The increase of 13% compared to the previous month is revealed in the MENA Construction Projects Tracker Report from Citigroup.
It also shows that the UAE accounted for 56% of the total cancelled or delayed projects for the main regional markets. ‘Unsurprisingly cancellations in the UAE relate predominantly to real estate,’ the report said.
The UAE's property boom ended in 2008, with house prices in Dubai plunging by up to 60%, forcing many developers to abandon projects.
Nakheel, the Dubai developer of the Palm islands, was forced to write off up to AED78.6 billion ($21.4 billion) of its real estate assets due to a property crisis, according to a bond prospectus.
The Citi report added that projects cancelled and on hold across the main MENA markets slipped to $1.69 trillion in August from $1.7 trillion in July.
In other markets Saudi Arabia has added $81 billion of preliminary projects to its pipeline since July, while Kuwait has projects worth $20 billion in the early stages of construction and Qatar has $2 billion.
Kuwait and Qatar also have projects worth $20 billion and $2 billion respectively that are in preliminary stages of construction. In contrast, UAE showed a $12 billion decline in preliminary projects to $118 billion.
