Are the Burj Dubai towers to be cancelled?

Downtown Burj Dubai... hopefully

Despite the Burj Dubai now being completed and officially the world's tallest skyscraper, it could be destined to stand alone after its developers, Emaar, announced that it might be shelving plans to continued with the Downtown Burj Dubai project.

The super-skyscraper was intended to be the flagship of the Downtown Burj Dubai development scheme which would include 30,000 homes, nine hotels including the Burj Dubai Lake Hotel, 7.4 acres of parkland, 19 residential skyscrapers, a shopping mall and a man-made 30 acre lake. However, today Emaar have stated that investors have transferred payments earmarked for the residential high-rise buildings to other projects after sales dried up.

"The Emaar consolidation now is almost over," said Hakan Goksel Samur, the chief executive of Dubai Emlak Consultancy, speaking to Zawya. "All the big amounts are gone now [on these 13 towers]."

Like many other construction projects, the Downtown Burj Dubai development has been hit hard by the economic downturn, which in turn has forced Emaar and other developers to put certain projects on hold, allowing investors to may have already paid deposits to transfer them to developments that are set to go ahead.

A result of this has seen thousands of home buyers left holding purchase agreements as well as putting down deposits on un-built homes with nothing to show for it.

"After the financial crisis started, nobody wanted to pay their instalments any more - absolutely nobody," said Tommy Mokhtari, a sales consultant at the brokerage Smith and Ken. "Credit notes were the only option."

Meanwhile, with the Burj Dubai set to open its doors on the 2 December, Emaar are hoping this news won't detract from their Crown Jewel or the rest of the development plans.

"Projects announced by Emaar in Downtown Burj Dubai are in various stages of development," the company said.

"Emaar has commenced the hand over of homes in Burj Views, with more projects to come online in the coming months. End-users have the option of transferring their purchases from projects that will be completed at a later stage to those in the advanced stages of development."

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