AL ADLA, ABU DHABI // Three years ago, Adel al Harbi started renovations to create what he describes as his family's "dream home".
He has spent more than Dh1 million (US$272,000) on upgrades, including jacuzzis, terraces and a state-of-the-art kitchen. Mr Harbi's family of seven lived in a three-bedroom apartment in the capital for 14 years, waiting for the Government-issued house in the village of Al Adla on the outskirts of the capital.
But two weeks before the family was to move in, they are coming to terms with the reality that their dream home will be demolished. The Harbi home is one of 20 in the village slated to be knocked down just three years after they were built, due to severe structural problems.
"Inshallah, they will give me a new house and [I know] they are working on this subject," said Mr Harbi. "I have taken loans from banks, from family and friends to build this house."
The family has already been allocated another house, in the coastal village of Al Shati. But Mr Harbi said they were in denial after learning that they will have to start all over again.
"We didn't believe it when they told us," he said. "We had just come back from China where we bought all of the furniture."
Still, Mr Harbi said they were thankful to be given any home. Under a Government programme, all Emiratis are provided with either a house or a plot of land.
"I was very happy when I first saw my house in Al Adla," he said. "It is far away from Abu Dhabi, but it is better than sitting in a flat for 14 years. We were waiting for [the house], which is a great help from the Government."
As part of village-wide inspections organised by Abu Dhabi Municipality, a group of municipality officials and a team of engineers recently toured Mubarak al Mehri's villa, assessing damage before deciding whether to tear the house down or continue to patch it up as new cracks appear.
A crowd of local men followed the delegation with Mr Mehri leading the way, pointing out cracks scarring the walls. Like many others in the village, Mr Mehri, 43 and originally from Baniyas, poured his own money into renovating and decorating the bright orange home he shares with his wife and seven children.
"I need a new house, this is for my family, my children, my future," he said. "It's not enough just to fix it, I need this problem to stop."
He pointed to the walls in one of the bathrooms, where the paint is peeling and chunks of crumbling cement are missing. The water tank near the toilet hung precariously in the corner, and Mr Mehri recalled how a tank in another bathroom became dislodged twice and fell from the ceiling.
Among the residents trailing the municipal delegation was a man, 38, who would only be identified as Mubarak. He moved to Al Adla from the capital with his wife and six children three years ago when he was allocated a house in the village.
"From the beginning [the municipality] started to build and they didn't study the situation properly," he says. "There is too much salt in the sand and they didn't make a diagnosis for this, so it is affecting the village."
A loud chorus of voices joined in Mubarak's assertion that more needed to be done prior to the houses being built. "It is not just about maintenance; they will pay to fix it and it will happen again," he said.
Salem al Maameri, the director of municipal services at Abu Dhabi Municipality, rejected the notion that the damage stems from any failure to properly assess the site when planning for the Al Adla community. Standard soil tests were carried out before construction began and since then, he said. "It was OK before, but the level of the groundwater rose and brought increased levels of salt [with it]," he said.
Al Adla is made up of rows of identical buildings, some that have been customised by their owners, with the odd orange, pink and purple house adding colour to the desert backdrop. In addition to the structural problems, residents complain of a lack of facilities in the village: there is no school, clinic, park or police station. Local children attend school in the capital or in neighbouring towns, such as Al Faya, some 25km away.
Residents employed in the defence forces were not allowed to be photographed, but were willing to explain their predicament and open up their homes. Ahmed Jaber al Hammadi, originally from the seaside town of Mirfa in Al Gharbia, said he has spent more than Dh380,000 on decorating and renovating his home in the last three years. Intricate tiled patterns adorn the living room floors; the Moroccan design-inspired ceiling alone cost Dh30,000.
The Hammadi house, located along the same row as three homes that have already been demolished, is also slated to be torn down. However, unlike some of the other buildings, it does not bear many of the cracks that serve as evidence of major structural damage.
"I don't want to move from here, but I don't know what to do," Mr Hammadi says, sitting on one of the plush gold brocade chairs in his living room. "There is a lot of groundwater so maybe [my house] will break just like the others."
Fourteen of the 20 families displaced from Al Adla are due to move to homes in the nearby village of Al Falah. Six, including the Hammadis and the Harbis, have been sent to Al Shati. But not everyone is happy about the new houses on offer.
The house in Al Shati is in dire need of repairs, Mr Hammadi says. "If I move I will also have to fix-up the other house as well, and lose the Dh380,000 I invested in this house."
The first group of families were due to receive the keys to their replacement homes yesterday, according to the municipality.
It has also set up a committee of seven architects and engineers to oversee the assessment of every house in Al Adla, as well as the repair work.
"I still have one month to leave my house, but I am waiting for a good idea to help us and give us a suitable home," Mr Hammadi said. "If that doesn't happen, I can't move from here."
@Email:zconstantine@thenational.ae
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
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.”
Neil Thomson – THE BIO
Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.
Favourite music: Rock music. I started at a young age due to my father’s influence. He played in an Indian rock band The Flintstones who were once asked by Apple Records to fly over to England to perform there.
Favourite book: I constantly find myself reading The Bible.
Favourite film: The Greatest Showman.
Favourite holiday destination: I love visiting Melbourne as I have family there and it’s a wonderful place. New York at Christmas is also magical.
Favourite food: I went to boarding school so I like any cuisine really.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Checks continue
A High Court judge issued an interim order on Friday suspending a decision by Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots to direct a stop to Brexit agri-food checks at Northern Ireland ports.
Mr Justice Colton said he was making the temporary direction until a judicial review of the minister's unilateral action this week to order a halt to port checks that are required under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Civil servants have yet to implement the instruction, pending legal clarity on their obligations, and checks are continuing.
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
PSA DUBAI WORLD SERIES FINALS LINE-UP
Men’s:
Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY)
Ali Farag (EGY)
Simon Rosner (GER)
Tarek Momen (EGY)
Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)
Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
Nick Matthew (ENG)
Women's:
Nour El Sherbini (EGY)
Raneem El Welily (EGY)
Nour El Tayeb (EGY)
Laura Massaro (ENG)
Joelle King (NZE)
Camille Serme (FRA)
Nouran Gohar (EGY)
Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG)
