At 348 metres and 86 floors, The Torch in Dubai Marina has won formal recognition as the world's tallest residential tower, surpassing the earlier claimant, the Q1 Tower in Australia's Gold Coast (323 metres).
To lay claim to the title, The Torch met the requirement set by the likes of Emporis Standards Committee and the Council on Tall Building and Urban Habitat, in that a building should at least have 90 per cent residential use to qualify.
The Torch's newfound status sits well with what Dubai and its towers have achieved in the recent past, most notably by the Burj Khalifa's 828 metres. In fact, Dubai has got strong representation in the Emporis Standards Committee's list of the world's tallest residential towers.
The Torch, a development by UK-based Select Group, is set to take in its first residents next month. While chuffed at the new accolade, the developer is also sitting pretty as more than 80 per cent of the 676 apartment units have buyers.
A two-year or more delay in completion of a project does constitute a reason to cancel a contract and claim a full refund, according to a lawyer.
“This can be governed either by the contract itself that provides for a right to rescind beyond certain delivery. Even if the contract does not provide for such remedy, however, which is the case in many existing contracts, the law does,” Ludmila Yamalova, Managing Partner of HPL Yamalova & Plewka JLT.
However, other legal experts opine that the contract actually defines the remedy. In certain contracts, the developers have clearly mentioned the handover date to commence only after completion of the infrastructure work by the master developer. Here, developers can use the “force majeure” clause to justify delays, they added.
Citing, the UAE Contract Law, Yamalova said: “Breach of such a material term as a delivery of a property (by developer) gives the non-breaching party (investor) the right to terminate the contract and entitlement to a full refund. Therefore, legally speaking, there is a case to be made for termination and refund.”
Yamalova, however, advises filing a formal case is an expensive and time-consuming proposition. The overall cost includes court fee of 7.5 per cent of the value of the case or a maximum of Dh30,000, per contract, which is to be paid before filing of the case; translation costs as every document submitted to the court has to be translated into Arabic and, finally, the attorney cost, which varies greatly, but is required to be paid up front.
“Most of the time, the minimum expense of litigating a case is Dh150,000,” she says.
“Therefore, whether it makes sense to pursue litigation depends on the amount that is being claimed.”
In December, Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) said Dubai has cancelled 202 property projects while includes projects in which the majority of buyers were speculators, or ceased payments, or those owned by developers who can’t show they are capable of finishing the work are being stopped or delayed.
Rera CEO Marwan bin Ghalaita told Arabian Business recently that investors in construction projects in which developers are blaming delays on force majeure (an act of God) should withhold payments for the same reason.
“If I am an investor I will say ‘I am not paying because of force majeure’. I am not a judge. But my answer is: if I am an investor I will not pay because of force majeure. If they can use it, so can I. And this is my answer. If a developer can use it, why can’t I?,” he said.
The high-speed bus that could slash journey times between Abu Dhabi and Dubai to 30 minutes went on show - and its creator said he hoped the UAE would be the first country to introduce the vehicle.
Professor Wubbo Ockels, Holland's first astronaut, said: "Of course we hope that the Netherlands is going to be the first country, but we realise that, in the Netherlands, things don't go as fast as here, so we hope here will be the first."
The Superbus, which is being developed at the Delft University of Technology in Holland, is on show in Dubai at the UITP Mobility and City Transport Expo - the first time it has been seen outside Europe.
Offering the convenience of a car, the Superbus is 15 meters long and has eight doors on each side. It would run on a dedicated two-lane highway between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and leave the “speed track” in urban areas to drop off passengers at agreed locations.
Powered by lithium iron phosphate batteries, the 530 hp carbon-fibre vehicle is similar in length and width to a public bus, but with the height of a conventional SUV. The Superbus, which uses rear wheel steering, boasts high manoeuvrability, formidable breaking power and safety based on the use of advanced radar and electronic obstacle detection systems.
The fully functioning prototype has already reached 140kph in tests, and Prof Ockels said he would be surprised if the electric vehicle had not touched its theoretical cruising speed of 250kph by October.
The team has brought the environmentally friendly Superbus to the UAE because of the interest shown in sustainable transport by the authorities here.
It has been dubbed the “Dutch solution” to the three ills of public transportation: congestion, pollution, and safety.
The idea for the Superbus was born during a rather more prosaic journey - a commute between the two towns in Holland where he worked as a university professor.
"Delft and Groningen are 200km apart," Prof Ockels said. "On the days I travelled between them it took me fours hours in the morning by train and five hours to go back in the evening. So I had nine hours for 200km and I said, 'this is not right'.
"And then I thought, as a customer, what's the ideal public transport? It needs to be fast but not like a fast train, because I don't live near a station.
"So fast, but I want it to be flexible and use normal roads because, with normal roads, you can access the place where you want to be.
"So I had to think of a combination of high speed and flexibility - and that's a high-speed bus. Then I didn't want it to pollute, so it had to be electrical."
He said he hoped that within five years the first Superbus system would be up and running, adding: "Within 10 years I'd hope we would have a few hundred vehicles."
The Superbus was designed by Italian Antonia Terzi, an ex-Formula One aerodynamicist with the Ferrari and Williams teams. The vehicle incorporates a number of technologies borrowed from Formula One.
The first prototype version of the Superbus makes its Middle East debut when it goes on show at the five-day UITP Mobility and City Transport Expo getting under way on Sunday at Dubai National Exhibition and Convention Centre.The Superbus will remain on show at the expo at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre until April 14, 2011.
The first Superbus road tests took place in Holland last September. Although no feasibility studies have been done yet for the Abu Dhabi-Dubai route, the similar Amsterdam-Groningen route has been studied by the Dutch government, with other high speed connection routes currently under evaluation for several other countries around the world.
