Residents require greater transparency on maintenance fees

Residents are calling for greater transparency over how money is spent on the maintenance and upkeep of apartments. Laws regulated by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) say that homeowners should be able to monitor how service charges and maintenance are being spent by participating in owners’ associations.

However, despite the ‘Strata Law’ being in place for almost a year, few associations exist in the emirate. Instead, home owners in areas such as Discovery Gardens, The Palm Jumeirah and Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) have taken to organising unofficial committees to battle recent hikes in maintenance costs.

In JBR, maintenance fee hikes of as much as 129 per cent have hit owners. An apartment owner, Cecilia Reinaldo, is behind the efforts to organise a committee to fight the increases.

“When we moved in we were shown a brochure which promised five beach clubs and a beach park but it’s been a year and we haven’t seen them,” she said. “I don’t know where this money is going.”

She added that the contract said that as soon as the first building was registered with Dubai Land Department, an owners’ association should be set up to look at how the maintenance fees were being spent. However none has been formed.

“Some of the people I spoke to said they wished they’d have rented, instead of buying the property,” she said. “If they go up across the board then demand for properties will fall further.”

A spokesman for Dubai Properties was unavailable for comment. However, RERA CEO Marwan bin Ghalita confirmed to Khaleej Times that Dubai Properties had already sought out RERA for talks about setting up an owners’ association. Acting on behalf of Dubai Properties, Salwan Property Management sent out a notice to residents informing them that maintenance fees would rise from Dh9.5 per square foot to Dh21.75 per square foot.

Vincent Easton, sales manager at Sherwoods said: “These properties have been subsidised for a while now and I expect we are seeing the real price. Dh9.5 per square feet is quite cheap.”

Coupled with delays on moving in, residents of Discovery Gardens have had large maintenance fees sprung upon them without being forewarned.

Neil Whittaker, who was due to move into the property in June, but wasn’t handed the keys until November, said that he was asked to hand over a sum of Dh45,000 before he could move in. The bill included maintenance charges of Dh15,894 as well as community service fees and other charges.

“Nobody told us about these charges,” he said. “Nobody has told us how they got these figures; what it’s based on; if it’s market rate; if they are annual; if they will stay at this rate year after year. Nothing. I foresee many a fight with Nakheel about it but we have the house now and we are moving in.”“For a limited number of properties at Discovery Gardens, it was necessary to revise completion dates,” said a spokesman for Nakheel. “This was due to circumstances beyond our control.

“For all of Nakheel’s developments, each year’s service charges are budgeted according to the projected costs, and all accounts are independently audited to ensure accuracy and transparency for homeowners.”

Meanwhile, Palm Jumeirah residents have fought back against Nakheel’s plans to increase maintenance fees by as much as 40 per cent.

However, third parties not involved in the dispute said that Nakheel had been -on the whole- responsive to residents’ concerns. No one from the owners’ committee that is involved in negotiations was willing to comment to the Press.

Khaleej Times

Dubai Properties to showcase and release megaproject at Cityscape Dubai 2008

Dubai Properties, leading master developer and a subsidiary of Dubai Properties Group (DPG), yesterday announced it will release details on its new projects and showcase existing developments at Cityscape Dubai 2008, one of the largest business-to-business real estate investment and development events in the world.

The master developer is also an exclusive sponsor of the annual ITP Architecture Awards, the Media Centre at the trade center and the Cultural Evening organized by Cityscape, to be held on the 8th of October.

The exhibition scheduled to be held from 6-9 October 2008 at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre (DIEC) is the 7th edition of Cityscape Dubai and will bring together industry professionals including property developers, investors, government and property development authorities, architects, designers and consultants from over 130 countries.

The Dhs40-bn Mudon master development will be showcased at the 480 sq ft. Dubai Properties stand. Dubai Properties will launch the first aspect of Mudon, with 348 of the Cairo Townhouses made available for sale.

Mudon Cairo Townhouses comprises of a 1.4 million square foot cluster of 2-storey, 4 bedroom villas, within the Cairo section of the project. Expected to be completed in 2010, each villa within the cluster will include a garage for two cars, patio and garden and a first floor terrace.

Yaqoob Al Zarooni, Deputy CEO, Dubai Properties, said:

“As with every year, Dubai Properties looks forward to a fruitful participation at this edition of Cityscape Dubai. Over the past four years, the event has proven to be a key industry platform for spotlighting our offerings to a well-informed audience of investors and buyers. Based on the response received at previous participations, we are confident of garnering heightened interest in our stable of landmark projects and replicating our success.”

“Cairo Townhouses, the first aspect of Mudon to be released, is an exciting project that we are confident will attract major investor interest, and Cityscape is the appropriate time and place to put them on the market,”

he added.

As part of its support of architecture excellence and design from the emerging regions, Dubai Properties will sponsor the Cityscape Dubai Architecture Awards. The internationally renowned awards will bring together professionals from the GCC states, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Australasia. Highlighting the multidimensional scope of architecture, the awards recognize achievement in select categories including residential, master planning, travel and transport, community, leisure, tourism and travel, environmental and Islamic architecture.

Al Zarooni added: ‘Dubai Properties strongly believes in valuing people and investing in excellence. As a leading master developer, we consider investing in human capital and nurturing growth in the company as our top priorities. We are keen to bring our organizational values to Cityscape Dubai by sponsoring the Architecture Awards.’

As sponsors of the Media Centre, Dubai Properties will offer an exclusive and well-equipped space to a constant stream of over 800 media professionals to ensure the event gains high visibility in the regional and international media.

Poised to become a trillion dirham master developer, Dubai Properties is currently implementing several unique developments around Dubai, including the Culture Village, Business Bay, Mudon, Tijara Town and The Villa.

AME Info/Press release