Plummeting rents are luring expatriates from cramped flats in Dubai’s older suburbs to more modern and spacious accommodation in new areas of the city.
According to a Khaleej Times straw poll, rents have declined by up to 45 per cent in some areas of Dubai.
However, an online survey has shown that the same areas have experienced a spike in interest.
Manager of Dubai-based Geometrics Real Estate, Musham Khan, said that a number of people who had been living in cramped accommodation in older areas of Dubai could now afford to live in newer areas of the city.
“We have seen a significant decline in the rent in Discovery Gardens,” he said. “As it becomes affordable more people are going to move there.
“I had two customers who were living in old buildings in Bur Dubai who moved to Discovery Gardens after their previous landlords raised their rents. They were paying the same as they were in their old accommodation.”
Over February, a fifth of all page views on UAE real estate web site, Propertyfinder.ae, came from people looking into renting in Discovery Gardens.
According to averages calculated from five properties listed on auction web site Dubizzle.com, rents for a studio in Discovery Gardens now stand at Dh45,000.
Data from the third quarter of 2008 listed on the Real Estate Regulatory Agency rent index shows a studio as listed as Dh70,000, making the price now a drop of 35 per cent…SOURCE
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Posted 11 months, 4 weeks ago at 11:55 am. 1 comment
New laws to grant six-month residency visas to individuals who buy freehold properties will be ready next month, a top Ministry of Interior official said on Tuesday.
The ministry is also studying the possibility of granting residency visas to the families of property owners.
The move comes amid a 20 per cent decline in property prices and a predicted fall of up to 50 per cent in some areas by the end of the year.
“We are working on this draft to unify and streamline the procedures of issuance of residency visas for expatriates who purchase properties such as flats, offices, and shops,” said Brigadier Nassir Al Awadi Al Menhali, Acting Director-General of the Federal Naturalisation and Residency Department.
“They will get a six-month visa which can be renewed.”
Al Menhali said that details of the law, such as how much the renewal would cost, have not yet been worked out.
“It couldn’t come at a better time for the market,” said Vincent Easton, head of sales at Sherwoods, a property consultant firm. “I’m just confused about why it is only six months. It seems more like a visit visa.”
Previously, developers in Dubai had tried to entice prospective buyers from Pakistan and Iran by saying they could sponsor them for a three-year visa. However, problems arose when the application for residency was rejected by the Naturalisation and Residency Department (NRD).
In Abu Dhabi, a few developers had offered sponsorship to homebuyers.
Al Menhali said that there is no codified law which automatically grants expatriates residency if they purchase properties. He added that it is better to standardise the procedure across the entire country rather than some emirates applying different rules…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year ago at 1:15 am. 4 comments
…“The biggest risk facing the UAE economy is related to its labour market,” said Mary Nicola, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank.
The first redundancies started last year when global firms, including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, axed up to 15 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, of staff in their Dubai International Financial Centre operations.
Layoffs then spread to local firms in the property and financial services sectors. Nakheel and Shuaa Capital dismissed 15 per cent and 9 per cent of their staff, respectively, in the final quarter of last year.
“Ministry of Labour officials were quoted in the local press saying that visa cancellations in Dubai have accelerated since Oct 2008, and are now averaging 1,500 a day, and exceeding 2,000 on some days,” said Ms Nicola.
Companies are obliged to report expatriate employees made redundant to the Government and their visas are cancelled after one month. According to the Ministry of Economy, the expatriate population grew by close to 7 per cent in 2007, with expatriates totalling 3.62 million, against only 864,000 nationals.
“The labour market usually lags the business cycle, so the hope is that the job losses currently evident on the ground are mostly a reflection of what has already happened to the economy, rather than an indication of where it is heading,” she explained.
The Department of Naturalisation and Residency Dubai (DNRD) declined to comment on whether the figure quoted was correct, stating that every ministerial department had its own figures and talks were ongoing in order to determine the right number.
The Government was expected to announce a range of new policies and exact figures next week, a government spokesman said.
In Sharjah, typing centres are seeing a significant increase in the number of people who are cancelling their visas, compared with the number of applications made for new visit and resident visas. About 200 cancellations a day are being filed at typing centres located inside Sharjah government buildings.
“The number of cancellations is far greater than those applying for residency and visit visas – at times we receive only 10 residence visa applications,” said Ahmed Salman, a typist at a Sharjah government building…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 9:36 am. Add a comment
Dubai’s population could fall 8 per cent this year as a global downturn hits its once-booming real estate sector, curbing housing demand and revenues of major developers, UBS said in a research note.
A slowdown in the real estate sector, which employs half of Dubai’s workforce, may dent the inflow of expatriates, leading to an oversupply in the property market and see revenues of major Dubai developers such as Emaar Properties fall between 5 and 10 per cent, the note said.
