The delivery of 18,200 residential units across Dubai, UAE, will not happen as scheduled this year due to a number of issues including financing and contractual disputes besides delays over licensing/approval, said a report.

Amid slowing market conditions, government spending cuts and continued oil price decline, a number of realty projects in the UAE are not expected to come online this year, reported the Gulf News, citing real estate investment and advisory firm JLL.

Another major reason for the delay is that some developers tend to hold back completions to avoid flooding the market, while a few investors are shying away from off-plan properties, it added.

"A number of developers invariably slow up amid poor sales demand, as they are in no rush to complete a project that has a lot of unsold units," said the expert.

According to JLL, about 70 per cent of the 26,000 units earlier planned for completion, will not come online this year.

“The information received from developers is that 26,000 [residential] units are expected to be delivered in 2016 within 136 projects. Of these figures, based on previous years, we expect around 30 per cent of these to be completed as scheduled,” Craig Plumb, JLL head of research for Middle East and North Africa, was quoted as saying in the report.

“Over the past five years, the materialisation rate of proposed projects has been relatively low, with only 30 per cent for proposed residential projects and 45 per cent of proposed office space completing on schedule,” he added.