A 99 year lease when you buy property in Abu Dhabi is neither unusual nor something to be concerned about. In Abu Dhabi expatriates (non GCC) acquire 99 year leases when they buy property and this is a concern for some people who only want freehold. It will not be an issue with people from the Common Law legal jurisdictions (like the UK) as these almost always only grant leasehold ownership rights to...
I have been wanting to write an article for a long time about the balance of fees in Abu Dhabi and broadly the UAE. Currently Abu Dhabi has the unfortunate habit of asking tenants to pay brokers 5% when they lease a property through that broker. In most of the world landlords pay brokers for the service of getting them valuable tenants, but here, due to there historically being very few landlords, those...
The Top 100 is made up of the region’s most successful listed and unlisted developers, local real estate consultants, international consultants and—for the first time—Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) The top 40 listed real estate developers have a combined market value of $90.5 billion, and brought in revenues of $18.1 billion in 2016. Forbes Middle East has held a glittering ceremony to...
Ok, they are not all your fault clearly, but tenant and landlord behavior in Abu Dhabi keeps handing business to crappy brokers, and here is why. Why Tenants Create Poor Brokers: Don’t Look At Dubizzle/Propertyfinder - Something people don’t understand about the Abu Dhabi market is that most brokers have access to the whole stock portfolio. Tenants generally go on Dubizzle, see what looks like the...
I have just seen the new law passing the re-instated Abu Dhabi "Rent Cap" and I am a little worried. It looks like on the face of it that Landlords can kick tenants out if they want to raise the rent over 5%. I wrote another LinkedIn Article about this back in 2016 here. A little bit of a history lesson first: in 2006 the new rental law fixed rent rises on property at 7% per year, this was revised in 2010...
Not to be outdone by Aldar coming in and offering two beds for just under 1.1m, TDIC are offering their own promotions for Cityscape. In launching Phase II of their Mamsha development they are offering an unprecedented 2.5% for the reservation deposit. You can now reserve your beachfront one-bed duplex for only AED51,500 with no commission payable. Two, three and four beds also available. With the St...
Aldar has just launched its latest Master Community project on Reem Island, "The Bridges" - and it is the best value yet. For as little as an AED55,000 deposit you can reserve your very own two bedroom apartment for AED1.1m. See the listings here When delivered in 2020 it will consist of six mid-rise towers, each offering 212 homes. From smart studios to spacious three bedroom apartments, every...
Don’t like the look of the real estate market right now? Buy now and take advantage of the market in two to three years by buying off-plan. In 2016 Dubai sold as many off-plan units as built ones. Off-plan is back in vogue. So what are the pros and cons of buying off-plan in this newer more confident market and what do you need to look out for? Price Now because you are paying for something you can’t...
The Tawtheeq system has been delayed this week due to an overhaul. We have received conflicting reports but it seems that now an EID is required to issue a Tawtheeq and that EID readers are now being distributed to all owners/managers. Before you could get a Tawtheeq with only a visa, this will now drastically slow down the process. We have also received word from some of the developers that i) you can...
How to Pick an Abu Dhabi Investment Property 1 PICK THE RIGHT DEVELOPER 2007 in particular saw a lot of inexperienced developers take to the market in Abu Dhabi. The subsequent downturn in 2008/2009 saw those developers struggle to complete their units on time and in the specifications that were given to those who bought off-plan. Before you buy a unit look into the developer, what else have...