As vast expanses of desert, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are not easily noticed unless you look for them. With its wealth coming from oil, the country has been able to invest heavily in infrastructure such as highways, airports, and residential developments.
These investments have helped make the UAE one of the most affluent countries in the world. It is also a great place to live if you are looking to lower your cost of living.
With all this said, it makes sense that real estate would be an expensive investment option. The fact of the matter is though, investing in property in the UAE can be less expensive than buying or renting anywhere else!
This article will go into detail about how real estate works in the UAE and some of the benefits of owning a house here.
The process of selling a property in Dubai
As with any business, there are different ways to sell a house or apartment. You can hire a professional agent, seller broker, or you can handle it yourself. And while buying a home is definitely an exciting experience, finding a new owner for your property will likely take some time!
As professionals, sellers usually choose this route because they know that their real estate agent has their best interest at heart. An agent’s main goal is to find YOU a new home so you don’t have to be concerned about anything other than looking around.
That said, what people typically forget is that not everyone has access to helping them find a home. If you do decide to deal directly with the person who owns your home, make sure you understand the process before jumping into things.
There are several steps involved in getting your house sold, and most of them fall under three categories: marketing, negotiation, and close-out.
How to approach a property manager
As mentioned before, it is not easy being a real estate agent in Dubai. There are very few that remain loyal to an agency for longer than two years as most agents are hired individually through referrals or by competing against other agents’ services.
Agents must also deal with difficult clients who do not cooperate with you and try to take advantage of you. This can be due to personal issues such as money, children, etcetera or because they feel cheated after investing their time into listing and selling a home only for the agent to be unable to find them a buyer.
There are many reasons why people lose faith in real estate professionals so make sure your tone is friendly and professional at all times! Avoid becoming enraged if this happens as this will negatively affect how well you perform your job.
Also remember that not everyone makes a good investment so consider what type of person each potential client is before agreeing to work with them. Find out whether they seem trustworthy and intelligent and if they have done similar jobs in the past.
Contract for sale
A contract for sale is an agreement that defines how both parties will interact with each other after signing it. It can be done via email or through paper, but most real estate agents agree that using a mobile app to create your contract is the best way to do it.
A contract for sale should include all of the important information about the property. This includes details such as the house type (e.g., terrace, townhouse), number of rooms, apartment or unit style (i.e., penthouse, duplex), address, price, and terms like possession date, moving out date, etc.
The seller must agree to these terms before they sign the document so make sure you have enough time to negotiate! Sometimes things get busy and there’s no time to go back and renegotiate, so be aware of this and plan ahead.
Agreeing to buy a home is definitely not something people do lightly so don’t feel too pressured when you make an offer.
Contract for purchase
A contract is an essential part of buying or selling real estate in the UAE. It is not something you can skip over because it contains important information about your property, including what properties you have expressed interest in and how much money you have to spend.
A contract will contain very specific details about your new home such as the bedrooms, bathrooms, and plots of land it has access to. It also includes how many meters each apartment block has, how close the building is to public transport, and if there are any special amenities like pools or gyms that are nearby.
The seller’s agent will usually draft the contract so they can review it before presenting it to you. Make sure both you and they have gone through every bit of the contract carefully!
Agents sometimes try to include too much content in the contract at this stage but it is better to let people go house hunting with only basic info given until after they make their choice. This way, they don’t feel pressured into making a decision immediately.
At that point, the agent can compare all the contracts they received from sellers and find one that everyone agrees on. Sometimes buyers look for similar houses and get several offers, which helps determine the price more accurately.
In some cases, the agents may ask you to put down a deposit first before drafting the final contract so that they know whether or not they want to represent you once it’s done.
Deposit requirements
The next thing to know about investing in real estate is how much you need to have as a deposit. This depends on what type of property you want to invest in!
Some properties require only a 10% down payment, while others ask for 20-30%. A lot of this comes down to the genre of investment that each property falls under.
For example, buying a house or apartment requires larger deposits than buying land or houses/apartments built onto the space already!
This is because investors look at it as an asset instead of just a piece of property, so they’re given credit for it in their income statements and thus requiring more money up front.
Land is also slightly less risky than a house, as no one can take it away from you unless you’re in default on your mortgage! That said, there are many ways to put together a portfolio of land, which may not require a big downpayment.
Registration with the Dubai Land Department
Now that you have determined that real estate is a great way to make money, you will need to find an area to start your business. Since this article focused mostly on getting started as an investor, we will leave those steps for later but it’s important to know that even though investing in real estate may seem easy enough, there are lots of legal requirements that must be met before you can begin!
One of these things is registering with the Dubai Land Department (or DLD). This organization handles all property registrations within Dubai and they do so under their jurisdiction. By law, every piece of land or house in Dubai needs to be registered with them, and investors often times use their services to register properties they plan to purchase.
While some of the fees associated with registration are nominal, there are also additional fees that must be paid depending on what type of transaction takes place. These include taxes, brokerage fees, and other regulatory fees. Make sure to check out the various costs related to real estate registration here.
Registration with the Dubai Property Department
The next thing you will need to do is register your business as an agent. This is done through the Dubai Properties Agency Council (DPC). You can find out more information about this organization here.
The DPC has two main functions; to regulate agents and to offer rewards for selling or renting properties. They also run courses that cover everything from general real estate knowledge to marketing strategies and how to use social media effectively.
These courses are not too expensive and are usually paid for via membership fees alone, making it very accessible to anyone. There are even some scholarships available so if you would like to take advantage of these opportunities then there is no cost involved!
By registering as an agent with the DPC you will be giving yourself a good start towards success in the real estate industry.
