IT was interesting to read in the GDN of November 21 the Deputy Prime Minister declaring that the real estate sector in Bahrain must be governed by the rule of law.
It is a pity, therefore, that the laws in Bahrain were insufficiently robust in 2007 – when property investors at Marina West invested their hard-earned life’s savings into apartments at this luxury real estate development, backed by local banks and other institutions – to prevent default by a developer misusing investors’ stage payments.
Coupled with the global financial crisis of 2008, the developer ran out of money to pay the builder and construction stopped – and, after nearly 12 years, has not yet restarted.
Why was Bahraini law not sufficient to stop this from happening, thus putting investors’ money unwittingly at risk? If we buyers had known at the time of our investment that our cash was so exposed to abuse, we surely would not have invested our life’s savings in such a dodgy project. We trusted the law of Bahrain to protect our interests; we were mistaken. The laws of ‘Business Friendly Bahrain’ failed us.
It seems clear, therefore, that the Bahrain authorities have a duty of care to such investors, particularly as it was realised soon after that a law had to be passed to ensure that property investors’ funds could not be used by a developer for other purposes.
It remains to be seen to what extent the Bahrain authorities recognise the debt they owe to property investors who have suffered in this way, in the terms of any new initiative to resolve the sad and sorry ongoing tale of Marina West.
Mike Franklin
Disaffected MW buyer
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