Dubai working on 220 property projects in 2011

The emirate of Dubai is pushing ahead with 220 residential projects this year, the head of the emirate’s real estate watchdog said on Wednesday.

“We have 220 projects that are going on. We have evaluated projects and those are moving forward,” Marwan bin Ghalaita, chief executive of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) told reporters on the sidelines of a conference.

“Any project that is not good for investors will not go on. We are evaluating all the projects now.”

Ghalaita declined to say how many projects had been cancelled. In December, he said RERA had scrapped 115 projects that existed only as architects’ drawings since the financial downturn, but “less than ten” projects upon which construction had started. [ID:nLDE6B60L0]

Earlier on Wednesday, Sultan Butti bin Mejrin, director general of the Dubai Land Department, told the conference that property transactions worth 123 billion dirhams ($33.49 billion) were concluded in 2010.

Dubai’s property sector has been hit hard by the downturn, with billions of dollars worth of projects put on hold or cancelled, while property prices slumped as much as 60 percent.

High-profile projects that Dubai has put on hold or cancelled as a result of the downturn include Dubai Properties’ Tiger Woods residential and golf course project and developer Nakheel’s [NAKHD.UL] kilometre-high tower. (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Writing by Jason Benham; Editing by Dinesh Nair)