Dubai's real estate slump catches up with the city's finance hub

The Dubai International Financial Centre isn’t being spared a slump in the emirate’s retail and property market as it struggles to attract tenants to its 1 billion dirham ($272 million) Gate Avenue expansion - a marble-lined underground promenade linking the hub’s main district to nearby towers. When the project was announced in 2016, officials said the kilometer-long passageway would have about 200 shops and restaurants and hoped that 90% of the units would be leased on completion. Three years on and only about two dozen shops have opened since its launch in January. The rest remain boarded up. The DIFC appears to be reacting to the disappointing showing. About half a dozen executives have left the DIFC Authority, which manages the free zone, in recent months. Chief Real Estate Officer Nabil Alkindi moved on earlier this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.