Fahad Al Assiri http://twitter.com/#!/FahadAlAssiry put together an AWESOME overlay of maps of Doha. Amazing to see how Qatar has evolved

I’ve had it. I’m going to sue Al Dar and ecovert and I’m going to sort out a petition

1) 1 and a half years later and they STILL haven’t paid me my penalty (for being 1 year late with handover). They keep lieing and saying ‘Oh the Sheikh is away, he’ll sign the cheques next week’. I wonder if the ‘Sheikh’ knows that Al Dar is making him look like a dishonest person. (I’m sure he’d be very upset that this is happening.)

2) 1 and a half years later and they STILL have the building falling apart, fixing cracks, dull marble, leaks, broken elevator.

3) They gave the services and maintanence contract to a company called ecovert. I didn’t vote for them. MY contract states that the tenants association would be responsible for voting for the company that takes over from Dar 1 year after hand over. I didn’t vote for ecovert. In FACT I’ve spoken to around 19 tenants who all said they didn’t either.

I don’t want ecovert. Their security guards SUCK, useless and RUDE. They don’t fix ANYTHING. Only good for digging holes in the underground parking and wasting water EVERYDAY since they have a burst pipe or something for the past 3 months. (Where’s the government inspections?)

All ecovert has done for us is paint the swimming pool area in vomit colour peach and put up a few cheap carrefour chairs.

4) The alarms go off DAILY. You’re telling me that it takes over a year to fix the damn problem? Their excuse to me was ‘There are indians living in the building that cook with fire’. Ok let’s say that’s true, you’re telling me that they’re cooking with fire at 3am in the morning? You’re telling me you can’t stop them or kick them out for health and safety risks?

5) The gym is pathetic and unhygenic. The equipment looks 10 years old, there’s no sheet that mentions when and who has cleaned the area. It’s also tiny! in fact! Ecovert has gone and taken TWO large offices right opposite of the gym that’s FOUR TIMES bigger than the gym.

6) My apartment still has issues which they keep on delaying or simply don’t take care of. (My main door looks like it’s covered in oil, marble is cracked, wall is cracking, hallway marble is dull, toilet pipes don’t flush well in one bathroom, oh and get this, my apartment has three television satellite ports, they installed a two way splitter so one room doesn’t have access to satellite!!

7) NOW FOR THE BIG ONE. Ecovert is so busy trying to make MORE money rather than fix the damn problem with the service fee that they got (By the way 1% of value of property. So avg of 1m propert X .1 X 750 = 7.5 million riyals a year). They have gym instructors (CLEAN THE GYM!), they have swimming instructors (GIVE US SOME DAMN POOL SIDE EQUIPMENT), they even tried to impose a rule that people can’t invite guests and have a ‘party’ without their permission (yeah right), and they even gave space to QTEL to open up a booth and put up roll-ups!!

BUT that’s not what I’m getting to! Now they’re covering up the Zig Zag with a giant advert! Yes! The one thing that was nice about the Zig Zag was the VIEW. Now they’re blocking it? They didn’t ask me if they could do it. I don’t want my window covered with a semi transparent vinyl coating. As soon as they do, I’ve going to open the window and rip it off.

I’m going to fight to get my penalty fee. I’m going to get rid of ecovert. They’ve messed with the wrong Qatari. Who’s with me?

Note: this is a note someone posted on the floors. At least there is someone else in the building with opinions and a brain.

(Sorry for the rant guys but I’m furious)

Well as Paperboy on ILQ so rightly mentioned this was covered back in October 2008 and by yours truly however it’s just been making the rounds on the net and had a little blurb on the side column of today’s Gulf Times. (see below)

This project is going to be home to an amazing amount of shops. Who knows, perhaps ILQ will have it’s own little shop there! For now we’ll be happy with the Great Mall of Qatar. Some may argue that it’s too huge or too much of a grand project but if you ask me, I think it’s great to have some more choice of where to go. It’ll develop the Industrial Area nicely and spread out conjestion around Qatar .

I have to mention one CRUCIAL mistake though in the Gulf Times article. It’s a Qatar newspaper and this is Qatar so they should know that we call the sport FOOTBALL not Soccer! (When I go to the US I’ll gladly call it soccer.)

Here’s the original thread with photos – Click here for 8KM Shopping – Barwa Ain Khalid

Qatar suprises me yet again with such a project. Anybody have any additional information?

