Palm of your hand

Property brokers report that prices on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah island have fallen as much as 40 per cent since September...

According to Quaid Abbas, Property Consultant at Engel & Volkers; a four-bedroom villa on the man-made island developed by Government-owned Nakheel, is now selling for just under £2 million down from nearly £3 million in September.

Dubai Islamic mortgage lender Amlak AMLK.DU said it has suspended new mortgage loans as Dubai's real estate sector shows signs of collapsing.

Rehab Gouda, Senior Sales Agent at Al Jabal Real Estate says; "It is very hard to get loans now. Customers are suffering," Gouda said. "Either they have pre-approval from before the crisis, or they are cash buyers."

Nakheel said earlier this week it was witnessing a slowdown in the rate of property sales and last month announced it had scaled back dredging work on its massive Palm Deira project, the largest of three palm archipelagos that is planned to house more than 1m people.

Source: www.homesoverseas.co.uk