Dubai developers feel growing sense of restraint

Dubai

ON the surface, Dubai is ploughing ahead with the kind of ambitious, eye-catching projects that turned the sheikhdom into the Persian Gulf's business hub and playground. At the tip of its palm-shaped island, a swimming pool suspended between two towers will hover 170 m above the ground. Closer to the city centre, "water homes" on stilts will line an artificial canal dotted with floating restaurants and gondolas.

But the din of cranes and earth-moving equipment hides a growing sense of restraint among the city's deve…