Regional Real Estate Society Mooted

Plans for a Middle East Real Estate Society (Meres) are underway, according to senior officials at Dubai Land Department. Real estate community groups, comprising developers, investors, brokers and valuers are also expected to join forces with their GCC counterparts to create a region-wide entity. A property regulatory authority that spans the entire region is likely to have positive economic consequences in the wider Arab world. The aim is to move towards establishing an Arabian real estate society as soon as possible," Dubai Land Department said in a statement. On Monday, the Federal National Council revealed plans for a UAE real estate regulatory authority. Officials at Dubai Land Department and Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) said such plans were positive, as a federal regulating body would promote consolidation among the seven emirates. Making a federal body is very good for co-operation. It will make life of real estate professionals easy because developers can then work in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, but still only deal with one authority," Marwan Bin Galita, chief executive of Rera, said. Currently there is no federal body to monitor the property sector in the UAE.

Instead, individual emirates, such as Dubai and Sharjah have established their own regulators, and more recently, Ajman announced the creation of its own authority, the Ajman Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Arera). Since the end of December, Rera and the Land Department have been on a mission to clarify and strengthen Dubai's property market. Total sales transactions to date since the beginning of the year is Dh11.33 billion, and total mortgage transactions stand at Dh7.2 billion. As well as boosting existing regulations, Rera launched an online progress indicator where investors can monitor projects in Dubai. Mohammad Sultan Thani, assistant director general of Dubai Land Department, said the mediation centre, due to open shortly, has made good progress in terms of solving problems in the market, solving 95 cases last month alone. Month by month, this number will grow when the centre opens officially next week," he said. As Bin Galita pointed out, a lot of the time cases are simple misunderstandings and issues can usually be solved through discussion and cooperation. "People want someone to listen to them and someone who can explain the laws and regulations to them. There is no need (in certain cases) to take someone to court as it makes it more complicated," Bin Galita said.