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.

Originally Posted by Roshan

Hello there.

Tell me about it. Waterfront properties tend to do well followed by Golf course properties. Still little bit of juice left in Downtown and the shoreline apartments at the Palm for the bags of money owners ( Just imagine when the BURJ Dubai & Palm Jumairah actually blossom and come into the market. JBR should be in your list of consideration. Did not have a good opinion on JBR, but the nearness to the water could be a drawing point.

Dubai is still in it's stage of infancy, the reports are fantastic....but cannot be compared to major cities in the world as of yet ( this is my 2 cent opinion, I could be wrong ).

The rentals when compared to the money invested made sense a few years ago. One needs to watch out when investing now, the numbers should tally - OR -you end up in negative cash flow. I have posted an easy to use mortgage calculator, which gives you an idea.

Moscow, London, Mumbai, Hong kong have gone through ups & downs of real estate. Dubai is still an emerging market with a "build and they will come" attitude. Prices are really peaking and looks like an overheat.

With all market down, investors are now looking at real estate in emerging markets like Dubai creating a false boom. On the other hand the developers get excited and start raising the prices, looking at the flow of investors.

Does anybody know the actual price of real estate in Dubai...NO. What I have read in a few real estate books and correct me if I am wrong...in the US you can actually walk into county offices and get at what prices properties were sold previously and it can go back years & years, which gives you an idea how peoperties have been performing in highs and lows. Dubai is yet to experience this.

When you say 4% rentals in Canada. Are you talking of on current market pricing - OR - the price at which you bought ??.

Regards

Roshan

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.

Originally Posted by maximusprime

Roshan, What do you think about the problems that JBR is facing. I have lived there renting for a few months now and I am working out some plans to buy there but I have to say, they have their share of problems. I am a mechanical engineer and I see a lot of things that really raise some eyebrows. Lack of proper venting in the pipes is a big one, all the bathrooms smell like sewer gas (this is a problem that cannot be repaired). the lifts are of really poor quality (the buttons have all fallen off and in one building the floors were out of sequence), no gyms even though they were promised, and now talk of beach access fees. I still want to buy here because as you said the water makes them very appealing but with the poor quality, there has to be a point where the rich folks that can actually buy there realize that its not worth it. with the other towers in the marina nearing completion, do you see a drop in value or rental prices there?

Originally Posted by mpat

Now,tht s a big SHOCK for me

I thought its only Discovery garden is like that,becos when I saw it personally 2 months ago I was not happy with the quality. and now you are telling about JBR thta same thing. It means that RERA or Dubai municipality has little control over it.

today I visited Sports city,where I ve invested more.I could see that no contractor is doing piling there(!!!) , they just start with a flat bed of concrete in the basement level,I asked a foreman working there and told that it should have been done but since the soil is hard , designers decided not to have it. a flimsy excuse to me. Further I could see cracks in one of the contractors work

Originally Posted by Sixgun

What was that bit in an earlier post,

Unclear if aliens can rent out?

Is there really a problem here? surley a massive % of buyers are from other countries investing to do exactly that.
Are you saying you need residency before you can rent out your flat??

Originally Posted by maximusprime

Roshan, What do you think about the problems that JBR is facing. I have lived there renting for a few months now and I am working out some plans to buy there but I have to say, they have their share of problems. I am a mechanical engineer and I see a lot of things that really raise some eyebrows. Lack of proper venting in the pipes is a big one, all the bathrooms smell like sewer gas (this is a problem that cannot be repaired). the lifts are of really poor quality (the buttons have all fallen off and in one building the floors were out of sequence), no gyms even though they were promised, and now talk of beach access fees. I still want to buy here because as you said the water makes them very appealing but with the poor quality, there has to be a point where the rich folks that can actually buy there realize that its not worth it. with the other towers in the marina nearing completion, do you see a drop in value or rental prices there?

Originally Posted by attif

hi roshan,

wud it be possible to have you email please?

Attif