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5pc of Property Developers Put Plans on Hold

“So in the year 2009-2010, the supply of housing units would be much less than the earlier anticipated”, said Nasser bin Hassan Al Shaikh director general Dubai Department of Finance, at a seminar at ADCCI.

In a best case scenario, Al Shaikh expected about 28,000 housing units will come on line in 2008.

He said that some investment banks and financial institutions churned out inflated figures of housing units being constructed, completed and coming on line in the year 2008 and 2009.There were suggestions of 60,000 or even 70,000.

In view of this situation, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai constituted a high level committee in order to figure out the state of reality sector in the emirate.

The committee, which gathered data from master developers as well as the private developers, came across with the first figure of 36,000 residential estimated to be under construction or to be completed 2008 and another 32000 apartments for the year 2009.

But, Even this number, the director general suspected could drop, because numbers were being further analysed, in view of some projects being delayed for various reasons.

Asked to comment on the per cent of fall in home prices in Dubai, he said it varies from neighborhood to neighbourhood.

Speaking about Amlak’s financing portfolio, a confident Nasser bin Hasan Al Shaikh said that the Loan to Value (LTV) ratio stands at 55 per cent, which is very strong and healthy.

haseebhaider@khaleejtimes.com