On 28th June 2011, Dubai government approved the plans to extend the Residential Visa from six months to three years in a bid to boost real estate sector. Do you really think that this step will boost the ailing real estate sector or its just another useless attempt.
Your critical analysis will be highly appreciable.
Yes I think this is an excellent step taken by the government to increase the demand of Dubai properties. It will attract more foreign investment in Dubai real estate. Also, this foreign investment will increase the confidence of local people to invest in Dubai properties. I think, this step taken by the government will take some time to bring the desired results.
Moreover, only this step cannot set the track of Dubai real estate towards recovery. Government should also consider various other factors to increase the demand.
Let's see to what extent this visa extension will prove to be a useful step by the end of year 2011.
The analysts are still full of speculations and some consider it to be another unsuccessful attempt to boost the ailing real estate sector. They are of the view that there are no actual amendments made in the visa law, only time period is exceeded.
The real amendment is to lessen the amount of money needed to avail visa. Due to the minimum investment limit major share of investors are filtered out. I have given you one example while there are quite many other amendments that need to be done to fully benefit from this section. So keeping fingers crossed is the best option right now.
Initially the visa period use to be for three years anyways, they reduced it to six months. Now extending ti back to three years is just another attempt to make the market more attractive.
What bothers me is that they can change it back to six months again, whenever they like. So there should be a minimum time period clause indicating that this decision will remain valid for a specific time period, be it 5 years, 10 or more.
A step in the right direction, but need many more steps or even a few leaps.
(3 Answers)