A slowdown in the housing market in addition to challenging macro-conditions may lead to fewer foreign workers moving to the region for job opportunities and fewer investors engaging in local investments including real estate assets,” analyst Saud Masud said in the note…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 3:05 pm. Add a comment
01/10/2009 08:30 AM | By Eman Mohammed, Abu Dhabi Deputy Editor; Anjana Sankar, Senior Reporter; and Wafa Issa, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi/Dubai/ Sharjah: Thousands of people took to the streets 
across the UAE on Friday in a peaceful rally in support of the people of Gaza.
“Stop the blood”, “God is great,” shouted the crowd in Abu Dhabi as they gathered on the Corniche.
Hundreds of Emiratis and expatriates carried a huge Palestinian flag and wrapped the traditional Palestinian Kaffiyeh around their necks and walked from Abu Dhabi chamber of Commerce to the breakwater intersection.
“We may not be able to stop, but the world must listen to us. It’s unbelievable that no one can stop the mad Israeli killing machine,” said Sara Hamad, an Emirati student.
With sad eyes Salwa, a Palestinian woman, walked holding a sign saying “Palestine is a Arab land.”
“Revolution Gaza, Revolution,” shout the crowd. One woman shouted, “Where are the Arabs? Where is justice?”
The rally was organised by the Ministry of the Interior nation-wide…
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Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 10:24 am. Add a comment
Medical centres performing mandatory health tests on expatriates are 
being swamped with patients after new rules came into effect this year.
Many expatriates are having to queue for hours for the health tests, which are required for residence visas.
There are now only four Disease Prevention and Screening Centres in the emirate permitted to issue the health certificates required to obtain residency visas.Two are in the capital, one behind Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) and the other in Musaffah. The other two are in Al Ain and in Al Gharbia.
The Government decreed last summer that only selected public health centres could issue the certificates…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 7:37 am. 1 comment
Tuition fee increases for the next academic year are expected to be reviewed due to the global financial meltdown that has had repercussions in the UAE.
However, education officials may not be keen on a fee hike due to the economic downturn. The officials said any fee hike would be nominal.
A number of private schools also anticipate large student withdrawals when schools close for the summer with many expatriates planning to be back in their home countries.
“We are committed to the new by-laws we established recently. We are, however, open to reviewing them. Fees would be determined by supply and demand,” said Rashid Al Nuaimi, Director General at the Ministry of Education, which set fee increases to be between 10 and 30 per cent.
“We are looking at new regulations, which will be announced in January or may be earlier,” said Mohammed Darwish, Chief of Licensing and Partner Relations, from Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) that capped the maximum allowable rise at 16 per cent for the academic years 2007 and 2008. Though the emirate’s education authorities declined to disclose further information, education sources indicated the recession would be a major factor that would determine increases, if any at all.
Officials are working on a fee structure and in fact it will be announced earlier than usual. Given the new global circumstances, the recession will be kept in mind,” said a source close to the authority. Another source even suggested the authority may not announce any increases for the new academic year.
They also said with the emirate announcing regulations as early as January instead of the customary March was a further indication of their acknowledgement of the crisis.
Schools, on the other hand, have already received requests for withdrawals while others anticipate them in early 2009. “There have been a few cases of families who have withdrawn their children from a few of our schools, as they plan to move on from Dubai due to job transfers and redundancies; however the number of cases has been lower than expected,” said Clive Pierrepont, Director of Marketing and Communications at Taaleem schools…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 9:51 am. 1 comment
Seems like the death-knell for the property market in the UAE. Freehold without a Visa is meaningless. Given property law in the UAE, there basically are no property ownership rights for anyone purchasing in the UAE.
Draft legislation is under way that aims to protect the UAE by restricting expatriates from automatically acquiring residency visas through freehold property ownership, according to a Federal National Council (FNC) member.
The council will shortly submit a draft law on freehold property to the government which will unify the divergent laws relating to the sector in the seven emirates.
Dr Abdul Rahim Shaheen, council member, speaking to Khaleej Times, said the council was moving to enact the proposed legislation as soon as possible.
“The Council’s interim committee is studying the impacts of the Ministry of Labour’s decisions and rules on expatriate workforce in view that the seven emirates handle the freehold property under different rules, which led to chaos in the sector.”
“Therefore, it called for the government to issue a federal law unifying rules on dealing with foreigners regarding the freehold of properties, and pinpoints strict punishments against whoever exploits the ownership in jeopardising public interest,” he said.
He said the issue endangered national interest and the identity of the UAE as Emiratis were increasingly outnumbered by expatriates, and that some residents had begun demanding rights.
“The statute was badly needed and expeditiously, for some voices belonging to countries of expatriates living and working in the country had begun to talk of granting rights, which are not stipulated in the constitution.”
Expatriates are not entitled to a 25-year residency through property ownership, a senior official at the Ministry of Interior has clarified.
