Strike a balance

Khalaf Al Habtoor of the Al Habtoor Group of companies. Antonie Robertson / The National

Dubai businessman calls on properties to be well under way before being offered for sale

Many of those who invested in off-plan properties at the peak of the market in Dubai would agree with businessman Khalaf Al Habtoor's recent call for a ban on pre-construction sales. The chairman of Al Habtoor Group said the practice left people being stuck with investments in developments that were delayed by years or sometimes were never built at all.

There is no doubt that off-plan selling and the broken promises of developers have hurt the country’s reputation in the past. Nobody wants to see a return to the frenetic days when properties that only existed as architectural renderings were bought and then sold on again and again. This might explain Mr Al Habtoor’s call for properties to be 30 to 40 per cent complete before being offered for sale.

However, at a time when the property market is turning over steadily, banning off-plan sales completely probably takes this logic too far. What is clear is that there need to be safeguards in place to ensure the market remains sustainable in the long run.