SOME countries decide to build tall when they run out of coastline. Dubai, however, likes to create more land as well. Three giant archipelagos in the shape of palm trees now sprout from the shore and 300 man-made islands are gradually becoming a map of the globe.

The islands of The World development are now slowly rising from the sea. By 2011, when the project should be complete, you should be able to breakfast in Britain, lunch in Libya and dine in Denmark, with perhaps a nightcap in Nigeria. Each island will have hotels, houses, apartments and restaurants. Profile, a company owned by British businessmen based in Dubai, has bought “Thailand” and will soon be developing it into a second-home and travel destination that will feature 131 Thai-style holiday homes designed around a spa. Named Jasmine Garden, it is a popular concept: 60 per cent of the planned development has been sold since it was launched last year. Prices range from £400,000 for a studio suite to £2.1 million for a beach villa.

Elsewhere, IFA Hotels & Resorts is building 300 apartments, townhouses, villas and penthouses on The Kingdom of Sheba development on The Palm, Jumeirah. The properties will have access to a private beach, spa, sports club, swimming pool and the Palm Golden Mile shopping area. Prices here range from £509,500 for a two-bedroom apartment to £3.6 million for a luxury five-bedroom villa on a private beach.

A little inland, Dubai Sports City is another ambitious project. Take most of the world’s top sports, build first-class stadiums and courses to suit them, add sporting academies and then build stylish apartments, villas, hotels, cinemas, restaurants and a shopping mall and you have some idea of its scale. It will cover 50 million sq ft when completed and house 70,000 people.

These new developments come at a price. Thousands of migrant labourers employed in the construction industry work long shifts for low wages in hazardous conditions. Last week seven labourers were killed when a bridge under construction in Dubai Marina collapsed. In addition, foreign workers in Dubai recently went on strike demanding higher pay and better housing.

FACTFILE

Property prices in Dubai have risen by between 20 and 100 per cent over the past year as a result of new laws that allow foreign ownership of residential property for the first time.

Prices are forecast to rise more slowly – or even fall – over the next two years as completed apartment blocks flood the property market.

The population of Dubai – 1.4 million – is growing at an average of 7.9 per cent a year and may rise to 1.9 million by 2010. At least 82 per cent of Dubai’s population consists of expatriates.

Further information: www.profile.ae ; www.dubaisportscity.ae ; www.ifahotelsresorts.com .

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