Dubai's Islands Lie in Wait for Visitors

DUBAI, March 26, 2010 -- The World is a lonely place.

As a speedboat takes you two and a half miles off the coast of Dubai, across stunning views of the city skyline, you arrive at a quiet unlike anything in the city. The islands, mounds of sand rising at most 10 feet high, nearly all look deserted.

In truth, they're lying in wait. Since the global economic downturn, and its hard hit on Dubai, it hasn't been worth the owners' economic while to build on their million-dollar sandlots.

While more than two thirds of the more than 500 islands have been bought, only 33 have been handed over to developers. Nakheel, the real estate development branch of Dubai World, confirmed that only two projects are currently under construction, one called the Heart of Europe, on Germany and the Netherlands islands, and a beach club on Lebanon island.

One other island, Greenland, hosts a model villa that is believed to belong to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, though Nakheel would not confirm the identity of its owner.

Another reason The World looks lonely: It was supposed to have a neighbor in The Universe, a similar project with man-made islands mapping out the solar system, but that project, along with the $3.5 billion Dubai Waterfront, were slowed as Dubai's economy, particularly its linchpin real estate sector, took a sharp dive.

Developers on The World have suffered a range of fortunes, from bankruptcy to suicide to simply sitting back until financial conditions and access to credit improve.

"I'm probably not going to build this year. ... Right now I don't have the financing," said Baron Jean van Gysel de Miese, a Belgian aristocrat planning a boutique hotel on the island of Greece. He told ABC News he hopes to build in 2011.

A spokesman with Select Property, the company behind the billion-dollar Aquitania project on the islands of Spain and France, echoed the sentiment.

"We're reviewing our business plans in light of the economy, and waiting to see what happens with other developers," the Select Property spokesman said.