Celeb Mansions In Dubai Losing £80k Per Week

The Mirror reports that Celebs who bought the properties in their droves over the last few years have seen prices halve, with luxury homes worth £3.2million in October now on the market for £1.6million.

Among those who bought there were Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and ex-Formula 1 champ Michael Schumacher, who owns a £5million slice of "Antarctica" in the World Islands.

Beckham, Michael Owen, Ashley Cole, David James, Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes put down deposits on £800,000 sixbedroom villas at a special rate.

Jack Whisker, of luxury agents Dream Property Dubai, said: "The Dubai market has fallen off a cliff...The credit crunch hit us suddenly because all the foreign investors lost confidence...It has hit the higher-value properties the hardest. Fourbedroom villas worth £3million a couple of months ago are now being sold for £1.5million."

Property company Jones Lang LaSalle says that more than half of the residential and commercial property projects in Dubai due for completion by 2012 have been put on hold or cancelled.A lack of funding, job cuts and a fall in population are the cause of the delays and cancellations.