The changes buyers must agree upon are to hand over voting rights on the homeowners association to the developer, allow the developer to take over the unit if the buyer “defaults under any of its obligations”, and give Select the ability to transfer sale contracts to third parties.

275 of the buyers have received the same amendments, which applies to units purchased under a long-term payment plan. James Rooney, a UK citizen who bought an apartment in The Torch told The National:

“What they are trying to do is force us into signing away our control”

Select said the changes were necessary to securitise the debt from these long-term plans, but the buyers are not willing to give up without a fight. Rooney added that an investor group had been formed in London and that the 25 group members together has sought legal advice.

The Torch

The Torch is located in Dubai Marina and is the tallest residential tower in the world, reaching 345 metres above the ground and housing 676 apartments. About 600 of those apartments were sold during Dubai’s property boom between 2005 and 2008.

Commenting on the handover, Mohammed Nimer, CEO of MAG Group Property Development, said: “We have maintained a consistent vision, communicating transparently. We have stood by our strategy through thick and thin which has underscored our commitment to our customers and our confidence in delivering our promise.”

Almost 90% of MAG 218 tower was sold out within months of its 2006 launch, with many investors initially paying an average of AED750,000 – 850,000 for a one-bedroom apartment. Today, despite falling prices over the past two years, the apartments have still appreciated, on average by at least 10%. Indeed competitive rental returns can be achieved due to the realistic original selling price.

Due to MAG Group’s strategic pricing, more than 70% of the owners are end users clearly keeping speculators at bay. The typical profile of residents consists of young professionals in their early thirties and to date MAG Group has not received any cancellations whatsoever.

“So far we have not received any notices’ of cancellation, which in the current climate is quite remarkable. However it does highlight the sustainable demand for quality mid-priced accommodation,” said Nimer.

In terms of service fees, again through MAGme the property management arm of MAG Group, rates are very competitive at less than AED10 per square foot per annum.

“This which compares favourably with other developments in the vicinity,” said Nimer.

Full-floor show-apartments located on the first floor of the MAG 218 Tower were opened in June 2008, so that owners could check out the quality of the interior finish, plus other interior fittings such as lights, built-in kitchen units & white goods, wardrobes and bathroom fixtures.

“Frequent online photo-updates were also posted on to the MAG Group website to further reassure overseas investors,” added Nimer.

The tower, which comprises 333 one-bedroom apartments and 222 two-bedroom apartments and six retail outlets, comes complete with 572 covered car parking spaces and an outdoor Olympic sized swimming pool. The top five floors feature a full glass exterior, which afford spectacular panoramic views of the Marina, Palm Jumeirah and beyond.

A dedicated recreational facilities and community floor houses a state-of-the-art gym, event and dining hall, TV room and an outdoor terrace.

The residential tower is strategically located close to all of the facilities in Dubai Marina and only five minutes’ walk from Dubai’s Internet City and Media City. The tower also forms an integral part of MAG Group’s development strategy to construct competitively priced buildings aimed at the mid-range market and appealing to Dubai’s middle income families.

Imre Solt

The authority has started notifying investors who have defaulted that if they fail to make their outstanding payments within two weeks that 40 per cent of any money they have paid so far will be confiscated, and the properties will be sold at auction.

The confiscated money, along with any profits from the auctions, will be handed over to the developers. The rule applies to projects that are 80 per cent or more complete.

The move, according to Mohammed Sultan Thani, the department’s assistant director general, is intended to spur the completion of unfinished projects.

“The idea is to see what we can do before the property is cancelled,” he said.

During the property boom, many developers depended on the off-plan model, whereby a property is sold before building work starts to provide finance for construction. Many analysts say the model fuels speculative buying and inflates prices.

The National

Nakheel recently received US$9bn (Dh33bn) from the Dubai Government to revive stalled projects and settle debt, and have now announced more options to investors in long-term projects, such as Palm Jebel Ali.

Options

The options outlined by Nakheel are:

• Staying in the project
• Swapping into near-term projects
• Consolidating into other owned properties
• Consolidating into a third-party property
• Receiving credit that will be useable against any property at anytime and redeemable in five years

History

The debate began late 2009 when Nakheel offered buyers of waterfront homes on Palm Jebel Ali alternatives in Jumeirah Heights and Al Furjan. The buyers declined these offers, saying the options were “inadequate and not acceptable”, and said they would hire a law firm to represent them.

Property prices for a villa on Palm Jebel Ali plunged from  $4.35m to $2.45m in just two months when the financial crisis hit the artifical island in second half of 2008. The project was launched in 2003, but came to a halt in 2008 and on April 10 this year investors will meet in London to sketch up a plan how to put pressure on the project.

