Morning round-up: Rise of the Investors

The arrival of 100 unhappy investors at Nakheel's sales centre yesterday was the latest in a series of investor group actions since the market started turning. Some of their efforts appear to be working. Hydra Properties has told some of the members of the Hydra Investors Group that it will reverse some of its decisions, including raising prices on some units unilaterally by 10 per cent. And the Dubai Property Investors Group has risen to more than 600 members with investments totaling Dh600m in Dh3.2bn worth of projects.

Meanwhile, in the property-verse Kipp Report says that Emaar "beat around the bush" when they asked about rumoured lay offs of 250 people. Middle East Economic Digest said previously that the company was cutting back because business had slowed and was focusing its efforts on finishing the Dubai Fountain and Burj Dubai in time for the opening on September 9.

The massive CityCenter project in Las Vegas appears to be in even worse trouble than previously thought. Infinity World, which is a subsidiary of Dubai World, said yesterday it was filing a lawsuit against its parter MGM Mirage over "breach" of their joint venture agreement. The project has been in dire straits because of less gambling in the US and lowering property prices. MGM Mirage is having difficulty raising another US$1.2bn to finish the project.

In a list of 55 presidential markets, Dubai came out 7th, according to Knight Frank, which said the market grew by 11 per cent in 2008.