The comparison to the Asian Financial Crisis
Singapore's real estate market went down 80% in the wake of the Asian Financial Crisis, and that city is still there as well.
The recent article on AMEInfo compares Dubai with Singapore at the beginning of the Asia financial crisis, and suggests that the current talk of Dubai's troubles is hype - just like the talk of Dubai's boom a year ago.
There's certainly a lot of truth in this comparison. Indeed the Asian Financial Crisis saw property devaluations in most of the commerce centres of the region. The Hong Kong is a classic case study and one that can be used to discuss Dubai.
On the more positive side, Dubai has positioned itself not only as a financial centre but also as a tourism one. Little comfort while tourism is as hard hit as finance, but we could expect some recovery in tourism faster, once consumer sentiment grows.
The negative view is that the current crisis is more global and may take longer to resolve. Those Asian countries were also not that reliant on expats who can get up and leave when the crisis hits.