The $14 billion project is as key part of this booming city's ambitions to rival Singapore and Hong Kong as a business hub, and surpass Las Vegas as a leisure capital.

The frenetic pace of development has utterly transformed Dubai from a sleepy trading and pearl-diving village in the 1950s to a flashy metropolis of 1.5 million.

Those moving onto the Palm Jumeirah this year will have to live with constructions for another three years, and then an influx of tourists.