Dubai is coveted for offering an all-year sunny climate, luxury lifestyle, and an abundance of opportunities in businesses. Welcoming expats from all over the world, as well as Gulf regional influencers, Dubai’s life is often portrayed as boundless and living with limitless possibilities. Anyone who is relocating to Dubai for a temporary work stay, a short visit or several years contract, all get to look forward to all of UAE has to offer such as skyline residences, waterside havens, world-class shopping, sandy stretches, etc.
Good news for buyers, it is estimated that rents and sales price of apartments in Dubai have dropped up to 10 percent year on year since 2019, while villas have shown a little lower shrinkage which is just 7 percent. The demand for houses (villas and townhouses) in popular areas such as Arabian Ranches, Dubai Hills, and JVC have stayed on the same number resulting in steady rentals, whereas there is a noticeable decline for the rental apartments in non-popular areas. It is merely because tenants are well informed about the real estate market fluctuations and impact of Covid-19 has had, recognize their opportunity cost, and are effectively applying lower rents to renegotiate rents.
Finding an apartment to buy or rent in Dubai can be a daunting task when one doesn’t have much prior knowledge about the market. Nevertheless, one can start by looking for it online, in prior to consulting agencies, through rent an apartment websites to get a basic understanding of the current market in specific location. Explore apartment listings in websites such as Dubizzle, Propertyfinder.ae, bayut, Justproperty.com and other Facebook groups and pages. In these platforms, it’s possible to filter the listings based on the needs such as number of rooms, the area, furnished or non-furnished, rent amount and other factors such as move in date.
Apartments for rent
Once pick and arrange a viewing of the apartment it is necessary to check the access to and from public transport (metro stations and bus stops), security of the building (If there is a watchman put in charge, and check how often visitors are coming in and out ), also understand the a/c system inside the apartment (central or separate), all shared facility in the building and noise in the area to get to know more details of the apartment. Most of the modern apartments for rent in Dubai are fully secured and incessantly check-ups for visitors and residents with their ID verifications.
Upon deciding which apartment to stay, one should keep in mind that prices are negotiable in most cases in UAE, if not, alternative way is that bargain on the number of cheques. Sometimes landlord agrees on reducing the rent price when you pay with lesser number of cheques. Once everything is set, tenant can pay some refundable deposit amount which is usually 5% of the total amount to secure Once the Tenancy contract is issued with all the information regarding the rent (including any conditions agreed by both parties. The contract should comply with the tenancy rules and regulations in Dubai. After that, tenant has to open a DEWA account for electricity payment while submitting documents to Dubai Electricity & Water Authority and pay setup charges fee. When setting up DEWA is completed, its compulsory to register with Ejari and submit the DEWA receipt. The documents for Ejari include: Original tenancy contract, Title Deed (in case of freehold property or SPA if it has been bought from a reputable developer), original receipt of DEWA connection in the tenant’s name and a copy of Emirates ID.
Some things to note while renting an apartment in Dubai:
1. Make sure your agent is Rera registered. You can find it out with the broker’s number.
2. When writing cheques, only write it to landlord directly. In order to do that , refer to their passport’s copy and title deed if possible.
3. Make sure there is no outstanding bills for DEWA or chiller fee.
4. Any maintenance issue has to be sorted out before moving in.
Finally, one can always check the rental increase calculator by Dubai Lands Department in order to avoid any discrepancy against uninformed rental increase during the stay.
Apartments for sale
Buying a property as an expat is easier than ever before, with Dubai Land Department involved, along with other legislation parties in charge, it’s quite smooth and fast nowadays. The easiest way to buy a property in Dubai to buy an off-plan project. All they have to do is to submit an application to the developer and once it’s approved, the buyer goes to the sales center and pay the initial deposit and start the payment schemes, immediately. However buying from the secondary market takes as quick as obtaining the off-plan project but it requires more expenses especially when the seller has a mortgage needs to be discharged. In any case, an offer letter has to be issued from the buyer to the seller, while the buyer needs to use a RERA-registered broker, need to get the offer letter accepted first. Then the buyer pays 10 per cent deposit in the name of the seller. Second step is for the buyer’s bank if the buyer is paying with a mortgage, their job is to evaluate the property to ensure it is secure enough. Third step is for the seller to apply for No Objection Certificate once the buyer gets the final approval. When all processes have been registered, the buyer must pay 2% and AED 315 to Dubai Land Department, outstanding payment to the seller and the commission (5%) to the agent. Eventually, the buyer will receive the key to the property and Title Deed which is in his name.
When buying an apartment for sale in Dubai, one should keep in mind that a list price means the asking price that is negotiable, a sale price is the price an owner settled at and an appraised value is the value of the market price.
Texture
Moving to Dubai should start with spotting the ideal place to stay. Texture Properties is the perfect partner to resolve this utmost important matter by offering everything from sales to rentals of studio homes to four-bedroom apartments in Dubai’s best towers and villas- all easily accessible with our all-in-one service. From flexible short stay to long-term rentals in Downtown Dubai, simply approach one of our client managers to proceed to more results.