Note that For HCT Staff, Housing is provided and is allocated to you before you arrive. Villas and apartments must meet reasonable standards for HCT staff. So you should read this in conjunction with the DWC housing page.

These rules apply for HCT staff....If you are single, a married couple with no children, or a married couple with one child usually you will have a 2 bedroom apartment. A married couple with two or more children usually have a 3 bedroom apartment or a villa. The figures quoted below DO NOT APPLY TO HCT NEW STAFF as the HCT deals directly with many landlords.

Below are general comments re housing if you are moving to Dubai and have to set yourself up.

This is the biggest issue in Dubai at the moment... High rents that seem to be going up all the time.

Housing...Big Question!! in the last year 208-2009 Rents have gone down and are now restricted this year to a 5% annual increase limit by the ruler of Dubai The cost of renting is becoming a major problem for many people. Landlords have been a bit slow to realise that it is now a renters market . The size of the allowance you get is vital! If you do not get an allowance it comes out of your salary package so make sure all of this is discussed before you sign anything. The same applies for school/nursery fees which can also be exhorbitantly high. How big do you need? Where are you from? Do you have kids? Apartments are usually 2,3,4 bedrooms and the newer ones are big with Fridge, Stove and Washing machine or some of these. All would be centrally air conditioned. Dhs 100000-Dhs 150000 annually gets you a nice apartment. Cheaper studio type apartments exist but even these are about Dhs 95000 annually now. There are cheaper ones but in very noisy and not so nice parts of town. Naturally the more you have to spend the better and bigger the apartment. This will depend on who you are working for and what sort of housing allowance you get. Many single people share as in Western cities and these "wanted to share" notices are often posted at supermarkets. A/c in many buildings is covered in the rent, you just pay for electricity and water. This is a big saving. A place with a gym and temperature controlled pool( yes they chill them in summer!) is now fairly normal. Don't go for a apartment in a building without these facilities as they usually indicate that the landlord is a cost cutter. This then flows onto building maintenance!! Shk Zayed Rd ( the main road to Abu Dhabi) has some great well equipped apartments, but you don't want the front ones facing the road or the lower floors due to the traffic noise and you don't want the top floor in a building as the A/C for the whole building maybe right above you!!

There are fully furnished apartments here also, but they remind me of larger motel/hotel rooms with a kitchen if you get my drift! They do however suit many people as everything is supplied.

Apartments and villas usually are tiled (the big 30cm white square ones are very common) in all or the main rooms at least. You may have to buy carpets for some bedrooms though if they are tiled many people buy middle eastern "carpets" for them. Curtains might have to be bought depending on your needs. Many windows in apartments are mirrored. Some people only put curtains in their bedrooms or if they are high up in a building don't even bother, though shutting out the morning light can be a very good idea.

We pay for the A/C chiller, power and water around Dhs 1800-2000/month in summer, Dhs 600 in winter. People in apartments pay from zero (everything is paid for) to Dhs 300 to Dhs 600 depending on what you are paying for i.e. chiller or not. Remember this when you are calculating the housing costs.

Villas, you would be lucky to get a 3 bedroom one in the most "Western areas": Jumeira, Umm Sequim under Dhs 165000-200000 annually. At the high end they are very expensive, Dhs 3000000+ ++.annually. In Merdif they are available at lower rents Dhs 110000-150000 + annually. It close to Deira and the airport, but it is a long way from all the older western schools. However, it is rapidly developing with supermarkets and schools being built as I write. These rent figure are now VERY negotiable.

New communities The Lakes, The Greens, The Meadows, The Green Community and The Springs have all been developed surrounding Emirates Golf Club or a bit further away from the old part of Dubai really offering housing for workers in Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village, but they are becoming popular with other expats due to the relaxed lifestyles offered in the communities. These people seem happy to have a longer drive to other parts of the city. Villa rents here start from Dhs 220000-240000+ annually. Arabian Ranches is another community being built around its Golf course. All are located in the same general part of the city.

Very large houses are to be found in Emirates Hills( not that there are any hills there, well a couple of mounds maybe)

Apartments will soon come on line in the new huge Jumeira Beach Residence development. Many of these have been purchased to rent or use as holiday accommodation. It is an area of about 35 high rise towers near Dubai Internet City, Knowledge Village , the new Dubai Marina and Dubai Media City. If you like cluttered high rise living then this will be the place for you! I see the area as a very crowded version of Surfers Paradise ( in Australia) or Miami in the USA if you understand. Parking is hopeless.

