The development of Dubai

Property in Dubai is developing at an incredible rate as the following images show:

In 1990 Dubai looked like this.

This is the same street in 2003

In 2007 the same street looked like this. In just 17 years a desert has been turned into a thirving metropolis.

Dubai is said to currently have 15% to 25% of all the worlds cranes.

When completed, the Dubai waterfront will be the largest waterfront development in the World.

Everything in the above image, including the Palm Tree shaped island, was built in 5 years between 2002 and 2007.

New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all.

Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people. It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

This is The World Islands, 300 artificially created islands in the shape of the countries of the world. Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai is currently The worlds tallest hotel and considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world. It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis is the world's first underwater large hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai it is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

Construction of The Burj Dubai began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008. At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily be world's tallest building when finished. It will be almost 40% taller than the current tallest building, the Taipei 101.

This is what downtown Dubai will look like around 2008-2009. More than 140 stories of the Burj Dubai have already been completed. It is already the worlds tallest man made structure and it is still not scheduled to be completed for at least another year.

The Al Burj will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront and once completed it will take over the title of the tallest structure in the world from the Burj Dubai.

Recently it was announced that the final height of The Al Burj tower will be 1200 meters. That would make it more than 30% taller than the Burj Dubai and three times as tall as the Empire State Building.

The image above shows The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower. Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel. It i s expected to be finished by 2009 and standing at 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than the Taipei 101.

This is The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which will be the centerpiece of one of the palm islands, The Palm Jumeirah.

Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees. When completed Dubailand will be twice the size.

Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag. The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects.

The Dubai Sports City is a huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world. Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished. It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world. The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2009-2010.

Some of the tallest buildings in the world, such as Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower, which will be the largest residential building in the world at over a 100 stories, will line the Dubai Marina.

The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores. It will be completed in 2008.

Ski Dubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. This is a rendered image of another future indoor skiing facility that is being planned.

The above image shows the proposed UAE Spaceport which would become the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way (and we're not joking!!)

Some other info....
The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world.

The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed. It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume.

There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.