Joint committee set to cancel 'unviable' projects

A special committee has been set up to decide which construction projects in Dubai should be cancelled amid the current slowdown in the real estate sector.

The Dubai Land Department and the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) have set up the committee to vote on "unviable" projects, senior department officials said in comments published by Emirates Business on Thursday.

Addressing an investors' meeting, officials said a committee has been formed to study and analyse non-feasible projects, the paper reported.

Ludmila Yamalova, partner at Mac Davidson Legal Consultants, who was present at the meeting, told the paper that amendments to Law No 13 regulating the Interim Real Estate Register in Dubai now allowed the committee to cancel projects that they deem not feasible.

Research published earlier this week revealed that more than 200 construction projects are due to be completed in the UAE during the first half of 2009, more than for the whole of the previous year.

Research by industry analysts Proleads showed that only 2.4 percent of 1,289 UAE construction projects worth $1.28 trillion which were under way at the start of the year have been cancelled.

About 135 projects were on schedule to be completed in the first quarter of 2009, with another 70 to be finished in the second quarter, compared with a total of 184 overall last year.

According to RERA statistics, 31,003 and 43,880 units are scheduled to enter the market in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

However, it believes 20 per cent of residential units may not enter the market this year.

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