Dubai population increasing at 22% a year
Nearly 300,000 people are being added each year to Dubai's population of 1.3 million.
Immigration officials confirmed on the weekend they are issuing 800 residency and employment visas a day.
On the present growth rate Dubai, the second largest UAE emirate, will double its current population by 2011.
Dubai is undergoing a phenomenal, and rapid, transformation from a sleepy port state to probably the most energised and dynamic region in the world. Hundreds of thousands of apartments and villas are under construction, most snapped up off-the-plan long before construction even commences.
Property prices have boomed. So too have rents, with authorities moving recently to cap increases at 15% per annum.
Despite the heady propery boom, prices and rents are unlikely to dip markedly whilst the population growth continues.