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Al Shafar General Contracting leads the tally so far, having announced that up to 1,000 of its employees would face redundancy as the company prepared for much reduced work orders in 2009.
'Between 500 and 1,000 workers and staff are being informed that they need to leave,' CEO Bishoy Azmy told Meed magazine. 'The overwhelming majority are still in their probationary period of three to six months and came on board for projects that have been put on hold.'
Sama-ECH, a joint endeavour between government-backed Sama Dubai and UK-based EC Harris, has also said that up to 140 of its Dubai staff of 200 would face unemployment as projects were scaled back.
Scaling back projects
Other Dubai Holding entities have also axed their workforces. Real estate giant Nakheel announced at the end of November that it was cutting 15% of its staff, approximately 500 people, in response to the current market conditions. The company also admitted scaling back some of its projects. Further job losses are expected this month at Sama Dubai and Tatweer, the developer behind the Dubailand project.
Contracting company Al Habtoor Leighton has also downsized its Dubai workforce following Nakheel placing a hold on work on the Trump International Hotel, which was to have been one of the key projects of the Palm Jumeirah.
Damac, Tameer and Omniyat also announced job losses totalling hundreds of people as the crisis began to take hold.
One of the worst hit groups has been Emaar Properties, a company which could at one point do no wrong. After suffering a series of setbacks on the local exchange, resulting in the share price repeatedly falling well beyond worst case expectations, the developer has now had its outlook rating revised by Standard and Poor's Ratings from 'Stable' to 'Negative'. At the time publication the company's shares had dropped by approximately 70%.
'The outlook revision reflects a rapid weakening of the real estate markets in Dubai, and our uncertainties about the depth of the downturn and the pace of eventual recovery,' said one of the company's analysts.
Despite the outlook, however, Emaar remains one of the few real estate groups to not yet have had to noticeably downsize its workforce.
Drop in prices
Prices in the city's real estate sector continue to dip, as the professional workforce across industry sectors face redundancy and investors look to offload properties in order to gain access to liquidity.
Further, the hoped-for influx of finance professionals fleeing developed markets as the downturn began to hit has yet to happen, leaving gaps in consumer demand for the luxury developments which the city is home to.
Real estate prices have so far dropped by an average of 5%, although HSBC reported a slight spike in November figures, with asking prices in some flagship developments, such as Business bay, dropping by up to 50%.
Investment bank EFG Hermes continues to predict a 20% correction in prices across the emirate, driven in part by the amount of new units nearing completion and the possibility of a downturn in immigration.
In mid-December, real estate agency Engel and Volkers held a one day 'firesale' of Dubai properties on its books, with between Dhs500,000 and Dhs1m taken off the asking price. Not a single unit was sold.
See also:
Dubai market at 'tipping point' as Rera warns against halting payments
Dubai property prices to fall in Q4 2008
Arabtec predicts 'substantial fall' in Dubai property market growth
Dubai's off plan projects 'on hold' through lack of financing
Edward Poultney, Editor - English
