Dubai Sports City investors petition Dubai Land Department

Hundreds of investors in real estate projects at Dubai Sports City (DSC) have petitioned the Dubai Land Department urging it to audit the project and investigate construction delays.

Over 370 investors in 30 projects signed the petition, which has been submitted to Sultan Bin Mejren, Director General of the Dubai Land Department.

Launched in 2003, DSC is part of the Dubailand master development and was set to include cricket stadium, a 60,000 multi-purpose stadium, 10,000 seat indoor stadium, sports academies, golf course and a range of third-party residential and business premises. According to the investors' petition, they claim "what we have is a half built sports city, with many building plots standing abandoned and investors chasing non-existent developers to try to get their money."

The US$4 billion project continues to host a series of high profile international sporting and entertainment events at the completed Cricket Stadium, including the Pakistan Australia Twenty20 International cricket series and last month's Oktoberfest Dubai 2012. However, Dubai was one of the markets hardest hit by the global downturn, with real estate prices dropping by up to 60% and nearly half of projects in the Emirate stalled or canceled.

Many of the delayed DSC residential projects are subcontracted to third party developers by DSC's master developer and these are the projects which are the focus of the investors' petition.

The petition states "all projects should have an audit carried out by a third party which is sent to RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority). Investors should have the right to access those audits to access the project finical status and the balance of the escrow accounts.

"There needs to another way other than arbitration and courts for investors to have their contracts cancelled and claim back their money. If arbitration and courts are the only way then class action should be permitted so that investors can share the costs."

DSC is a 4.6 million metre2 development originally designed to feature a mix of sports complexes surrounded by residential and commercial buildings in the heart of Dubailand.

Representatives from DSC insist that the project is ongoing and will be completed, albeit in stages. They claim the development has a total of 5,500 residents with over 90% of the main infrastructure complete.

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