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29 March 2024

List your Dubai house as holiday home? Click here

Published
By Vicky Kapur

Good news for Dubai homeowners willing to leverage the emirate’s growing tourism market and the Expo 2020 rush – the official route to listing your house as a holiday home just got outlined.

Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) announced in a media statement today that Dubai homeowners who wish to rent out their property as a holiday home will be required to use the services of a licensed operator, with their property becoming part of the operator’s portfolio.

The DTCM also announced that it has begun receiving applications from companies who wish to seek licences to become holiday homes operators.

The announcement follows the December 2013 issuance of Dubai Decree No.41 of 2013, concerning the regulation of the ‘Holiday Homes Market’. From June 15, 2014, the operating of residential properties for use as holiday homes will be restricted to licensed operators.

This would also mean that individuals and companies that have been advertising and leasing out homes on ad-hoc short-term basis will have to do so through the licences route, or they stand to be penalised after the deadline.

“Through regulating the use of properties as holiday accommodation, the objective is to broaden the range of options available to visitors, while ensuring that the high standards of quality for which Dubai is known, are maintained,” said Khalid bin Touq, Executive Director of Licensing and Classification, DTCM.

“Visitors booking their accommodation through licensed operators will have the assurance that the accommodation they are booking has been classified in line with global best practices, while owners of properties will benefit from the expertise and marketing capabilities of the operator through who they rent out their property,” he noted.

A holiday home is classified as a furnished accommodation which is rented as a whole unit on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis without the issuance of an Ejari regulated tenancy agreement and should be registered with DTCM.

The emirate’s Vision for Tourism states that, by 2020, Dubai will welcome 20 million visitors per year, and the annual contribution made by tourism to the city’s economy will triple. It sets out how the city will both double its annual visitor numbers from 10 million in 2012 to 20 million in 2020, and increase the economic contribution of the tourism sector.

Early estimates from a study currently being conducted indicate that the current economic contribution of tourism is in the range of Dh100 billion. In 2013, Dubai’s 611 hotels and hotel apartments received 11 million tourists, a 10.6 per cent increase over 2012 numbers.

How to apply for becoming Holiday Home Operator in Dubai

In order to apply for the ‘Initial Approval’, DFTCM said that the interested party should visit www.dubaitourism.ae and download the form ‘Initial Approval Requirement for Holiday Homes’.

DTCM announced that the first phase of applications is restricted to entities that intend to be an operator of a portfolio of properties, with the minimum number of properties within the portfolio being 20.

Homeowners who wish to rent out their property as a holiday home will be required to use the services of a licensed operator, with their property becoming part of the operator’s portfolio, the DTCM statement noted.

The first stage of the trade license application process is to apply for an Initial Approval. Upon successfully receiving the Initial Approval, the applicant will have a maximum of three months in which to satisfy the requirements for the final license and consequently become a licensed operator.

(Home page image courtesy Shutterstock)