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 11:24 am. Add a comment
I hate to say it, but it looks like the Federal Government may have to reign-in the FNC on several issues. The issues, like the question of Visa rule, pose a big problem for attracting workers for business in the Emirates. In a fragile business environment to begin with, the UAE needs to be very careful not to muddy the water.
12/17/2008 12:02 AM | By Samir Salama, Associate Editor
Abu Dhabi: The Federal National Council (FNC) on Tuesday proposed increasing the minimum salary requirement to sponsor families of expatriates in the UAE.
According to the proposal, the minimum salary required for an expatriate – without company accommodation – to sponsor a family should be Dh10,000 and an expatriate with company accommodation, Dh8,000. The FNC resumed its session yesterday after National Day and Eid holidays.
An ad-hoc committee of the House also suggested that family-visa applicants should be asked to submit bank statements of six months, detailing salary transfer.
In its first ever open session to discuss the demographic structure of the UAE since its establishment in 1972, the House also suggested that an only an expatriate with a minimum salary of Dh15,000 should be allowed to sponsor housemaids.
It also recommended increasing the annual fee for sponsoring a housemaid to Dh7,000.
According to a report worked out by the committee, there are 5.5 million foreign workers, including 3.1 million workers registered with the Ministry of Labour and 2.4 million registered with the Ministry of the Interior, while the total population was 6.3 million by the end of last year.
The legislature said the Labour Ministry issued 640,000 work permits over the first four months of this year, an increase of 100 per cent compared with the same period last year.
These include 525,000 work permits for individual workers and 115 group permits.
The House expected that 1.920 million permits would be issued by the end of this year, taking into account the visas issued by the Ministry of Interior.
The House was told that foreign workers account for 90 per cent of the total workforce in the UAE at the end of 2006.
Asian workers represented 87.1 of the labour force, while workers of other nationalities including Arabs account for 12.9 per cent.
An estimated 98.7 per cent are concentrated in the private sector, namely in the construction, agriculture, retail business, and also restaurants, hotels, fisheries, security and guarding and cleaning companies…
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 9:22 am. Add a comment
People will now be able to apply for new visas or renew them in any emirate irrespective of where they stay or work as the naturalisation and residency departments (NRDs) in the country have been electronically linked.
Brigadier Nasir Al Awadi Al Menhaly, Acting Director-General of the Naturalisation and Residency Department at the Ministry of Interior, told Khaleej Times on Sunday that all NRDs in the UAE are capable of issuing and renewing visas, regardless of the emirate where the existing residence visa was issued from.
The ministry has completed linking of all NRDs electronically to provide this new service.
“We are in one country, and there is an electronic link between all NRDs,” he said. Under the earlier system, for instance, a person working in Abu Dhabi but has a residence visa from Dubai or other emirates had to visit the NRD in that emirate to renew his/her visa.
This was a sheer waste of time and effort. “Consequently, Lieutenant-General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior, gave instructions to ease the hardship of expatriates by allowing them to get visas or renew visas from the NRD in any emirate regardless of the emirate where the residence visa was issued originally. This is what we are implementing right now.” Brigadier Al Menhaly clarified that many expatriates are not aware of this new service, and still take the trouble of travelling to other emirates to complete their visa-related procedures. “We now tell them to save the effort and submit your applications to any department in the country to be processed immediately,” he said.
Meanwhile, denizens of emirates have lauded the ministry’s step, calling it a real timesaver…SOURCE
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 10:13 am. Add a comment
Here is the latest in the ongoing ID saga:
12/13/2008 11:45 PM | WAM
Abu Dhabi: The December 31 deadline for UAE citizens to register for the national identity cards will not be extended, a top official at the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) said on Saturday.
Darwish Al Zarouni, Director-General of the EIDA, said the Cabinet decision was clear that Emiratis and professional expatriates must register for ID cards by the end of this year.
“All UAE nationals and professional expatriates should hold ID cards by the end of 2008, while expatriates of various categories should have them by the end of 2010,” Al Zarouni said.
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Posted 1 year, 2 months ago at 9:49 am. Add a comment
First I would like to apologize for not updating my blog for a week or two . Trust me folks , life wasn’t roses to me all this while it was a bad A** bitch .Had a lot going on ( Both personal and academical )
Ye so lets get started….
Well I have been int his country for all my life and I had never seen Etisalat advertising till recent past.It enjoyed this ruthless monopoly . It capitalized on the emotion of the expatriates who were far from their home land calling back their country . It was a loot . A glorified one .
The Advent of DU , did make things a little difficult for etisalat . Made etisalat a lot more insecure about it markets . Now you see etisalat advertising sponsoring , and doing stuffs it had never done before .
I seriously think more operators should be given opportunities in uae to bring the cost down . Because I still think the rates are very high .
The scenario was similar back in India , Until some private communication companies started off .The rates drop down from 15 rupees a minute to 1 rupee or so .
All I can do is hope….that things will get better..
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Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 5:17 pm. Add a comment
