New Visa law for REAL Estate Investors coming...

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PropGuy

New Member
Why is it taking so long? – More you wait more you lose – simple as that.
And probably they will come up with some dodgy law and it will not make much difference.
BEcause it is on the federal level and it takes time.
 
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Wannaberich

New Member
I dont think a 6 month visa is much to cheer about.
 
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financier888

New Member
Why is it taking so long? – More you wait more you lose – simple as that.
And probably they will come up with some dodgy law and it will not make much difference.
Unfortunately - under the former visa statute - it was absused beyond belief. 'Some' buyers found ways to pay token amounts down, get visas for 'extended' families - transfer / sell the unit a few months later - usually - another relative - get another 5-10 visas...the extended family, a few months later - transfer again... you get the picture. One official was telling me that they started to realize that 20-30 visas ended-up getting issued for a studio / one bedroom in less than a year !!! and this led to issues about people working illegally etc... so, yes, it does take some time to develop the proper framework that is fair and can be properly administrated.... e.g. - let's say you buy a place for AED 2-3 million - a villa - the person buying a studio at IC should NOT have the same level of entitlement - so, like in many other countries - if you show significant financial / inestment strength you represent less risk - you will be entitled to longer visa... I reckon there will be various grade levels...

the subsequent post is correct as it does take time to frame a fedearl uniform statute and then, admin procedures etc... In addition, it will be discussed with Industry leaders for feedback, before being finalized... Dubai & AD does not operate like the supreme dictatorship it is often made out to be... quite to the contrary - it's about what is best for long term business - believe it or not...
 
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PropGuy

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I dont think a 6 month visa is much to cheer about.
There are rumors that it will be changed to 3yrs renewable visa. But no official confirmation yet so this not solid.
 
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patience

New Member
6 months!!! I wont be retiring in Dubai with my hard earned cash then. This country is starting to suck, more than it already did. I really wish I hadn't bothered. You don't know how fed up I am of the property development in Dubai!!!!
 
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georgihh

New Member
6 months!!! I wont be retiring in Dubai with my hard earned cash then. This country is starting to suck, more than it already did. I really wish I hadn't bothered. You don't know how fed up I am of the property development in Dubai!!!!
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
 
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paul1970

New Member
It is as good as not issuing visa - 6 months duration & 1 million!.
 
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BAkhtar

New Member
The Visa rules have been carefully drafted with "suitable" conditions to prevent maximum number of investors from gaining access to the properties they invested in which were palmed off to them on bait of a promise of a visa in the first place. There is simply no credibility! Now Asian investors can't get any sort of visa.....is it? Because even for a visit visa one needs a resident sponsor.
 
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AjmanInvestor

Banned
Highly unfortunate this type of laws are implemented

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
Highly unfortunate this type of laws are implemented, Buyers and investors blood sucked by these new laws.......already my friends are having the worst times of their lives having invested in the UAE.

Had they known in atleast a little about what things were in store for them for having paid millions and made plans to stay forever in the uae.

Comment on this ....how will my friends so many of them ever get their monies back on these unconstructed projects...which have not started yet in Ajman and most parts of the UAE
 
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revolutionary

New Member
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!!
 
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Carl.B

New Member
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.
I think people are really missing the major issue here. The real issue is neither the 6 month duration of the visa nor the 1 million Dirham value limit nor the requirement to own the property outright. Although difficult to achieve, lots of people may qualify for residence visas under these criteria.

The real barrier to getting the residence visa (that astonishingly no one seems to be talking about) is the requirement to have 10,000 (US$2,725) Dirhams of (after-tax) income per month from sources in the UAE or overseas. I don't know about you, but I haven't met many people who earn that much money in residual passive income every month without working for a paycheck. The kind who do have such an income are unlikely to want to purchase a property in Dubai merely to get a residence visa. If they wish to move permanently to Dubai, they will likely seek far more sophisticated vehicles to implement such a move.

