Hot on the heels of the announcement that a fashion paradise was going to be created within the rapidly expanding Emirate of Dubai, a landmark was achieved in construction as Dubai property developer Nakheel completed construction of their famed World Islands. After five years of construction, the last rock was placed on the artificially created islands on January 10th, 2008.
The World islands are a collection of 300 different man made islands that can only be developed by invitation only from Nakheel. At the current moment, 60% of the islands have already been sold to different investors and property developers, with the cost of each island ranging between $15 million and $50 million for the majority of the islands. News of the completion created a minor media stir in the Emirates, as speculation about further invitations will very likely cause property values in the surrounding areas to increase as well and join the number of tourism pull factors that already exist in Dubai.
Just a day later, the Indian Hotels Company signed an agreement with the Saraya Islands in the Ras al Khaimah Emirate to construct the Taj Exotica Resort. This resort is expected to be a various use resort with over 200 different rooms of varying sizes and styles available to people that visit the UAE. The Saraya Islands are just a 45-minute drive from the international airport in Dubai, meaning that the already exploding Emirate is also going to benefit in terms of tourism and monetary inflows from the construction of this particular resort.
The two-pronged approach of Dubai and the UAE to develop internal property markets and external tourism pull factors has worked for them in past years, and it appears to be doing so again in early 2008. More projects are expected to commence soon as the UAE looks to expand supply in order to attempt to cope with the high demand concerns that earlier this year prompted places like Dubai to decrease the cap on rent increase.
