Tawtheeq property regulation pushed back a month

Deadline for owners to register properties is now March 1.

Full implementation of the capital's property regulation initiative has been pushed back until March 1, a month after the system was expected to launch.

Tawtheeq, a system for registering all of the city's leasable properties, has been delayed to give landlords more time to sign up.

"We decided to postpone another month to ensure the property owner market awareness is there," said Ali Al Hashimi, Tawtheeq's project manager for the capital.

Tawtheeq will keep track of all tenancy contracts, which will be standardised, and tenants and property owners will be able to conduct rental transactions online.

All units overseen by property management companies are required to be registered with Tawtheeq before they can access necessary services, such as obtaining parking permits and signing up for water and electricity.

Property management companies were required to register with the system by November, although only 80 per cent have signed on so far. More than 200,000 residential units have been registered.

All residential property landlords must be signed on to use Tawtheeq by the start of next month.

An electronic register under development will eventually list all residential, commercial and industrial properties in the emirate and will be searchable by unit types, price and location.