The National

Media reported angry scenes at the meeting, as executives repeated what Frank Khoie himself said on Thursday from his prison cell. Khoie has told investors they can claim refund within 90 days and that construction then will commence. Investors, on the other hand, were curious to know how they can apply for a refund and how Khoie will be able to pay.

“Is there any substance to him saying he will be in a position to refund investors? If he can afford to refund investors, why hasn’t he settled his debt and got himself out of jail?”

Ashley Merry of the La Hoya Bay Investors Group said to 7Days. She believed many investors would want a refund but they were unsure how this could happen, as Khoie left no information about how the refund or the process will be.

Dubai Courts have now decided the agreement between Oakley and ACI for one of the units is void because the unit was never registered with the Dubai Land Department. ACI was ordered to pay back his Dh569,585 plus a 5 per cent interest rate from the day he started the court proceedings. The other unit was registered with the Land Department and was therefore protected by the law, but Mr. Oakley said he would continue the fight to claim back his remaining Dh695,000.

“It’s like throwing good money after bad, but having two units makes it worthwhile,” he said.

Mr. Oakley’s investment for the other unit remains in an escrow account, and cannot, according to the law, be paid back unless the project is officially cancelled by Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory (RERA). This law also states that the money must be used to fund construction, but this also means, according to some lawyers, that developers might not have the money to refund investments if court orders are issued.

Ivory Towers was initially sold as an off-plan project in 2006 and scheduled to be finished by mid-summer 2008. More than 700 customers bought units in the project but construction came to a halt in an early phase when Sokook, the developer, got in a dispute over the land with TECOM Investments, the master developer of IMPZ.

From there, the problems piled up and Nigel Collins, an investor from the UK who bought four apartments in Ivory Tower in 2006, told The National many of the investors had given up the fight.

Sokook’s web site and offices are nearly shut down, but a consultant from Homes Real Estate, who is working on behalf of Sokook, said a “feasibility report” is to be made to summarize which investors have paid their 30 per cent and who have not.

“For people who have paid more than 30 per cent, their money is in safe hands because they won’t pay any more until we start construction again; for those who have paid less but don’t want to pay any more, we will forfeit them. Our construction is on hold because of the people who only paid 10 or 15 per cent.”

The aim of the report is, according to the consultant, to find out how many investors are willing to go on with the project. If half the number of initial buyers are interested in continuing, the consultant said the project would be scaled down to half its size. An option would be to transfer their investments to other projects in Dubai that were either completed or close to completion, but as the consultant pointed out, Ivory Tower is Sokook’s only project in Dubai.

“If there is no trust left in the project, then we can talk with the customer and swap their investment to a developer who is more advanced” he said without commenting on which developers Sokook had been in talks with.

So far, 875 projects are listed with RERA, and Marwan Bin Galita, chief executive of RERA, hope this initiative will comfort investors in these projects:

“I hope every developer in Dubai, every developer in the UAE will put the indicator for investors to show them what’s going on,” Bin Galita said.

Investors have previously combined forces and set up investor groups to keep track of the progress. It is believed that the progress reports will ease investors work, and give them the knowledge they need from their investments from an independent source.

The Reports

Each project report will contain up-to-date photographs of the construction plot, as well as the plot number and the developer’s approval number at RERA. Additionally, the report will specify the name of the bank holding the trust account and a summary of the progress.

The report should tell potentially investors if this project is safe to invest in.

Pressure on the developers

In less than 30 days, RERA have received a total of 1,030 complaints, leading to the deletion of 27 developers from RERA records.

Developers are now realizing that communication is essentially to avoid issues to escalate to court-levels. Officials at the land department and RERA urge all investors to register their properties and their rights at the land department under Law No. 13, which regulates off-plan sales and give the buyers more rights.

“In a booming market, everybody makes mistakes. Everyone now is running to Daddy which is Rera and the land department. Before everyone was busy selling their properties and noone came to us. Now they are all coming,” Bin Galita said.

Bin Galita also says a 15 day cool-of period before a contract is signed is to be introduced very soon.

“We need a cool-of period of 15 days. That’s two weeks to speak to your wife, consult the bank, get approved finance, before committing to a contract because a contract is binding.”

Gulf News

Rose Tower was originally to be 380 metres high, but a design modification reduced its height by 47 metres. It is still considered world’s tallest hotel, as Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang (330 m at the moment), North Korea, has yet to be completed.

Construction works began in 2004 and even though Rose Tower was completed in 2007, it has yet to open. According to Rotana, the tower will open within 2009 and those interested may contact Rotana directly.

Contact

Rose Rotana, P.O. Box: 30880, Dubai, UAE

T: +971 (0)4 705 4508
F: +971 (0)4 705 4277
E-mail: sales.dubai@rotana.com

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