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28 March 2024

No limit to rent increases for properties within DIFC

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

Property owners in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) are not bound by any regulation to limit rent increases, Emirates 24|7 can reveal.

“The parties’ freedom to contract is considered paramount within the DIFC.

“This means that parties are free to agree with certainty in their leases as to how they choose to deal with lease renewals, rent reviews and other issues that may arise in the landlord-tenant relationship,” Brett Schafer, CEO, DIFC Properties, told this website.

“We consider that DIFC’s whole suite of laws, underpinned by the general principles of common law which prevail in DIFC, are well-adapted to promote fairness in the relationship between landlord and tenant.

“Such laws not only include DIFC’s Real Property Law (which contains specific provisions regulating landlord-tenant relations), but also DIFC’s Contract Law, the Law of Obligations, the Implied Terms in Contracts and Unfair Terms Law, to name but a few,” Schafer added.

Aaron R, a British expat, who had leased a two-bed apartment in a residential tower within DIFC, said: “I was paying Dh100,000 per year, but a month back my landlord asked for a Dh20,000 increase.

I checked and found that I could file a complaint in DIFC, but there were no regulations to limit the hike.”

He added: “Since I travel a lot I decided to move out rather than getting into a legal battle with my landlord.”

Outside DIFC, Dubai Municipality’s Rental Committee settles rent disputes.

However, this website reported on Monday that the rent committee had no jurisdiction to hear rental disputes within DIFC, but Schafer stated that parties were free to choose the governing law and the forum they deem appropriate for resolving disputes relating to leases.

In July, UK-based Knight Frank said that Dubai had topped the list of best performing rental markets in the world.

The latest Prime Global Rental Index report revealed rents in the emirate rose by 18.3 per cent in the year to March.

Rental values were up 10.1 per cent in the last six months while it rose by 3.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2013.

Click to read: DIFC rent dispute: Which Dubai court counts?


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