UAE To Have Unified Freehold Property Law

Draft legislation is under way that aims to protect the UAE by restricting expatriates from automatically acquiring residency visas through freehold property ownership, according to a Federal National Council (FNC) member. The council will shortly submit a draft law on freehold property to the government which will unify the divergent laws relating to the sector in the seven emirates. Dr Abdul Rahim Shaheen, council member, speaking to Khaleej Times, said the council was moving to enact the proposed legislation as soon as possible. “The Council’s interim committee is studying the impacts of the Ministry of Labour’s decisions and rules on expatriate workforce in view that the seven emirates handle the freehold property under different rules, which led to chaos in the sector. Therefore, it called for the government to issue a federal law unifying rules on dealing with foreigners regarding the freehold of properties, and pinpoints strict punishments against whoever exploits the ownership in jeopardising public interest,” he said. He said the issue endangered national interest and the identity of the UAE as Emiratis were increasingly outnumbered by expatriates, and that some residents had begun demanding rights.

The statute was badly needed and expeditiously, for some voices belonging to countries of expatriates living and working in the country had begun to talk of granting rights, which are not stipulated in the constitution. Expatriates are not entitled to a 25-year residency through property ownership, a senior official at the Ministry of Interior has clarified. Colonel Rashid Sultan Al Khider, Director of Legal Department in the Ministry of Interior (MoI) told Khaleej Times, that the Naturalisation and Residency Law does not have any article that allows expatriate property owners to obtain a 25-year residency visa. The clarification by the Ministry of Interior which calls for a new law by the FNC, comes after the practice of several property developers of advertising residency visas with their property sales. It is not right,” he said, “As it came from some property companies and is a violation of the Naturalisation and Residency Law which states that the expatriates in the UAE are here either for work, study, medical treatment, tourism, or are sponsored as family members.

He pointed out that the FNC’s move on freehold property draft law was timely before wrong practices by some property marketing companies hit the society. A unified property law for the UAE is better as it will accelerate the legal initiatives. But it remains to be seen what is the exact nature of the new legislation,” said the Chief Executive Officer of the Bloom Properties Hani Shammah.“We need a law which will make the property transactions more transparent and will put in place better processes and further liberalise the real estate sector. The law must ensure that end-user driven real estate market would get priority and the excessive speculation is eliminated.