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19 March 2024

Shoreline 'legally' bound to pay for beach

A view of the Shoreline apartments on Palm Jumeirah. (SUPPLIED)

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

“I cannot make everybody happy,” is what the Nakheel Chairman had to say when asked about the beach access fee to be imposed on residents of Nakheel’s Shoreline apartments on the Palm Jumeirah.

“Read your contracts. We checked legally ... went to Rera. We abide by the law and respect the law,” Nakheel Chairman Ali Lootah said on Wednesday.

According to a resident-owner of a Shoreline apartment, from December 1 onwards, all residents will have to produce a “new” photo access card to use the Shoreline facilities, while the guests will be charged on a “per day basis”. This includes beach access from the apartments.

Some residents have claimed that Nakheel plans to charge Dh5,000 a year to access facilities and plan to open up membership to non-tenants at Dh12,000 per year.

“We are using our old cards to access the gym, swimming pool and the beach, but from December 1, we will need to get our new access cards. The security will also have a log book and the names of the residents,” FS, an Iranian, who wished not to give his full name, told Emirates 24|7.

FS has been staying in the Shoreline apartment for the past four years.

Owners are now paying Dh22 per square feet as service charge to Nakheel.

According to FS, there is a mention in their contract that there will be separate charges for using the beach, gym and swimming pool.

“Nakheel says ‘The facilities are not part of the common area’, and we have to pay for them. But it is in our building and we are already paying for it,” he adds.

The access doors in the lobby of some of the buildings have been locked, he said. There are only six access points for residents looking to use the private beach.
“There was an access door to the beach in our lobby, but now it has been locked. The only thing good is that a lot of non-residents, who were abusing our beach, can’t use that anymore.”

There are 20 Shoreline buildings with over 2,500 apartments.