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Originally Posted by Kotliz
That is really fascinating. I've wondered about that and about development in Dubai, a city of about 2.1 million with real-estate space that seems to almost rival New York city (8.4 million)—are those buildings occupied at all?
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I don't know anything about Dubai. My experience is primarily in the east of Asia - China and surrounding countries. I know a lot of buildings are only partially used in China, even with the massive population.
This is a bit off-topic, but I think some of you may find it interesting: with around 1.3 billion people, China has an urban population of 50.6% in 2011 (some estimates put it at 53% as of 2013). Migrant workers are leaving the farms and flooding into the cities looking for work. People are building "mixed-use developments" (though it stretches the term a bit) at an alarming rate, but the truth is the housing costs prevent your average Chinese from being able to afford them. Rent is surprisingly cheap compared to buying, however. It makes no sense. We had an apartment in another city that cost about $340/mo USD to rent, but it would have easily cost (at least) $250,000 USD to buy. Crazy, right?
Most migrant workers are room-renters - a 3/4 bedroom apartment is split into rooms (even the living room is walled off to make another room) and the rooms are rented to factory workers. Density goes up, but taking care of the complexes and neighborhoods go down because there is little personal investment. Also, as factory workers are somewhat nomadic (go where the money is), the neighborhoods lack a mature feeling, even after several years. This is different than neighborhoods in city cores, of course, but it's largely similar.
All this to say, a lot of people look to cities in Asia as encouraging developments - things get done quickly and they're flashy and nice-looking, but the quality is often lacking and little maintenance causes 2-year-old buildings to look 20-years-old. I'm proud of my hometown (Austin) and the way it's developing. I'm looking forward to ten years from now - and more! I hope it eventually gets a quality mass-transit system. Many other things are already in place. Over time, it's going to be even more impressive than now and the potential is great. Think of the connections between cities in the Texas Triangle once high speed rail becomes a reality - and with Houston and Dallas already having decent transit developments with more in the works, San Antonio hoping to do the same, and Austin (dragging its feet, but talking a lot nonetheless), it'd be a great marriage between these four metro areas. Okay...done dreaming now.
Thanks for letting me share all of this - back on topic now.
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