Well the building just finally opened like last Jan. or something like that. It opened once before and close due to some problems.

The "World Project" that it was part of was canceled after the country fell into recession. Almost all the buildings in that area run at a 40 % vacancy. The Dubai tower is much higher with 90% of it's condos vacant.

I wasn't really sure of the specifics myself and living in the part of country I do, I know alot of people that travel via gov. jobs and a high population from that neck of the world in this area. So to be sure I asked a few and this is what they told me.


"All the UAE guys I know are from Abu Dhabi but I'll ask them one of these days to see if they know..."

"There are a lot of vacancies in Dubai, when I was there in October there were still over 50 cranes building... and no one to fill the buildings."

"It's pretty cool to see in person, but don't know anything about how many people are in it."
"Dubai is a ghost town. I went through there several times. The malls are empty the hotels are empty.

Too much built and not enough residence."
"In general it can take years to fill a building, maybe even a decade to fill that one.

There is no credit in dubai. You pay rent in one lump sum at the beginning of your lease. It's very expensive. An apartment can cost $80,000. Paid in full in cash." (Foreigners can rent monthly)

The Empty Burj Khalifa as Metaphor for the Year in Architecture - UnBeige

Apparently All the buildings in this area also suffer from being in a bad location and in general bad buiding practices. So people looking for space can find cheaper and higher quality places in more choice locations.

On a side note China is planning on building a copy of it.
China plans $1.3 billion knockoff of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower - Yahoo! News

 

Good info.

I lol'd hard at china building a "ripoff" of the tower. Fucking Chineese!