Damac chairman, Hussain Sajwani, has called for a halt to construction in Dubai, as a real estate glut has driven home prices down by more than 30% since 2014.
The government had to form a committee to manage supply and demand as some of the city’s biggest developers continued to build.
Now, many seem to be tending to accept the need to halt new buildings. After resisting calls to stop, Mohamed Alabbar, president of Emaar Properties, Dubai’s largest developer, said earlier this month that his company had temporarily halted all new construction work.
Sajwani said last month that Damac Properties was pinning hopes on the Expo next year to revitalize the real estate market after his company recorded losses of 931 million dirhams in the first nine months of 2020.
This compares to a net profit of 133 million dirhams for the same period last year. The developer said that the total revenue rose to 3.7 billion dirhams, compared to 2.8 billion dirhams in the first nine months of last year, while the booked sales for the period amounted to 1.6 billion dirhams, down from 2.4 billion dirhams recorded in the same period last year.
The developer added that profits are still negatively affected due to the provisions created in light of the prevailing market conditions.
DAMAC said it delivered 1,870 properties in the first nine months of the year in its real estate projects in Akoya and Business Bay.
Residential property prices in Dubai continued to decline but at a slower pace during the third quarter of 2020 due to increased supply and lower demand, according to the UAE Central Bank.
In its quarterly economic report for the third quarter, the central bank said average real estate prices fell 0.9 % year-on-year, citing data from the Dubai Land Department.
