News In Brief

Dubai’s real estate boom is sinking — literally

Kai Ryssdal Jan 27, 2011

This final note today. A commentary on the fleeting nature of real estate booms. Back in the good old days, like what — six or seven years ago? The economy in Dubai was going so strong that the government’s investment fund decided to create more real estate. It piled sand upon sand to build palm-tree-shaped islands offshore in the Persian Gulf and a collection of islands shaped like a map of the world as luxury resorts.

Well, given time and nature, the waters are reclaiming what’s rightfully theirs. A lawsuit filed in Dubai says the islands are sinking back into the sea.

Not that it matters. Only island G-19 — Greenland, for what it’s worth — is inhabited anyway.

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