
The official rent index updated every four months by Dubai Land Department through its division, RERA agency will bring new pricing potential to landlords. The fact is that property owners in Dubai often complained of deficient criteria when assessing the maximum possible rent increases.
Now the process of leased property evaluation will become easier and more transparent, DLD Technical Affairs Department Director Mohamad Khodr Al Dah promises. Great changes in the evaluation process are coming, he said.
First of all, it is about star rating criteria all Dubai buildings will get, like that of the hospitality industry, as imexre.com reported earlier in the context of the DLD innovations. Now rent index will consider not only the unit’s location and the number of bedrooms, but also the condition of the dwelling, the age of the building and other important criteria.
Owners of property in central Dubai areas like Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai, and Business Bay will now get the chance to monetize all their premises’ advantages, like the building’s closer location to any iconic attractions or to the sea, the number of additional facilities inside the building etc.
“If you have a new building in Karama, it will be difficult to raise rent because the index looks at only location and bedroom numbers. Now, buildings with the same ratings will be compared,” Mohamad Khodr Al Dah said.
So far, DLD has only got to creating a building classification system (BCS) in order to determine service charges of various localities in the emirate, starting with the remote areas such as Deira.
But eventually, it will be a complete classification of buildings, including 20,000 of land plots and 120,000 of apartments, offices, retail units, schools etc.
“We are roughly 18 percent done with the survey and finished with the difficult areas of Deira. We are due to finish the process by next year,” Al Dah said.