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28 March 2024

Chiller charge: Dubai's Discovery Gardens to become costly for tenants next year

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

Often tagged “affordable” community in Dubai for the past three years, Discovery Gardens won’t remain economical for many residents by mid-2013.

The reason: Individual chiller meters will be installed by mid next year and then landlords, for certain, will ask new tenants to foot the chiller consumption charges even though old tenant may be saved for a while till their rent contract expires.

Nakheel, the master developer of the master community, in an emailed statement, told ‘Emirates24|7’ that individual chiller meters will be installed across the buildings in Discovery Gardens from early next year.

“We plan to start this by early 2013 and it is expected to take around six months,” said a company spokesperson.

Currently, apartment owners in the master community pay chiller charges, which vary from building to building, and ranges between Dh5 and Dh7 per square feet in the master community of 291 buildings.

In short, anyone renting a one-bed apartment (1,000 square feet) will have to pay Dh5,000 to Dh 7,000 per year, incurring an additional cost of Dh417 to Dh583 per month, besides paying the five per cent Dubai Municipality housing fee and, of course, his/her Dewa bills.

Data analysed by this website in October had revealed rents for studio apartments range between Dh30,000 and Dh35,000 per annum compared to Dh25,000 to Dh27,000 pa in the first quarter 2012, while rents for one-beds had jumped to between Dh42,000 and Dh50,000 pa from Dh38,000 to Dh40,000 pa.

We have reported that Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) has started asking interim owners associations (IOAs) to install separate chiller meters at the time their annual budgets come for approval.

As per the Association Constitution Clause 65, Rera may enforce the owners association to install separate meters for all units and common areas for all utility service providers and may even enforce the utility service suppliers to separate the utility fees of the common areas from the fee for the unit owners. The utility service providers are also required to submit separate invoices directly to the unit owners and to the owners association for the common property.

Rera has been giving the chiller cost separately in the annual budget for some years now for the purpose to allow owners to know the chiller charges which they can pass on to their tenants if they think so.

CCTVs, Access cards early next year

We reported earlier this month that Owners' Association Management had informed residents that Discovery Gardens will have close circuit televisions (CCTVs) and access control systems on main doors.

A company spokesperson confirmed that work was underway and will be completed in the first quarter 2013. No information was shared on the cost of installing the CCTVs and chiller meters.

Discovery Gardens, which spans over 26 million square feet with 291 buildings, has over 26,000 residential units. The development consists of six themed communities inspired by garden living, and includes Zen, Mediterranean, Contemporary, Mogul, Mesoamerican and Cactus courtyard gardens.