Sunday, February 11, 2007

EMAAR proposes to sell your home – Take action before its too late!

An open letter to the affected residents of the Greens, from a group of fellow residents

Dear Tenant,

As I am sure you are aware by now, EMAAR management have issued letters to tenants of 3 blocks in the Greens, stating that they have decided to put these apartments up for sale. The sale will involve over 300 apartments, and hence at least 300 families.

The letter clearly states that tenants have the option to purchase their current accommodation. If they do not accept the terms offered, and purchase the property within two weeks, the property will be offered for sale to the open market. A group of the tenants who have discussed the matter feel that this decision is unreasonable for several reasons.

Firstly, it allows very short time for those interested to purchase their properties to make a decision, forcing them to accept EMAAR’s suggestion to use AMLAK at the given interest rate of 8.25%. There appears to be very little in the way of concessions to loyal tenants in the way of discounted prices or waived fees in return for the years of tenancy.

Furthermore, residents who have enquired to AMLAK about the mortgage terms have found that the 97% mortgage offer only applies to the original price of the property, meaning that residents would need to find the balance which is in all cases is several hundred thousand Dirhams.

Most residents cannot afford to buy, and so their property will be sold within two weeks on the open market. The tenants’ leases will be transferred to the new owners, but once any remaining lease period expires, the owners will be free to take possession or force the tenant to accept new terms. This will result in the tenants’ rents increasing by 50-60%.

So in the space of two weeks, tenants will go from the relative security of a long term lease with 0% rent increase, to a situation where they have no option but to face massive rent increases with a new landlord or be homeless, in some cases within less than month.

A group of tenants have formulated a letter representing our concerns and fears. This will be sent to prominent figures at EMAAR and the Government of Dubai, urging them to reconsider their decision and the hardship it will impose on the affected residents. We hope that as many affected residents as possible will sign the petition and thereby make Emaar and the government aware of the worrying situation we find ourselves in.

Recently, residents of the Gardens successfully lobbied to have Nakheel’s decision not to renew their leases reversed. We hope that by drawing the attention of key figures and decision makers to our plight, we can achieve a similar result.

EMAAR’s decision seems contrary to the spirit of the Dubai government’s initiative to cap rent rises and stabilize rental prices. Far from being an opportunity for most residents, it will result in them being forced to accept huge rent increases or leave their homes when their current lease agreement expires. We are confident that once EMAAR considers the effect on the tenants, their families and the success of the Dubai government’s attempts to control inflation, they will reconsider their proposals.

Sincerely.

Concerned residents of the Greens

19 comments:

Serendipity at Best said...

Thank you for putting this together! I'm in Ghozlan 4, so count me in and let me know how I can help. Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

Everyone who's reading these messages should attend the meeting today, my wife and I will sure be there, this is just unbelievable, we thought with the new rent law and the 0% increase in price in 2007 we could start planning ahead for a little bit, what kind of stability Duabi has to offer.. Everything EMAAR is trying to do is against the Dubai goverment's efforts to make this place a rewal home for the expats here...

Anonymous said...

It looks like a night mare but I believe that EMMAR and Dubai government will consider our very bad situation especially that we select the biggest name to rent at.

Disappointed tenant – Alghozlan 4

Anonymous said...

I agrree, nothing to do...search for a new home1

yshimy said...

I think we have to stand strong against this decision. Why would they send us in begining of January saying there is no rent increase and then now they are asking us wether to buy or leave!!!!!!
Dubai government owns a big share in EMAAR and what EMAAR is doing is going around the new law of 7% cap increase.
We should involve the Media, contact the decision makers in EMAAR, Dubai government and forgin media too. EMAAR has investments in other countries and i belive we should escalate as much as possible.

I'll be in the meeting today and hope we can organize a good lobby to stand strong for that decision

Anonymous said...

When / how did you receive the letter from Emaar? I have still not seen anything…

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... it looks like SOMEONE has a cash flow problem...

Anonymous said...

I could not expect this kind of horrible decision from Emaar.
I believe that Emaar management ant Dubai Government should punish who are responsible to this Chaos.

Anonymous said...

The new owner CANNOT increase your rent by more than 7%.

Call the rent committee for advice, they will confirm this.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous - according to what Emaar's representative told us, the new owner will be free to increase the rent as much as they like at the end of our Emaar leases.

Much as I accept that Emaar has the right to sell the properties, the resulting rent increases of 50-60% is completely against the spirit of what the Ruler of Dubai's rent cap laws are intended to avoid. And Emaar is 30% owned by the government... somewhere the message from the ruler appears to have been lost.

