Expatriates from troubled parts of the Middle East are snapping up property in Sharjah after the government relaxed rules allowing non-UAE nationals to buy.
Al Thuriah, a Sharjah-based builder that has ventured into real estate development, said about a quarter of the sales of the two new freehold blocks it was showcasing at this year’s Cityscape Global property show came from non-GCC Arabs residing in the UAE.
Al Thuriah is selling units in two blocks of flats comprising 286 and 135 apartments to be built near the Sahara Centre in Al Nahda, close to Dubai.
The company, which was established in 1996 by Sheikh Majid bin Hamad Al Qassimi and Raymond Khouzami, said it had been granted approval by the Sharjah Real Estate Department to sell apartments on a freehold basis to both GCC nationals and Arabs with a UAE residency visa.
Real estate rules in Sharjah had prevented anyone other than UAE nationals from owning real estate, but were relaxed after the global financial crisis to allow Arabs from the GCC to buy homes.
"The government has given approval for Arabs to own property," sales executive Michael Saba told The National. "Non-GCC Arabs can only purchase only up to five apartments."
Mr Saba said Syrians, Palestinians, Iraqis and Libyans were forming a growing proportion of buyers in Sharjah.
The developer, which has already built and sold two apartment blocks at the complex and is expected to complete a third before the end of the year, said prices were about Dh600 per square foot - equating to Dh650,000 for a studio and Dh940,000 for a two-bedroom flat.
“There are a lot of non-GCC Arabs living in Sharjah,” Mr Saba added. “The cost of living is cheaper and it is a more family-oriented, traditional place to live. It makes sense for them to buy rather than spend money on rent.”
Earlier this year, the property broker Cluttons reported that “refugee capital” from Arab expatriates was finding its way into Sharjah’s off-plan residential sales market.
“Although limited to a small number of instances, residential towers in locations perceived to be prime, have been sold entirely off-plan, with capital values hovering around the Dh400 per sq ft mark,” said Shane Breen, the associate director at Cluttons’ Sharjah office.
“Over the past 12 months we have seen many expatriates from Syria looking to buy,” Mr Breen said. “These are not the sort of refugees you see living in camps, these are affluent individuals attracted by Sharjah’s stable political environment who are making the choice to base themselves here.”
Cluttons added that increasing pent-up demand is also prompting some property developers to restart a number of housing projects stalled by the financial crisis, although many still remain empty and incomplete.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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