Most of the demand for residence visas linked to freehold properties came from salaried-class residents in the UAE who were terrified of the 30 day exit-rule. Their reasoning was that if purchasing property gave them some kind of residence status, they could use that to remain in the UAE to look for work in the event that they were laid off or fired from their jobs. This was the very reason that freehold in Ajman took off - the demographic was middle-class South Asians who did not have visa-free entry into the UAE unlike the European expats. This is a demographic that lives paycheck to paycheck (sending any balance home in remittances) and has nowhere near this kind of passive income every month to qualify.

I'm afraid, the new visa rules change very little. They give wealthy end-users a chance to live permanently in the UAE, but then such wealthy end-users had many other alternative routes to accomplish the same result anyway.
 
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DelboyG

New Member
I think people are really missing the major issue here. The real issue is neither the 6 month duration of the visa nor the 1 million Dirham value limit nor the requirement to own the property outright. Although difficult to achieve, lots of people may qualify for residence visas under these criteria.

The real barrier to getting the residence visa (that astonishingly no one seems to be talking about) is the requirement to have 10,000 (US$2,725) Dirhams of (after-tax) income per month from sources in the UAE or overseas. I don't know about you, but I haven't met many people who earn that much money in residual passive income every month without working for a paycheck. The kind who do have such an income are unlikely to want to purchase a property in Dubai merely to get a residence visa. If they wish to move permanently to Dubai, they will likely seek far more sophisticated vehicles to implement such a move.

Most of the demand for residence visas linked to freehold properties came from salaried-class residents in the UAE who were terrified of the 30 day exit-rule. Their reasoning was that if purchasing property gave them some kind of residence status, they could use that to remain in the UAE to look for work in the event that they were laid off or fired from their jobs. This was the very reason that freehold in Ajman took off - the demographic was middle-class South Asians who did not have visa-free entry into the UAE unlike the European expats. This is a demographic that lives paycheck to paycheck (sending any balance home in remittances) and has nowhere near this kind of passive income every month to qualify.

I'm afraid, the new visa rules change very little. They give wealthy end-users a chance to live permanently in the UAE, but then such wealthy end-users had many other alternative routes to accomplish the same result anyway.
I'm with you there Carl, Instead of stimulation the housing market, this proposed law will depress it further, it just highlights the current thinking from the top that all is OK out there and 'everyone will come to the UAE' regardless of the conditions imposed. This law has AD's hands all over it and really shows who is in control now.

I read today a comment that sums the situation up nicely, they want the expat expertise, their investments and the in-country spend, but they don't want you!

The property available out there is NOT for end user homes, it's for buy to let investors, only that model doesn't work so well when the population is decreasing, everyone needs to now think in those terms, i.e. long term investment and hope the buildings actually last long enough and enough [people stay to get a ROI.
 
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georgihh

New Member
One bedroom in marina is one million where in the marina?
The law is a joke.
Even if you put one million fix deposit at 7% is 70000DHS per year.
No way, is this going to help? Ridicules.
I don’t care about the visa just we are even more in the ****
 
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revolutionary

New Member
Figures!

I would be highly surprised if someone who commuted to work outside the UAE but resided inside, was not on a salary in excess of 10000 AED.

If you consider the likely service charges on a million dirham place in an ex-pat freehold area of Dubai, you would need maybe 2000 dirham a month before you started paying for utilities, food, car, education, and so on. 10000 dirham/month to me looks rather a good low figure.

Having read a bit more, it seems that the 6 month period is just the maximum time without leaving the UAE. It looks like you would be fine if you went on a couple of overseas holidays each year. I'm hoping that it is as simple as that.

I would love to buy a decent sized one bed in the marina for less than a million!
 
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Kjarkata

New Member
6 months!!, minimum property value of AED 1M + Monthly income of AED10,000 is a joke for the property investors, why did not they tell us before we invested the money. Now as all the money is out of our pocket in their pocket, this is what they have to say.. looks like they kept us in dark until they achieved their objective and now what to throw us out with the current financial crisis, we can not get the value of our property as well. I am fed up of property development in Dubai but stuck with it, can not sell and can not live in it.
 
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patience

New Member
Voting rights in Dubai, your having a laugh aren't you!



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!!
 
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