Dubai Forums Dubai Expat Forums Dubai Expat Help Forum

all,

i am thinkin about moving to the dubai region. with all the negative comments regarding rent prices and trouble with landlords, i was seeking the possibilty of purchasing a property in dubai or any other area such as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman and commuting daily to Dubai. I have around £120,000 UK pounds which is around 220,000 US dollars. what type of property would i be able to purchase in:

a) dubai
b) abu dhabi
c) sharjah/ajman

also, my job (working in IT) in the UK currently means that i work 9 hour days and spend 1 hour a day commuting to work and another hour coming back home (11 hour day), so the car-travelling doesn't really bother me.

also, what is the situation with buying new property in the emirates. i have heard that you and your family are given a permanent visa when buying property

thanks...usy

arnie's the guy for this one

US$220,000 > AED 800,000

Dubai: 1-2 bdrm apartment or two 1 bdrms in International City
Ajman: 2-3 bdrm apartment and you'll get change
Sharjah: I didn't know you could buy there?
Abu Dhabi: I guess similar to Dubai, not familiar with prices there.

Apartments get more expensive the closer they are to completion date.

You don't get the residence visa until the property is finished. And it's 3 years renewable, not permanent.

Lots more information here.

SW has done a good job but i would increase prices by 10%.

The visa as already stated is an "investors visa" this does NOT allow you to work in the UAE, and you can sponsor immediate members of your familly. The visa costs 5000 Dhs for the owner then 5000 Dhs per extra member plus a 10000 Dhm deposit.

SW was correct in saying that the nearer to completion or purchasing a completed property will carry a fair premium. For example in the Marina area the 1 bed 800k appartment would be nearer 950k-1million Dhs plus 5% agents fee.

Be very careful, at the moment there is a lot of unrest regarding developers. Even Emaar are offering 96% mortgages @ 6.5% with only a 4% deposit payable until completion. The market is showing the beginning signs of a meltdown.

Personally i would NOT buy property at this moment in time, i will take the pickings at others expense in 6/9 months time

i totally agree with arniegang...

i'm also a potential property purchaser. i've been looking at the props market for the past 6 months and i see that its quite volatile now. i doubt that a 10% additional premium on completed properties will be the case in 2007.

thats coz by end 2006 and early 2007, there will be a lot of completed buildings coming up. there will be a scramble for tenants as well as buyers. i've already seen quite a few desperate investors (read speculators) who didn't expect to have to hold on to their purchase for such a long time and thought they could sell at a premium of 40% upwards even before it completes....which is not the case. now with the stock market not performing up to par, they can't make the staged payments to the props they bought (they probably buy by the floors! )

if u look real closely, some bargains are creeping up here and there. but please ensure that you do some research on the developers too. case in point = lighthouse towers, wind towers, MED developments....lighthouse is already failed and cancelled. Wind towers and some MED developments are going down the drain...there will be some fallouts these coming months......

so becareful.

i've got a funny feeling JBR won't take off. It looks more like a low cost flat than anything. And ppl are trying to sell 400sqft units at near 1mil pricetag. no doubt its facing the ocean.....but.....its just too CLAUSTROPHOBIC to my liking....

Ditto.
Wait until you get a good feel for the market after living here a while before you start spending any money.
Dubai has just come off the top of a boom period and things are a bit unpredicable at the moment.
Your budget is also at the lower end of the apartment market where I can see the biggest upheaval.

You said that you don't mind travelling 1 hour each way to work every day. I personally hate travelling any more than 15 minutes, but depending on where in Dubai you work, 1 hour would put you in Ajman territory.
Why don't you rent a villa there? They are cheap. You can get something on the beach and won't be getting ripped off by Dubai landlords. If you like it there, you can then buy something.

Even Damac is struggling, the Waves still isnt complete and is well over scedule. At times there is NO work on the blocks, this worries me, is it construction issues or have Damac issues with finance i ask myself.

Is the Meadows a good place to buy/live guys ??

I like the Meadows. I do not live there, but I still like it.

The Meadows have more "personality" than the Springs. The Ranches are nice, but I must admit that they are kind of far from "the action".

arniegang wrote: is it construction issues or Damac issues with finance i ask myself.

i highly doubt its finance check this out:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06 ... 47771.html

Liban wrote: The Ranches are nice, but I must admit that they are kind of far from "the action".

