eakmed

A few friends of mine living in Dubai putting me off purchasing a property there as they claim the ownership is always a lease hold of 99 years and you cannot get a freehold.

is this true?

and is it a good idea to be purchasing a property there?

mikewot

http://britishexpats.com/forum/middl...-dubai-860101/

Desert Shaikh

Freehold should be the least of your worries.

A housing market crash is due very soon where prices are expected to drop between 50% to 70%.

Millhouse

Ah, the crash that is two years overdue...

Millhouse

It is indeed interesting...

Rental yields are not at sensible levels which suggests sale prices aren't going to be dropping. The question is rents - and oddly, there has been no movement in rents - as much as I'd love to say market manipulation - that is tricky when you have hundreds of private landlords. In AD I understand it as a few can control large parts of the market.

Rents are high as salaries are high - the lack of tax will always mean rents will be higher here than in taxed economies - and for those who are on low salaries they are generally prepared to live 4 to a room.

captainflack

If you're buying because you actually want to own somewhere, legal title to the land it is on, live the rest of your life there, etc. then Dubai is not the place for you.

Even if you did have proper 'freehold' (and what there is in Dubai is leasehold by any reasonable definition as your friends say) what does that mean in any country with an absolute ruler who can change the law with a wave of his hand? Whatever rights can be given under such a system can just as quickly be taken away. Freehold is meaningless without a proper system of law, rights, etc. to actually enforce them.

Ultimately if freehold is important to you, you probably want stability and legal rights. The middle east is a very curious place to start looking for that.

shiva

at a conservative estimate thats at least 3 complete rebuilds of the entire structure. owning or freehold are the least of the issues

laithalhindawi

Hi Eakmed,
I just love (as well as totally agree with) all the replies you've received yet none actually answer your question specifically. "Freehold" in Dubai does not exist in the same way as UK/USA/Europe. As an expat (not UAE/GCC citizen) you cannot truly own ANY land outright. e.g.; you buy a "freehold" house on Springs/Meadows/Palm.... but you MUST pay an annual fee to the developers/community/management company for "services" and have NO SAY in what you're charged, where it goes or how its spent. These are the same people you MUST approach and seek approval from for ANYTHING you want doing to your house as they usually control access to the compound/development etc. If not (like JVC/JVT) they can still give you a hard time in other ways, including legal. I guess "Planning Permission" is a similar process we would have in the U.K. except here what permission is needed for goes way way way beyond to encompass which company can provide telephone/internet services, who you get your air conditioning from/what kind of a/c/ system you can have (this can extend to hot water supply too, which contractors/repair guys are "approved", how many and what types of pets are allowed to be kept and so much more it gets silly, truly pathetically trivially silly sometimes. The best part is yet to come : YOU CANNOT SELL/TRANSFER YOUR PROPERTY TO A NEW BUYER WITHOUT A WRITTEN APPROVAL FOR THE TRANSFER FROM THE COMMUNITY/DEVELOPER/MANAGEMENT COMPANY which states that you are clear of all charges due to them etc. NICE !!!!!

Good luck.

mikewot

Do you mean written approval or do you mean NOC? Because I have only heard of an NOC being required.

laithalhindawi

Hi Mikewot,
An NOC is a "No Objection Certificate" which is a form of "written approval" (usually a stamped, signed and very recently dated letter) with a limited validity so has to be done at the time and specifically for that transaction obtained from the Community/Developer/Management Company.

OK ?

mikewot

I always think of an NOC as No Objection as opposed to an actual approval.

laithalhindawi

The typical wording of the NOC : We have no objection to this guy from selling out his property that is in our development/community. i.e.; the approval is not on the new guy to come in but on you to be allowed to sell out. Same same in my view and since eakmed could ultimately find himself in the position of a seller one day (assuming he bought in) then to sell out he would need this from "the true holders of the freehold" (the developers/community company) even though he thought his property was owned "freehold" by him.

Please correct me if not the case as that's my experience of things in Dubai and the GCC and I would simply LOVE to have TRUE FREEHOLD here if possible and have cash ready and waiting for such a thing.

mikewot

You are correct about freehold but it's just a matter of semantics I suppose about an NOC being/not being an approval.
I am only nitpicking because we have to obtain an letter of NOC from our government regulator at work to make changes. And it is not an approval :-)

laithalhindawi

Ha ha ha ha....God forbid that ANYONE has to COMMIT to an actual "Approval" of ANYTHING......impossible.

Standanista

It's a no-objection, five-counter-signatory culture alright.

Has everybody signed the attendance sheet?