On a cool weekend afternoon, Safwan Abed, his wife, Noora, and their five children enjoy a barbecue and some family time together in a public park near Abu Dhabi's 31st Street. "We call this our garden because it is so lovely and quiet. Not many people come here at all," he says. Visiting from Khalifa Street in the city centre, the family welcomes the shade offered by the park's mature trees, where hundreds of birds chatter away.
Bordered by Fourth Street (also referred to as Muroor Road), this well-established green space has been a great place to escape from the hurly-burly of the city for many years, even if the main road from which it is reached has become significantly busier in recent times.
Abdul Abdul, an expatriate from Pakistan, moved to Al Aman neighbourhood near the park 15 years ago. "These traffic lights on Muroor and 31st Street were the informal gateway to Abu Dhabi," he reminisces. "When you reached them you knew you were finally heading out of the desert and towards the city."
The neighbourhood, consisting of three blocks, Al Aman and Al Rehhan, but commonly called Muroor by its residents, stretches from 25th Street to 31st Street and is bordered by Muroor Road and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Road (2nd Street or Airport Road). This area is changing, though, slowly becoming part of modern Abu Dhabi, no longer considered to sit on the city's fringes.
The large patch of land on the corner of Airport Road and 31st Street is currently a construction site, where Al Qudra Real Estate's Danet Abu Dhabi project is gradually emerging. The development will soon be "a mixed-use master-plan community consisting of a range of commercial and residential facilities," according to the company's website.
Al Qudra plans to eventually complete more than 30 tower blocks, as well as a sports and social centre. Meanwhile, the Holiday Inn Abu Dhabi has been open for more than a year, and is now one of the neighbourhood's most familiar landmarks.
The first Danet Abu Dhabi blocks now tower above the row of five and six-storey buildings that have lined the Muroor Road end of 31st Street for many years, although residents seem remarkably sanguine about the slow creep of progress. Seven-year-old Tala Ahmed from Jordan says proudly that a new children's park will open soon, right outside her building's front door.
Look closely, though, and you'll still find clues pointing to how the neighbourhood used to look before the new developments overshadowed all else. A sign on the corner of 31st Street directs you to a now-flattened "municipality garage". This historic notice indicates this was once the site of an Abu Dhabi Municipality bus station and truck garage. Hundreds of mechanics and engineers used to work on vehicles here, although today few mourn its closing.
Meanwhile, a whole range of established businesses sit inside the lower-rise buildings on the Muroor Road side of the block. You'll find a collection of banks here, and there are shisha cafes, too, with small garden areas tumbling out onto the pavements. Al Kalbane and Nagham cafes are bustling with customers, as is the nearby Hamasat Cafeteria.
The usual assortment of shops catering to every community's daily needs - laundries, small convenience stores, barbers, ladies salons and tailors - is here as well.
Leyla Ahmed from Morocco has lived in the neighbourhood for five years and finds the area "very convenient". Now that she has a young son, it is easy to push a buggy along to the local shops. "It is a good excuse to grab some fresh air and exercise, as well as to go shopping," she says.
In contrast, Julia Ballis, a German expatriate, is just settling into life in the neighbourhood: "I've lived here for two weeks," she says. "I've moved into a company flat and the person who has helped me the most is the building's watchman, who knows everything."
There are several schools here too, including the Japanese School, Al Worood Academy and, on 29th Street, Lycée Louis Massignon and American International School. Predictably, during term time, the streets are teeming with cars and buses doing drop-offs and pick-ups.
On the opposite side of 29th Street, at the corner of Airport Road, building work is progressing well on another major development, Al Bostan Complex, where a Novotel hotel and several residential towers will open next year.
Moving towards 27th Street, the neighbourhood changes and is home to many important institutions overseeing law and order. Large brown road signs indicate the official nature of buildings that include the Government and Diplomatic Protection department, Special Tasks, K9 Security Inspection Department and Police Specialist Clinics Complex.
A few streets of older-style villas are clustered here, although signs state that most of them are empty and must not be entered. A handful still have cars parked outside, indicating that some residents remain, although it is clear that a new development will soon flatten this once-proud clutch of housing.
Finally, the drivers and vehicles licensing department is a landmark in its own right. The large complex of buildings filling the entire block between 27th and 25th Streets will be familiar to any driver who has had to re-register his car. A new police building is also under construction here.
Although this diverse area still has a relatively small residential component, like so much of the capital, it's a neighbourhood poised at a tipping point, ready to welcome new residents to its emerging high-density developments.
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Five personal finance podcasts from The National
To help you get started, tune into these Pocketful of Dirham episodes
·
Balance is essential to happiness, health and wealth
·
What is a portfolio stress test?
·
What are NFTs and why are auction houses interested?
·
How gamers are getting rich by earning cryptocurrencies
·
Should you buy or rent a home in the UAE?
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh135,000
Engine 1.6L turbo
Gearbox Six speed automatic with manual and sports mode
Power 165hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 240Nm @ 1,400rpm 0-100kph: 9.2 seconds
Top speed 420 kph (governed)
Fuel economy, combined 35.2L / 100km (est)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
