtake, gesturing in our direction.
As we search for a chance to move to the right, a white Toyota Land Cruiser with blacked-out windows pulls dangerously close behind us. The driver does not flash his lights – he just leaves them on full beam. This only frustrates his purpose, because now it is impossible to see if it is safe to move across.
Finally, we spot a gap and move into it, but not quickly enough for the man on our rear bumper. First he pulls alongside, powers down his nearside window and shouts at us. Whatever pressing business he had that had made it so urgent that he pass is apparently forgotten; now he falls back and pulls behind us again. There he stays, bumper-to-bumper, headlights on full, for five minutes.
When he finally tires of the game, he pulls out and speeds away in the fast lane – but not before swerving dangerously towards us as he passes.
Hospitals warn on heat stroke
SHARJAH - JUL 15: Casualty wards are still seeing daily cases of heat exhaustion among labourers, despite the ban on construction work during the hottest hours of the day.
Since the beginning of July, when the Ministry of Labour’s three-hour break came into effect, doctors at the Kuwaiti Hospital in Sharjah have reported eight to 10 daily cases of heat exhaustion, down from last year, when they received 15 to 20 per day.
An official from Ras al Khaimah’s Ibrahim Obaidullah hospital said the emergency ward there had treated 18 cases among workers since June.
Meanwhile, ministry officials found 25 sites in RAK violating break rules, and three sites in Sharjah out of 727 visited, said Humaid bin Demas, the ministry’s acting director general.
Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, the medical director at the Kuwaiti Hospital, said most of its heat exhaustion cases had come from construction companies.
He warned that workers who stayed out in the open during the middle of the day were at risk of developing symptoms including skin that was red, hot and dry, a rapid pulse, throbbing headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion and unconsciousness.
He said direct sun could affect the digestive system and cause a number of skin diseases.
Dr Yousef al Serkal, the hospital’s director general, said it seemed that some companies were not providing workers with enough water to keep them hydrated.
Most of the men treated left the hospital on the same day or the next.
Nanny in road crash remains in a coma
ABU DHABI - JUL 14:An Indonesian nanny who was injured in a road accident that killed three of her employer’s children is still in a coma in hospital, embassy officials said.
Three sisters, aged four, six and seven, died when they were hit by a car near the Carrefour supermarket on Airport Road two weeks ago.
They were being accompanied by three Indonesian nannies who were looking after them while the girls’ parents were in Saudi Arabia with their three other children.
All six were struck by the car, but two of the nannies, aged 22 and 24, suffered only minor injuries. The third, aged 24, remains in the intensive care unit of Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in the capital, according to Lely Meiliani, the first secretary at the Indonesian Embassy.
The nanny, who is from central Java, had worked for the Emirati family for the past 18 months.
Ms Meiliani said that she had been able to contact the other two women through the mobile phone of their employer, Salem al Mansouri.
“He was really kind and handed over his phone to the nanny,” she said. “They’re both OK.”
Ms Meiliani also said she had been able to contact the injured woman’s sister and father.
“We explained the situation to them and assured them that the women are under our supervision,” she said. “We told her sister and father that we had visited her at the hospital.
“They are very modest people,” she added. “They trust us to look after the women.”
Hannan Hadi, the head of the consular section at the embassy, said it was likely that the nannies would be called as witnesses in any court proceedings.
“But the police are waiting for the nanny at the hospital to recover,” he said. “The nurse at the hospital informed us that the brother of the driver had visited the nanny. We believe that he is concerned about her welfare.”
Mr Hadi added: “We are not directly involved in the case but are assisting our nationals. We would like to ensure that they receive fair treatment.”
The Emirati driver of the car involved was arrested after the incident. Although the two other nannies were questioned by police, they were released soon afterwards and returned to their employer’s home.
Inspectors to make daily checks on work breaks
ABU DHABI - JUL 14: Labour inspectors are now visiting construction sites seven days a week to ensure workers are given their compulsory midday break.
Since 2005, all employers have been required to give their construction workers a break from 12.30pm to 3pm every day between July 1 and the end of August.
Until this year, however, the inspectors have not worked on Fridays or Saturdays.
Out of 1,827 sites inspected on the past two Saturdays, 19 did not give workers time for a midday rest, according to the Ministry of Labour.
The inspectors have visited a total of 11,966 sites this month and issued 163 fines to companies not giving breaks to workers.
Three employers turned up at a Ministry of Labour office in Khalifa Park for yesterday’s open day, a weekly session held to try to settle labour-related complaints.
They each tried to appeal against a Dh10,000 (US$2,725) fine, representing a first offence for failing to comply with the required break.
When Humaid bin Demas, the ministry’s acting director general, told a representative from one company that the fine would not be waived, the man took his slip and left without a word.
“The message is that we will continue inspection,” Mr bin Demas told reporters after the session. “No exceptions were made; everyone who didn’t give their workers the break was fined.”
Mr bin Demas said the two-member inspection teams had documented each infraction with pictures and interviews, which were then viewed by two committees in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Excuses by employers that they did not know about the rules were not accepted since all companies had been informed a month in advance of the rules, officials said.
The ministry has also dispatched teams since the beginning of the month to more than 1,600 sites to stress the need for breaks to prevent dehydration, heat stroke or exhaustion.
The number of ministry inspectors has grown to nearly 400, from 80 in 2006. Sixty of them are working full time to ensure the summer break is upheld.
There are strong penalties for violating the regulations. After a first offence, the company is fined and banned from receiving new labour permits for three months. A second offence draws a Dh20,000 fine and a six-month ban and a third a Dh30,000 fine and a one-year ban on new permits.
At the moment, the ministry does not have oversight over workers in free zones, which are overseen by the local authorities, or housemaids, for whom the Interior Ministry is responsible.
International observers, including representatives of the International Labour Organisation, have recommended that the Ministry of Labour take responsibility for the entire labour force.