FOREIGN property investors have been used to hearing only bad news for the past two years. So it’s surprising to hear investors in the metltdown that is Dubai property sounding upbeat about the future of their investments. But Dubai Action Group chair Tony Hynes was pleased with progress made following meetings on the future of Sports City, a huge mixed development planned for Dubai which has been on hold.

Probir Chatterjee from Indian company Smart Investments was in Dublin last night to meet some of the nearly 1,000 Irish people who’d spent hundreds of thousands buying off plans between 2005 and 2007, mainly from Larionovo, the Irish agent which went into liquidation last November.

Chatterjee – formerly financial controller of Larionovo parent company Profile Group – and another Indian businessman have bought three Sports city developments (Eagle Heights, Bermuda Views and Profile Residence) and wants to finish construction of them – with more money from the investors,

That’s what a lot of the Irish investors want too – although no one was making any commitments at the meetings, held in Dublin’s Carlton Hotel near the airport over the past two days.

Is it good money after bad? Hynes doesn’t think so – he wants the property he bought built: “There’s zero value in it until it’s built”.

And he’ll take his chances on how much it will be worth in the future. Many investors paid deposits or staged payments of 50 per cent and more of properties then valued at €120,000-plus.

Ouch.

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