If you are thinking of Investing in/purchasing /buying a property in Dubai ( the HCT rents for it's teaching staff in year 1 so this is not an option for them until after that ) look at the http://emaar.com/ site or www.nakheel.com as they are the biggest land developers in Dubai selling properties. This page has more details http://guide.theemiratesnetwork.com/living/dubai/freehold_property.php. Remember this is a NEW concept here (selling properties to non Emiratis )and has just developed over the last couple of years. Over those years, profit taking was very common, but since the WFC it has just stopped and there have been many "distress "sales involving people caught without proper finance arrangements It is very much a Buyer's market with prices dropping 50% or more in the last year -15months if you can get the loan and are prepared to take the risk. I didn't and won't.

New law limits speculative ‘flip’ sales

Robert Ditcham

Last Updated: August 25. 2008 11:08PM UAE / August 25. 2008 7:08PM GMT

The days of home buyers trading real estate in car parks of property exhibitions, such as Abu Dhabi's Cityscape, are over thanks to a new law. Ryan Carter / The National

The days of home buyers trading real estate in car parks of property exhibitions are over thanks to a new law requiring owners to register their purchases before reselling them.

Law number 13 of 2008, announced this week by the Dubai Land Department (DLD), obliges purchases of even uncompleted flats and villas bought “off plan” to be registered with the department first before they can be passed on to a new buyer.

Until now, the trade of off-plan property has been unregulated, allowing speculators to “flip” the ownership of an uncompleted home for a profit just hours after making the purchase. The practice has led to chaotic scenes at property launches and exhibitions and fuelled rapid inflation in property prices. Buyers of completed properties, on the other hand, had to register with the DLD and pay transfer fees, receiving official proof of ownership in return.

The new law, plans for which were revealed by The National in May, has made it compulsory to register all off-plan and completed freehold property before it can be resold.

Analysts say it represents another attempt to stamp out the speculative buying that threatens to overheat the UAE’s property market. Several developers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have said they will not allow buyers to resell their home until a minimum of 20 to 30 per cent of the property’s value is paid off, while Standard Chartered bank last month called for a capital-gains tax on property sold within a year of purchase.

“It will bring a level of control to the market from the point of view of people making a quick profit and getting out, and therefore overheating the market,” said Peter Penhall, the chief executive of the property portal Gowealthy.com.

“It’s trying to eliminate the speculator who purchases stock without having the adequate financial resources to complete the payments, should he be unable to sell.”

Most speculators pay a down payment on a property, often 10 per cent of its full value, and seek to resell for a profit before the next instalment is due several month later. Many do not actually have the funds in place to finance the full cost of the unit, setting up a high-stakes gamble that could have serious consequences if prices were to dip, Mr Penhall said. “There’s an element of overplay and that’s the area that [the law] is trying to address,” he said.

Under the new regulations, property developers store details of all off-plan sales from their projects on a computerised database, including the identity of the owner and seller, the value of the property, its location, the mortgage arrangement, the payment history and applicable fees.

Sales that have not been registered at the Land Department will be considered void.
Officials at the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera), Dubai’s property market regulator, said the system would effectively become the first point of registering property and land sales in the emirate, and would speed up the process of issuing registered title deeds when the fully constructed building is handed over.

The law also states that property developers will be penalised for charging people to register their newly purchased homes with the Dubai Land Department, a payment known as a transfer fee, Rera officials said.

Under existing regulations, the DLD is permitted to charge both the seller and buyer one per cent of the value of the home to issue and register a property title deed. This registration process applies each time the property changes hands.

Some property developers have been accused of applying their own additional registration fees, a practice now prohibited by law. With two sets of charges, the amount that buyers paid to register their property reached hundreds of thousands of dirhams. Marwan bin Ghalita, the chief executive of Rera, said developers will only be permitted to charge a fixed administration fee in return for completing the registration process on an owner’s behalf.

The introduction of the law follows attempts by property developers to restrict speculative buying. Nakheel requires buyers at the Trump International Hotel and Tower to hold onto purchases for a full year before they can resell, while Emaar requires them to pay 30 per cent of the total purchase price. In Abu Dhabi, Aldar Properties is planning restrictions for resales on its next phase of properties, coming onto the market later this year, according to Ronald Barrott, the company’s chief executive.

rditcham@thenational.ae