I heard they dont have sewage system in place there yet and they have septic tanks. Is that true ?

MaaaD wrote:

arniegang wrote: is it construction issues or Damac issues with finance i ask myself.

i highly doubt its finance check this out:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06 ... 47771.html

Maaad

i have read and this concerns me

He said, Damac won't require bank finance for the project. "We are going to finance the project from our own resources. This project took us about eight months to finalise."

I dont wish to sound offensive Maaad, but i dont know how much you know about PLC's, finance and company structure, but there is talk on the street Damac are in debt. Not being a shareholder obviously i do not have access to their accounts etc, but i dont believe any company anywhere in the world could fund such a large project without borrowing. They do not have either the resources or sales/income as yet to have generated enough funds.

If they have the funds, then i would suspect they are using the income taken as deposits to fund other projects. This would mean they are short of cash.

There is a difference in a company "trading in the red" and Damacs current situation.

Lets be frank the only actual completed Tower totals 1 to date.

fellas,

regarding the 3 year re-newable visa.. on what basis this is renewed i.e. do you have to be working etc??

also, i see on websites that some developers offer permanent visas for myself and immediate family. does this visa allow me to work? if not, how would i gain a work permit?

usy wrote:fellas,

regarding the 3 year re-newable visa.. on what basis this is renewed i.e. do you have to be working etc??

also, i see on websites that some developers offer permanent visas for myself and immediate family. does this visa allow me to work? if not, how would i gain a work permit?

Its just that the system here they only issue 3-year visas. So the developer will sponsor you for a 3-year renewable visa as long as you own the property. You cannot work on that visa, and you will get a work permit only if you get a job offer from a company, or start your own buisness.

arniegang wrote:

MaaaD wrote:

arniegang wrote: is it construction issues or Damac issues with finance i ask myself.

i highly doubt its finance check this out:

http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/06 ... 47771.html

Maaad

i have read and this concerns me

He said, Damac won't require bank finance for the project. "We are going to finance the project from our own resources. This project took us about eight months to finalise."

I dont wish to sound offensive Maaad, but i dont know how much you know about PLC's, finance and company structure, but there is talk on the street Damac are in debt. Not being a shareholder obviously i do not have access to their accounts etc, but i dont believe any company anywhere in the world could fund such a large project without borrowing. They do not have either the resources or sales/income as yet to have generated enough funds.

If they have the funds, then i would suspect they are using the income taken as deposits to fund other projects. This would mean they are short of cash.

There is a difference in a company "trading in the red" and Damacs current situation.

Lets be frank the only actual completed Tower totals 1 to date.

Thanks for the clarification arnie, i didnt read much into the press release. I do think it is odd that they arent financing such a huge project. Maybe they are in the buisness of money laundry

No such thing as a permanent visa.

Work permit and residency visa are two seperate things. You can have a residency visa only but not work permit only.

Interesting article about Damac Maaad. I saw that the other day too. AED 10 bn is a lot of money to have lying around and I doubt they have that. I expect they intend to fund it either from an IPO (which they said was coming in the next 3 years) and/or selling off-plan. I thought that was how Emaar, Nakheel, UPP funded their developments?

If they've got one building complete, they're doing better than most. Emaar seems to be the only property developer that has completed residential buildings (for foreign owners) at the moment.

But as arnie says, without access to their accounts (they're not publicly listed BTW), it's difficult to really see how they're doing.

Just a quick clarification re vresidency / developper sponsorship or at least this is how Emaar does it at the moment I believe:

Only immediate family of owner is sponsored .
Children under 21 only are aponsored
No sponsorship is allowed if owner or one of joint owners is already sponsored through his/her company.

Once again , because this keeps coming back : We are talking about residency here not work visa. residency does not allow one to work in the UAE. Work visas can only be obtained through emplyers.

Breeze wrote:Just a quick clarification re vresidency / developper sponsorship or at least this is how Emaar does it at the moment I believe:

Only immediate family of owner is sponsored .
Children under 21 only are aponsored
No sponsorship is allowed if owner or one of joint owners is already sponsored through his/her company.

My understanding is that only the first named owner can be sponsored. S/he then sponsors family members themselves. And s/he can only get residency through developer if there is no other way for them to get residency e.g. through company as you say. But sponsorship status of other owners is irrelevant.