Desierto, torres y palmeras

The World's 'Shanghai' island sold for $28mn
“…Dubai property giant Nakheel has sold the island of ‘Shanghai’ on its man-made archipelago The World, it announced on Wednesday… The 322,000-square foot island has been bought for $28 million by prominent Chinese businessman Bin Hu, director of real estate developer Zhongzhou International Holding Group… Prices for islands range from $15 million to $50 million, but the total cost of developing an island is much higher as owners are expected to provide all necessary infrastructure…”

The World's Fastest Elevators
“…Emaar Properties, builders of the soon to be completed Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which stands to be the world's tallest building upon its scheduled completion in 2008, forked over $36 million to United Technologies' (nyse: UTX - news - people ) Otis Elevator to supply its 58 elevators. The fleet includes two double-decker cars that can each carry up to 46 people to the building's observation deck at 20 miles per hour…”

Prestige skyscrapers
“…Add up the prestige residential towers announced in the UAE and their project value runs to around a hundred billion dollars. But there is a big difference between announcing a project and actually building it. So what then are the most prestigious residential buildings actually now under construction in the UAE and how soon will they be finished?… When the Dubai boom started a little over five years ago this was a simple exercise. Now there are so many projects underway across the UAE it is impossible to be fully comprehensive and relying on completion dates offered by the developers has been demonstrated not to be entirely advisable…”