In 2029, Dubai’s first skyscraper, the World Trade Centre, will turn 50 years old. When it was built, the 39-storey tower was an outlier, an ambitious spindle that stuck out in a low-rise landscape. Now it’s almost hard to see, dwarfed by soaring new additions. The first rash of those skyscrapers went up around the turn of the century, continuing until the Great Recession of 2008 upended the emirates’ fortunes.
Almost two decades later, Dubai is thriving. Residential sales in the…