Dubai BIG Watch: International City

Basically it's a self-contained community, covering an area of 800 hectares which is equal to eight million square metres or 1,976 acres.

The Residential District of International City is one of its kind in that the buildings will be based on the architecture and themes of several countries. There are the large neighbourhoods of Russia, Italy, Spain, England, and France; the medium neighbourhoods of Morocco, Persia, Greece and China; and the lakeside neighbourhoods of Indonesia and Thailand.

Each country is split into between one and five clusters, Italy being the smallest with only one cluster and China the largest with five clusters. Each cluster comprises numerous buildings of between three to five floors. Each building is composed of studios, and one-bedroom apartments with some buildings have retail space on the ground floor as well.

The original price per square foot from Nakheel was Dh225. Buildings have changed hands at up to Dh350 per square foot since then. The most sought after areas being England and China, in which there was frantic activity at the beginning of the year.