Originally Posted by ralphrau

The BIGGEST risk in Dubai is the absence of a genuinely balanced Strata Law which allows the owners of freehold property to decide how their common hold property will be maintained and at what cost. The Developers like Emaar & Union Properties are ripping off the apartment owners.

Till now it seems the Developer has a free hand to fix maintenance fees. Example:The Greens where maintenance fees have gone from AED 7 psf to AED 20 psf in the last 3+ years.

Even if the owners of a building in say JLT or Marina decide to manage their own building the building owner association could receive an arbitary bill for maintenance of the "Lake" or Marina common areas.

Currently the residents of Green Community are given a sneak peek of supposedly "audited" expense statements in support of the maintenance fee claims. The reason for increase of most expense lines is "general cost of inflation". The invoices received are primarily from the sister concerns of the Master Developer.

Finally the District Cooling Costs are also totally arbitrary. My 3 bed apartment in Bur Dubai costs about AED 1.50 psf per year to cool. I fail to understand why tenants of the Greens pay AED 20.00 psf.

Is it the cost of maintaining the greenery? It cannot be. Fact is that Emaar's Meadows & Springs comprise 7,000 villa units paying AED 7,000 each. That's an annual total of AED 49.0 million from a 100 acres of land. The Greens on the other hand make up barely 3-4 acres and Emaar will end up with AED 49.0 million in fees from the apartment tenants of the buildings on these 3-4 acres.