Dubai dreams, develops and delivers...

“Dream, develop and deliver” - this is what Dubai stands for in terms of real estate.

From a small department, set up in 1960 that served just the local population, the Dubai Land Department is today globally recognised, servicing more than 150 nationalities across the world.

“Our job, as the real estate department is to make sure that investors are being served well. We make sure that the regulation is in place, explained and enforced. The process is easy and competitive for the people. Though the other parts of the region have real estate business, people prefer Dubai because of the service and the added value they get,” Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) Chief Executive Officer Marwan bin Ghalita told 'Emirates 24|7'.

In the 40 years since the formation of the United Arab Emirates, the nation's real estate sector has emerged as a key driver of growth.

“Dubai will continue offering a lot of business opportunities and will attract more foreign direct investment and it will keep its creative, managed growth for coming years,” he added.

Excerpts: 

-How and when was the Dubai Land Department formed? What has been the vision since its formation?

The Dubai Land Department (DLD) was formed in 1960 by late Ruler Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. The mandate was to protect the rights and properties of our people, distinguish between the crown (government) land and private land and put in place a system for registering title deeds. Sheikh Rashid then was already planning to transform the city into a business hub of the region. But to make it a business hub, you need to start developing the city and start putting more money into infrastructure so you can attract foreign direct investment. As a company, you want to make sure that any land that you invest is clear and has no claims on it. The department’s committee, headed by late Ruler Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was entrusted the work to make sure that all the real estate affairs relations were settled properly and did move smoothly in future.

If you look at it (vision) now… it is growing and moving forward. When I look at our department’s history and I always say: “It was dream, develop and deliver”. This is what Dubai stands for in terms of real estate.

Dreaming of making Dubai as a global city started from that time of Sheikh Rashid. Then Sheikh Maktoum came and continued the same vision with enhancement, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, came and further enhanced the vision.

But it is exactly the same vision they are working for - to work for the betterment of the people of Dubai and to transform the city into a global business hub. And the same continues for the Union of the UAE. It is the same vision, which is moving year by year. The soul of the union in embedded and inherited generation by generation. It started with late President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikh Rashid and other rulers. The vision is continuing and the mission is becoming better and better.

Whenever you talk about the Dubai Land Department, now or then, the same fundamentals are there: protection, lifestyle and regulation. Why I am mixing lifestyle with protection is because when you come and invest in infrastructure or a mega protect, you make it to improve the social life of the people and the citizens. 

-How has the department evolved since the formation of the Union? What have been the biggest achievements and challenges?

The biggest achievement of the department is that we are now a global department. Whenever people talk about the Land Department, they talk about the rank of Dubai or the UAE on the international index related to real estate. Our efforts show that we are among the most transparent markets in the region.

Today, we are internationally recognised as a department that is spreading the knowledge of Dubai to the world. We are members in international organisations such as Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Association of Real Estate Licence Law Officials, etc. And not just members, we also represent on their on their boards as a local knowledge provider.

We have also managed to transform the land department from a paper-based process to an electronic-based process. Now, you can get all the information needed at the click of a button.

When the department began, all the technical people were expatriates… the citizens would only guide and prepare documents. But if you look today, we have local engineers, surveys and programmers.

Our job as real estate department is to make sure that the investors are being served very well in the real estate sector. We should make sure that regulation is explained, regulation is in place, enforced, and the process is easy and competitive for the people. That’s why other parts of the region have real estate business, but people prefer Dubai because of the service and the added value they can get whenever they register property. All of this was challenge for the department. 

-Dubai has been on the forefront of regulating the market in the Middle East. When did DLD think of launching legislations to regulate the market?

When you are small market, only dominated by the locals, you don’t need that much regulation as everyone knows everyone. But, once the whole community developed as a business hub, a lot of foreign direct investment came, resulting in increased trading. Hence, we needed more regulations.

We took the regulations forward gradually… we introduced laws and regulations as and when required. If somebody thought about issuing a Strata Law 20 or 30 years back, it was irrelevant because we did not have strata ownership then. Once, we started the freehold, it was a requirement to come up with a strata ownership law, then when it was required to protect investors, we came with the trust account law. Now, we are talking about evaluation law that will regulate the valuers, etc.

All these laws came as the economy developed and expanded. You need regulations to protect the interest of all stakeholders. We have completed our regulation environment and only fine-tuning is required.

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