Dubai offers new real estate guide for developers

The manual includes a calculator to help companies estimate likely costs and timeframes to complete projects

RYP3WE Amazing Dubai city center at sunrise, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Alamy

Dubai Land Department is offering a new real estate guide to help developers better understand the processes involved when building a project in the emirate.

The manual details all services provided to property developers and specifies the time, cost and the organisation responsible for delivering that service, the department said on Tuesday.

The real estate guide was prepared in co-operation with 23 government and non-government entities.

It includes a development calculator that will provide a rough estimate cost involved in completing a project and the expected timeframe to complete all government services related it.

“We have been keen to consolidate our co-operation over the past 60 years and partner with all parties concerned with the registration, development, management, governance of lands and properties in providing services that would help relevant parties perform their business," said Sultan bin Mejren, director general of DLD.

"This guide represents one of our initiatives that serve this purpose.”

The real estate guide has divided the development process into three phases covering pre-development, development and post-development.

The first stage provides guidance on how to secure a real estate licence to develop projects in Dubai, while the second stage details which licensing agency is required contact to complete a process. Licensing entities differ according to the location of the project, as some are in areas overseen by Dubai Municipality, while others are in free zones and may require licensing from bodies such as the Dubai Development Authority or Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, DLD said.

The final stage includes all processes that a developer would need to complete a project.

Dubai, the commercial and trading hub of the Middle East, has taken various steps to increase the transparency of the real estate sector, including publishing a real-time transaction index, a service charge index and a list of approved brokers.

A JLL study released this week named Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the two most transparent real estate markets in the Middle East.

The DLD's guide also provides real estate developers with details on master developments under construction to help them invest in the right areas. It also details all of the laws related to real estate development.

Dubai's real estate sector has shown signs of resilience even amid the pandemic. According to figures published by the DLD on Saturday, real estate sales rose 5 per cent to Dh21 billion in the first quarter of 2020. The total number of sales transactions during the quarter grew 13 per cent to 10,220.