DOHA, 8 November 2004 — A $2.5-billion venture to build an artificial island off Qatar’s coast will be show-cased in London later this month in an attempt to woo foreigners to buy property in the Gulf state, according to a developers’ statement yesterday. A first phase of selling apartments was launched last month, according to development director Nick Bashkiroff who said the scheme — the Pearl-Qatar — would be shown at the Homes Overseas Exhibition in Nov. 26-28. The artificial island will be in the shape of a bay eventually covering an area of four million square meters (43 million square feet) of reclaimed land north of the capital Doha, according to the developers. It will include villas and buildings that will house up to 30,000 people, three hotels and four marinas for more than 700 boats.