Dubai wants your money but they don’t want peanuts.
Less than a million $(cash) forget about Dubai.
Is it attractive I don’t think so?
The problem is that we are stacked with crap properties in Dubai and there is no way out
Gulf News quotes this at Dh 1 million not dollars! That puts a one bed in the Marina above the level.
So you won't get a visa if you are only looking to stay in a studio in International City - isn't it reasonable for the Emiratis to consider the type of serious investor or wealthy individual who they would like to issue a resident visa to? If you can't afford a million dirham place then you are unlikely to be able to be self-supporting or be flying internationally to work. Quite a reasonable test I would say.
Not sure if anyone has made the point that this seems to exclude those properties that are mortgaged - needs to be owned outright. That makes it easy for retirees but not so easy for those that are in the process of building their capital - again a reasonable approach to weed out those that may be tempted to try to work illegally.
My big concern is the 6 month duration. If that went to 3 years with auto-renewal (ok for a fee) except for those that transgress certain predefined rules then that would be much better. A rolling 6 month regime may be OK so you would always have 6 months in which to make alternative arrangements if residency cancelled.
Better would be to offer maybe a second class citizenship (assuming Emiratis always will want to keep their special status) that did not involve issue of passports or voting right for example, but allowed unlimited residency period so long as some basic rules are followed i.e. maintain Dh million property without mortgage, no working, no criminality. A simple note on the defined property registered at the Land Department could satisfy maintaining the first rule and the others are police matters of record.
We need to see the details. Don't really fancy paying a taxes every 6 months!!