Qatar Snow City will utilise solar power, and backed up by Nuclear generators which are due to be constructed, to harness the power of the sun in order to power a giant cooling unit beneath the surface of the sand dunes. Excess fresh water generated by another Qatar project, the seawater greenhouse, will be pumped up the sand dunes sprayed out from the dunes to create a thin layer or moisture which in turn will be frozen. As the sprays fall to the surface of the dune the cooling effect generated by the units under ground will hit the spray, turning it into snow. Paradoxically, the very nature of the project means that the technology will work best in the searing hot heat of the Qatar summer. The project is carbon positive, and run off from the snow will help to green the desert at the foot of the snow dunes.

The project is due to include the regions first Ice Hotel, Snow Mall, Ice Bar, Ski Jump, and Winter Land Theme Park. It will be based out of The Iceberg. More information on the Iceberg found here

Additional information here

The Gulf Times has implied yet again that Qataris are immune to inflation, have too much money to care about save any, and don’t need any financial advice. Hey, some do. It’s tiring to have the same stereotypes repeated over and over again. Believe it or not, a lot of Qataris have to work hard to get to where they are.

The article starts off with, “EXPATRIATES planning to buy houses in Qatar, should wait for a while before committing themselves, according to an international property adviser. (Nick Witty)”. Source

Apparantly Qataris don’t need this advice and it’s only the expat community that needs to benefit. Why doesn’t the article start with ‘People’? Surely I’d like to save 10-15% on property prices too right?

I understand that an expat is likely to just be temporarily investing and is more likely to live in Qatar less that a Qatari would, however an investor is an investor right?

Ah well… time for me to make my daily phonecalls and claim back my inflation money. We’re immune remember?

Here are some photos of the new section of the Pearl.

Click here for more pics

Tomorrows the day to celebrate Garangao [Ga-ran-ga-oh] (or sometimes called Gir-ga-oon)

Garangao, celebrated on the 14th day of Ramadan, is special to the Gulf region , particularly Qatar, and is believed to have its roots in the pearl-diving tradition of the region. Over the years, the festival has gained more popularity with several expatriates joining the celebrations.

This evening, children, clad in their traditional clothes, will come out of their homes and knock on every door in their neighbourhood, which will be ready to receive them with sweets and nuts. They collect the goodies in the special cotton bags, hanging loosely from their necks. Kids will be seen wandering around the streets until late into the night singing the special Garangao song.

Now people are not just interested in buying the goodies, but they go for the specially designed packets and bags decorated with popular cartoon characters and other symbols dear to the children. So shops are vying to offer new and attractive designs. The prices of these packets range from QR5 to QR50, according to the size and varieties of the goodies.

Several Qatari clubs and organizations, which are instrumental in popularizing the festival, have come out with a variety of cultural events to mark the occasion, as in the previous years.

I remember when I was young, we’d all go around singing songs to the different homes and filling our bags with sweets! It was great! I encourage all nationalities to enjoy this festive occassion

From http://iloveqatar.net/forum/read.php?8,3826

One thing that really gets to me is inflation when it comes to real estate and accommodation. A lot of people want to put the blame on one factor; landlords. While I agree that landlords are increasing the price of both, I want to emphasize a bit on real estate agents (a.k.a resellers; a.k.a “price jacker uppers”).

First of all I want to point out that they might be very nice people, but as we’re all human, one of the easiest sins to fall for is greed. Now when I run any of my businesses, I think about the economy, I think about making a profit reasonably, and I also think about customer services. Most of these issues can be solved by quality control and more competition but that’s a different subject.

Now let us look at one place called HomeStyle on C-Ring road. Very professional office, very nice models, and a cheery attitude, however they overcharge! In one case I was looking at a flat and the woman said “I charge 3% from the buyer and 3% from the seller”. Wait.. so she takes 6%?! I brought it up to her saying that it’s too much since standard practice is 1% from both ends, and in most cases it’s 2% from the seller. Her reply was “No there is no such thing as standard practice, and I usually charge 5% from both sides.” Wait what? 10%?! So for an apartment that costs 2million QR, she gets 200,000 just to introduce me to a seller?

If that wasn’t enough, a lot f these sellers pull another lovely trick. Let’s say that I have an apartment for sale which costs 1.8 million. The sales woman will market it at a higher rate of around 2million and make it ‘look’ like she’s getting you a discount. That in itself bumps up market value. If we look deeper into this, you’ll notice that some will offer it for around 2million; lets say that as a buyer I’m fine with that and I don’t try to negotiate, what the agent does is he/she BUYS the apartment for 1.8 (takes his/her commission), then re-sells it to the buyer at 2 million and takes a juicy profit. Fair? Not at all.

My advice to the government is to try and impose a public and transparent general guide to properties. These estate agents are harming the economy. No matter how much oil money we might have in Qatar, we’ll suffer as individuals.