Dubai developer delays plans to build shopping centres in Palm Jumeirah and across UAE

Nakheel has put a £2bn shopping centre building programme on hold. The Dubai developer has shelved plans to build malls across the UAE, including one on its Palm Jumeirah project, for at least 12 months.

The ambitious plans, which included the construction of five new malls, were announced in April last year, but the developer today told ArabianBusiness.com that plans had been put on ice.

Nakheel, which is owned by investment group Dubai World, has seen properties on the Palm Jumeirah fall in value by 50%. Four-bedroom garden homes on one of the fronds are selling for 6.5m dirhams (£1.m), down from a high of 14m dirhams (£2.6m) last July.


Palm Jumeirah
Properties on Palm Jumeirah have fallen in value by 50%

This is the latest project to be put on hold in Dubai, where at least half of all construction schemes have been shelved, according to research firm ProLeads.

The Australian department store giant Myers was understood to have been interested in taking space in some of Nakheel's new sites, but said today that it had abandoned its plan to open in the UAE.