Dubais Skyscraper Slow Down Picks Up

Unless you've had your head buried in the sands of Dubai for the past few months, you'll be aware that the Emirate is being hit harder places in the world by the global downturn.

The figures are grim with the population set to shrink this year alone by 10% as a vast number of expatriate workers return home, property prices are expected to fall by at least 60% causing vast losses to the speculative bubble that has emerged there around often unbuilt skyscrapers, and retail sales could fall by a quarter.

Such is the scale of the problems and the failure of Dubai to reform its legal approach to debt to something approaching the western system of bankruptcy, hundreds of luxury cars dumped by debt-laden owners terrified of the strict punishments for their plight, are being recovered every month at the city's airport by the police.

Emblematic of this is the now struggling high-rise construction sector that powered Dubai's economy for many years with numerous projects put on hold or cancelled all together.

The Nakheel Tower which would have been the world's first kilometer tall skyscraper barely begun preparatory ground-work before it was stopped and most of the contractors working on the scheme were laid off.

A number of schemes have so far been put on hold that haven't started proper construction work yet, although the true figure is bound to be much higher with developers keeping their lips sealed.

The most high profile of these victims are Damac Heights, a 426 metre tall 100 floors supertall skyscraper, and the 550 metre tall Meeras Tower, with work suspended on both.

The economic infection in Dubai has also had knock-on effects elsewhere in the Middle East. This is most visible with the Dubai Tower, a 448 metre tall 87 storey structure that was proposed in the Saudi city of Jeddah by developer Sama Dubai put on hold indefinitely.

The following under construction projects are now stalled with no visible work being done on site including -
Burj Al Alam, 510 metres, 108 floors.
Trump International Hotel and Tower, 270 metres, 62 floors.
Antara Tower 1, 234 metres, 49 floors.
Antara Tower 2, 219 metres, 44 floors.

It's not all bad. The Tiara Towers were under construction but put on hold following the loss of financing at the end of November 2008. Work has recently begun on them again showing that projects can rise from the dead - the big question however is which other ones will get going again, and which ones will end up empty concrete shells?

Can the hubris return to Dubai, or has the bubble been completely unsustainable and so thoroughly pricked it will be unable to inflate again causing the emirate to gradually sink under the weight of its own debts?