New law to regulate capital's real estate sector

The Abu Dhabi Department of Municipal Affairs has finalised a draft law to regulate the real estate market as well as land transactions in the emirate.

Dr Abdullah Ghareeb, the department's Executive Director for Property Management, said the new law will be referred to the Abu Dhabi Executive Council before the end of the year.

The law sets rules and regulations for real estate developers, contractors and brokers. It also includes rules pertaining to off-plan sales, licensing of high-rise residential buildings and property registration. Moreover, it seeks to end harmful speculation in the emirate, according to Ghareeb.

Speaking to Emirates Business, he said the department is about to draft more laws on real estate and contracting as a response to the construction revival in Abu Dhabi. An important suggestion it will make to the Executive Council will deal with the setting up of an authority for the real estate and land sector, which will be responsible for all registration, construction, licensing, sales and purchases.

The department has worked on the draft law for some eight months now and has based it on the experiences of other emirates and countries, Ghareeb said. Meetings were also held with representatives of government and private bodies concerned with real estate development.

The department has discovered several gaps in laws related to the real estate and land sector in Abu Dhabi. Moreover, some are old and do not match the realities on the ground in terms of construction developments – especially in new residential areas such as Al Reem Island, which have 80-storey towers, Ghareeb said.

He added that the Executive Council has asked the department to compile laws needed for better organisation of the real estate market, which reflect the prevailing scenario, and to suggest plans for their implementation.

Asked by Emirates Business about Abu Dhabi's need for specialised courts to hear cases in the real estate sector, Ghareeb said: "We have reservations about this idea. Besides, the emirate has recently set up economic courts that might look into real estate problems and disputes."

He said activity in the Abu Dhabi real estate market is slower than usual due to the negative effects of the global financial crisis.

However, the effects are slight and Abu Dhabi has managed to deal with them. No postponements or stoppages have occurred in new projects and work was proceeding well.

He said the inflated property prices in Abu Dhabi were gradually returning to normal and many expect inflation in the emirate to go down. Demand for real estate and land was still quite high, while supply remained limited.

The market is stable at the moment, and buyers were watching the global and local situation carefully, Ghareeb said. While prices are expected go down, they were holding steady in developments such as Mohammed bin Zayed City and Khalifa City, and even in Abu Dhabi city proper, he added.

Ghareeb said Abu Dhabi had spent some Dh1 billion on surveys and aerial photography to make sure that the sites where new projects were located were safe.

The Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Committee was formed recently to obtain geographical data of all lands in Abu Dhabi, and managed to effect 30 to 40 per cent savings on the expenditure for surveys, according to Ghareeb.