Doomsters have told us the ‘Dubai Dream’ is over before — they’ve been wrong every time.

For 21 years I’ve bought, sold and raised a family in Dubai property, right through every crisis this city was told it wouldn’t survive. When this spring’s regional tensions were filling global headlines — dominating airtime far more than they did conversations in the street — I fielded the usual questions from friends in the UK about whether the Dubai dream really was over this time. Here’s what two decades teach you. Headlines create emotion; experience creates perspective, and the two pull in opposite directions.