Approach the United Arab Emirates from any angle you choose, and you will be confronted with real estate. By air, sea, or travel on the ground in the UAE, real estate seeks to overwhelm you with news of a hundred projects and with a thousand pictures allegedly worth a million words. Blazing from unipoles, banners, and the fences of construction sites in the two main cities, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, are messages from companies that “are building” and from developers out to provide us with the homes of our dreams — as if such mega-alerts were necessary against the backdrop of the now 150-floor Burj Dubai project and countless ongoing developments in both emirates. But the visitor gets primed on property already before. While flying into Abu Dhabi on Etihad — after Emirates, Etihad is the UAE’s second flag carrier — the airline’s in-flight magazine’s over 60 full-page ads are
