House Of Orange Real Estate
News & insights

What changes in Dubai property, and what it means for an owner

The reasoning behind the advice we give in person: what a rule change actually costs you, what a contract allows the other side to do, and which questions to ask before you sign. Written by the people who run the transactions, not by a content agency.

No yield figures
A percentage return you cannot check against a specific building at a specific service charge is a marketing number. We do not publish them.
No recycled press releases
If a piece is here, it says something a developer's announcement does not, or it is not worth your time or ours.
Dated, and re-dated
Every piece carries when it was published and when it was last revised. Fees and regulation move; a page that pretends otherwise is wrong on a schedule.
  1. Owning7 min
    The service charge is the number that decides what you keepIt is the cost owners find out about last and argue about most, and it is the one recurring charge on a Dubai property that nobody can opt out of. It is also, unlike almost everything else quoted at a buyer in this market, a published figure you can look up for a specific building before you commit to it.
  2. Renting6 min
    Your rent is going up. What a Dubai landlord is actually allowed to doA renewal notice arrives with a number on it and most tenants treat it as a decision that has already been made. It has not been. Dubai sets out both how much a rent may rise and how much warning has to be given, and the figure a landlord is entitled to is frequently lower than the one on the notice, and quite often nothing at all.
  3. Off-plan7 min
    What escrow protects you from when you buy off-plan, and what it does notAsk a developer whether an off-plan purchase is safe and the answer will be the escrow account. It is a real protection, it was introduced for good reason, and it addresses one specific failure. The risks that actually cost off-plan buyers money in this market are not the ones it was written to prevent, and no page selling you a unit is going to say so.
  4. Owning7 min
    What a snagging report should contain before you accept handoverHandover is the moment a defect list stops being the developer's problem and starts being yours. Everything about snagging follows from that single fact, including the part most buyers get wrong, which is not what goes on the list but when the list is drawn up.
  5. Selling9 min
    What it actually costs to sell a property in DubaiAlmost every brokerage in this city publishes the 2% commission and stops there. It is the smallest problem a seller has. The costs that decide whether a transfer happens on the day it is booked are the developer's no-objection certificate, the service charge ledger sitting behind it, and the bank if there is still a mortgage on the title.

What we write about is what we do.

Rather ask than read

Get the answer for your property

Everything published here is general by definition. The version that matters is the one that accounts for your building, your service charge and your contract, and that is a conversation rather than an article.

Ask us directly

What we will tell you

Which end of the district
Within one community the gap between two towers, or two streets, is routinely wider than the gap between communities. That is the part a portal map cannot show you.
What the service charge does
Read per square foot against the buildings beside it, because it comes out of the return every year and rarely appears in the pitch.
What is still to be built
The plot next door, what is approved on it, and which views are temporary. Worth knowing before you pay for one.
What actually transacted
Recent sale and lease prices in the specific building, rather than the asking prices still sitting on the portals.
Licensed by the Dubai Land Department · ORN 1484735 · RERA 49865
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