Mark Wallington's Blog: All Categories

One topic which seems to have made the headlines countless times in previous months is that of Dubai real estate service charges mainly for residents in Emaar, Nakheel and Dubai properties developments. If having to pay Dubai’s high rents was not enough, residents are also forced to pay out yet more money towards seeing their properties communal areas and facilities maintained. The concept of service charges is hardly anything new is it? However in Dubai this area has still managed to become a huge attention grabbing talking point, with many residents seeing red over the issue. But why has something which is common practice in living complexes all around the globe become an area of friction within Dubai? Most residents live in a very high standard of Dubai…

As with most things in life, what is bad news for some people can be seen as presenting an opportunity to others, and what has happened recently with the Dubai property market is no different in this regard. What has brought misfortune to a great deal of investors and Dubai real estate developers now presents a great opportunity to others who have the means and the knowledge to turn a bad situation into their advantage with Dubai property distressed sales with prices for apartments starting from Dhs 229,845 and villas from Dhs 750,000!! It has been well covered now that the Dubai freehold property has undergone a rapid change in the past few months. Once somewhere only associated with glamour and breath taking freehold real estate is now having to face up…

Those who work in Dubai real estate and anyone looking to try and sell their Dubai real estate at the present time will know that things are not exactly selling quickly at the moment. Even with the large price drops that have been seen throughout residential property, resulting in some impressive bargains, can not always be capitalized on due to the current difficulties in obtaining credit. And those developers trying to sell off plan freehold Dubai property are having an even tougher time of temping buyers to invest in Dubai properties; such is the current global financial climate. With a number of developers also failing to deliver projects, either forced to postpone or cancel building despite having already taken payments, investor confidence in Dubai’s…

Despite the recent property crash, the past few years have seen Dubai property truly excel. From relatively humble beginnings, Dubai now has masses of freehold property developments, many of which are now known the world over. The opening up of the market to foreigners and then the introduction of freehold property ownership created quite a storm in what was once a small and a sleepy Emirate, transforming the city into one of the most glamorous and well known locations in the world. And as very been very apparent to those who have been living in the city these recent years, all this change has certainly resulted in large prices rises seen across all areas of Dubai. While some areas of Dubai life can still be considered good value many areas have really…

A few months back Dubai’s well known and popular beach side freehold apartment development, Jumeirah Beach Residence, was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The development has previously made the news with accusations that the developer had yet to deliver on promised amenities and facilities at the project, so when it was announced that that service charges at the apartment complex were set to be raised, owners were none to happy about it. But this wasn’t exactly your normal service charge increase, as owners previously used to paying AED 9.5 per Square foot were now being told that the price would be raised to AED21.75 per square foot. This alone would be enough to cause dissatisfaction amongst residents, but on top of the previous problems with…

A few small but interesting and important bits of news and an update this week coming from the Dubai real estate market. There is a lot currently going on in the market, which is set for some big changes in the coming year or so. Most of the news of late has purely been focused on the large price drops that have been witnessed in residential property, but there is more happening than just that. Recently the Dubai Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) has announced that Dubai property developers are to halt with raising service charges, unless gives specific permission by RERA beforehand. Service charges have long been a thorn in the side for owners of Dubai properties, and have often been in the news due to what have been perceived by freehold property…

With a number of commercial real estate developments meeting with delays, and the commercial freehold property market already suffering from a recession defying shortage of office space, news of new commercial developments is always welcome. With residential property seeing prices drops of up to 60%, one might have expected commercial property to follow a similar pattern. However with market demand far outstripping available supply at the current time, commercial property has been spared any large price falls. Even with the global economic recession in full flow, businesses still see expansion into Dubai as a part of their strategic plans. With numerous tax benefits and business incentives, Dubai’s business appeal continues to grow in what are hard times…

Things change quickly in the world of property, and no where has this proven more true than the Dubai real estate market these past few months. It was not long ago that Dubai property looked unstoppable, with buyers showing an insatiable appetite for UAE real estate, and Dubai developers move than happy to accommodate this demand with new projects seemingly being launched every other day, each one bigger and better than the last. But how things can swiftly change from good to bad, and we all know what happened next don’t we? Dubai had always seen itself as somewhere immune to the problems being experienced elsewhere around the world, but the combination of a property market artificially inflated by speculators and then the world economic crash brought…