200 employees affected as Damac announces job cuts

Dubai: Damac Group on Monday said it will retrench 2.5 per cent of its staff or 200 jobs owing to the global slowdown.

Analysts say a similar move is expected by a number of developers and brokers due to the slowdown in Dubai's real estate market.

"Dubai's real estate sector will see many more job losses, if the present stagnant situation fails to imrove. Government should revise freehold visas to bring back investor confidence, otherwise we will all lose out," Kaleem Khan, chief executive of brokerage firm NKR Properties, told Gulf News.

Damac, which employs over 8,000 staff worldwide, will see redundancies focused in those areas that have been directly affected by the contracting market including sales and marketing, recruitment and back office support functions.

Damac Properties CEO Peter Riddoch said the tough decision was inevitable in the light of the severe slowdown in the worldwide property market.

"We regret that we have to lose colleagues but we believe that taking an early decision was the right thing to do," he said in a statement.