Literally meaning "father of gazelle," Abu Dhabi City is the capital of the United Arab Emirates as well as the seat of government of the emirate of Abu Dhabi. which is ruled by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who also is the President of the UAE. The country's second most populous city, Abu Dhabi is currently booming. Testament to this is the estimated 165% increase in the leasable area from 526,700 square metres in 2006 to 1.4 million square metres by 2010.

The growth in real estate can be seen in the 14,000 villas and 18,000 apartments currently under construction. In a survey of Abu Dhabi developers conducted by Colliers International, 205,000 new residential units will be built by 2015 in the city.

The survey further pointed out that there are waiting lists for residential units, with one- and two-bedroom apartments ranking high on demand. Even before construction completion, building 100% pre-lets are not uncommon.

This has lead to inflationary pressures, which in 2007 stood at more than 10% in the city despite the 7% rent cap. Aside from residential spaces, Abu Dhabi's development will also lead to an additional 85% increase in office spaces by 2011, when the gross floor area (GFA) will reach 850,000 square metres. Since 2000, Abu Dhabi's GFA has risen 50 per cent and now measures 460,000 square metres. With the increase in GFA came hikes in rents, averaging 30% in 2006. Only the imposition of the rent cap controlled the rise to 10% last year.

According to Colliers, from the current 9,500 rooms, the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) expects to licence in 2015 17,000 new hotel rooms, 45% of which falls under the five-star category. Abu Dhabi City has the lion's share of the current rooms (8,000), with other hotels present in Al Ain, Al Dhafrah, Mafraq, Ruwais and Liwa. The first half of 2007 saw an average 78.5% hotel room occupancy rate; with four- and five-star hotel room rates soaring to 40% (from $167 to $235 per night) in 2006. The 4.3% growth of Abu Dhabi's construction sector last year translates to a US $6.5 billion (AED 23.87 billion) increase in the total value of projects.