It's still just a few minarets in the desert, but it's poised for a property explosion. Zoe Dare Hall hails a passing camel to the lunar landscape of Ras Al Khaimah and, overleaf, tips three more Emirates to watch
Leaving Dubai is as eye-opening as arriving there. As you drive east along the clogged Sheikh Zayed road out of town, the gleaming, growing skyline and 24-hour building sites reach an abrupt end, as if a line has been drawn in the sand.
 |
Half an hour of red dunes and the occasional camel brings you to Ras Al Khaimah (RAK)), a place that currently looks like a sleepy outpost in a lunar landscape. But it is creating a buzz as being the next Dubai.
The signs of existing wealth and impending transformation are there. A new airport, which opened last October, sits alongside the low-rise old town. A Mercedes showroom stands alone in the desert, and large walled villas point to the region's popularity among weekenders from Dubai. The mountains make it a few degrees cooler. It even snows at times.
Beside the emerging towers of Al Hamra Village, a Persian Gulf resort frequented by Germans and Russians who fly there directly, the 40-mile (64km) coastline is largely untouched. But this "Wild West" territory is on the cusp of major change.
A futuristic £800million financial district and Free Trade Zone will bring residential and office towers, and Dubai-style man-made islands will become home to dozens of five-star resorts, marinas and apartment complexes. Inland, a desert Banyan Tree resort is on its way, along with a university and golf courses - all set to turn RAK into a glitzy new tourist destination.
"Ras Al Khaimah will be the Monaco of the UAE," assures Bilbo Perrot, an improbably wealthy 24-year-old Swiss property consultant. "RAK has lots of industry, including steel and the biggest ceramic factory in the world, but it is starting to attract foreign investors as a lifestyle destination and tax haven."
 |
RAK, which has a population of 250,000, is one of the seven Emirates that make up the UAE and which run along the Persian Gulf. "Ras Al Khaimah" means "top of the tent" in Arabic, referring to its position at the northern peak of the Arabian peninsula, bordering Oman.
To appreciate RAK's potential, you need only take a look at Dubai - a city of limitless ambition, which is nonetheless struggling to keep up with the speed of change. Such is the fervour to trade properties there that houses on the Palm island have changed hands on average 15 times each before it's even finished.
With no low season in Dubai, hotels are permanently full even in the scorching summer, and the roads are so busy that builders are working day and night to complete new highways and a metro system whose first phase will open later this year.
"Dubai is overflowing and that's giving a big advantage to Emirates such as Ras Al Khaimah," says Alistair Powell, MD of London-based investment company Seven Continent Investment (7Ci), who have just opened a Dubai office to capitalise on untapped niches such as serviced and short-let rental apartments across the region.
Powell is marketing Aakar Marjan Island, on Al Marjan, the emirate's first man-made island (work begins later this year on Dana island, which will be three times bigger). The 500 apartments, 90 per cent with sea views, start at £102,000, alongside a six-star Marriott hotel.
Englishman Paul Tremaine, who works for a US bank in London, has just bought an off-plan one-bedroom penthouse suite there for £110,000. He is thinking of making the most of the finance package available - allowing you to borrow up to 70 per cent of the property's value - in order to buy a second unit, possibly keeping one to rent out through the hotel and selling the other before completion.
"Four years ago I reserved an apartment on the trunk of Dubai's Palm for £160,000, but I got cold feet and pulled out. I hadn't invested abroad before and I couldn't see where he rental demand would come from.
Now it's worth £350,000. So I'm getting in at the beginning in Ras Al Khaimah," says Paul, 44, who lives in Greenwich. "RAK is a bit of a boutique Dubai. They want to do a similar thing but on a smaller scale. This time I don't feel I've missed the boat."
With Dubai's Palm as its far bigger prototype (with 4,000 properties, Marjan island is about a 10th of the size and will take a third of the time to build), RAK is keen to do things in a more eco-friendly way.