Dubai desperately needs to control inflation to protect its business competitiveness. This is what the Ruler of Dubai intended.

Anonymous said...

It's not a regular property owner. it's EMAAR! it's a governmental organization .
the new owner easily can ask the tenant to leave! who said they can't increase the lease? ofcourse they can
in other hand other buildings in area increased the prices and it's too hard to deal nowadays... it's Emaar's Decision to not to lease the homes in regular price! they are not looking for 7-85 neither 15% they want 50%!!!
What Emaar is doing is to put the money from left pocket to right one... How? They just sell the house to a subsidary company of emaar then kick out everybody and lease the house in twice of current price!

Anonymous said...

in two weeks Decide!!!
2 weeks?
compare!?!?!
1- all tenants can decide to buy the house on ending of tenancy contract or deal with the new owner!
2- all tenants should decide in 13 days to buy it in market price! without any benefit or leave the house!
.................................
moreover who said the new owner can't ask us to leave the house?!?!

Anonymous said...

Thank you all for organising this gathering this evening.

It was quite un-Dubai-ish and very refreshing to see so many people who seemingly agree that Emaar's letter wasn't quite as joyous as Emirates Today suggested earlier in the week.

Legally speaking, we might not have a leg to stand on, but it has to be worth giving something a go, and such a letter to all those that matter seems like our best shot at helping a little sense prevail.

Thanks again and fingers crossed,

Matt, Al Ghozlan.

Anonymous said...

Dubai for me was a place where hard working people can plan some future. Now I feel like being skinned. The effort to do something against it is worthy of support. The meeting tonight was good. Fingers crossed!

France said...

hello there,

and thank you for the delightful meeting, it was very informative and it was nice to share everyone's opinion of how to...? i mean there was no right or wrong, everyone was right because everyone had the same feeling that a huge injustice just happened to them, and they are right, any foreigner wanting to invest in Dubai will feel the same as us tonight. So it is good to be united for that and the more united we'll stand, the more we'll get results. I felt off course a lot of panic has there is only 2 weeks to get results, and 2 weeks is very short. What to do and what would be the most efficient? I say let's do everything. I have had lot of problems with the system here and when i feel something is not "right", I complain, complain and complain again, and believe me it works with persistence! but we have short time to complain, so i have already shared my thoughts tonight about this and would like to emphasize on this again in this website:

SPREAD THE NEWS

Talk to the Media, let's do everything we can to make noise and make them report our story. Why? simply because EMAAR like any company does not like "Bad Publicity". if news don't want to hear us, make protest as much as we can so the most people gets aware of our story. We have to communicate in any way possible so the noise ends up into Emaar's GM office and we can make him feel embarassed.

True everyone has the right to sell his appartment to someone else, true everyone has to retake possession of its own goods, true, true and again true. But in our case we didn't rent property of another individual, we rented from the biggest company in UAE. and if someone shall buy this appartment, he should be aware that someone already lives there and shall give him or her some time to look for another place. Good my contract ends up in July, it gives me a bit of time, but i feel bad for those who rented from February or March.

Let's keep the fight, and even if we loose,we will not be completely losing because i know for sure i would never rent from EMAAR again or any of its subsidiaries, and i am sure you all agree with me tonight :)

Take Care
Omar, Ghozlan 4

P.S: Anyone knows a good real estate agency? I am thinking of relocating on the road to Abu Dhabi:)

Anonymous said...

Hi everybody .
Good Meeting...
But I was wondering who exactly will follow the matter? did we have any lawyer between tenants?
what will be happen then? will they send the message to rulers and muncipality and will they wait for a responce before this 2weeks period finish?

Unknown said...

It has been siad a few times on this blog, in the papers and o other websites, that we could face rent increases of 50-60%.

Is this correct?

Does the rent cap apply or not if there is a new landlord?

Can anyone give us a definitive answer?

So desperately want to stay in my lovely home . . .
Don't want to have to live in somewhere like Karama or Deira - no offence to anyone who lives there - Worried that we wont be able to afford anywhere else.

What to do????

Anonymous said...

I am a UAE national and I am not a tenant neither related to EMAAR.
EMAAR is a huge company and their success is only measured by profits, and everyone here in Dubai see how prices soared high in the sky. Unfortunately, middle class families are far short handed from buying any meaningful properties that will fullfill their needs with a reasonable price. Sadly, what is EMAAR (and others) is selling is rediculously overpriced properties, even a highly qualified professional like me will not be able to buy without a heftly monthly payment mortgage. Actually I feel being cheated by such companies like EMAAR if I bought such small properties for such price.

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