The adage is old but it only underscores the importance of the matter: Home acquisition and finance is for most people the largest single personal purchase transaction in their life, whether it is the building of a new house, or buying of a house or an apartment. In a time where mortgage lending has become the byword for confidence worries in America and Europe, the importance of sound and equitable housing finance in the Middle East cannot be emphasized enough. Until the turn of the century, new supply of residential dwellings was realized at slow rates even in Dubai, the emirate that pioneered the idea of the economic surge in the GCC. Recently, however, the UAE market is changing fast, as more banks have started offering home loans in addition to two housing finance specialist firms, which analysts estimated at various times this year to have up to 70%, but
