The UAE has extended visas for real estate investors to three years from six months, the state news agency WAM said, as the Gulf state looks to boost investment in its struggling property market.
The decision, taken at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday chaired by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is part of UAE’s strategic plan for 2011-2013 to ensure economic growth in the country, WAM said.
Currently foreign owners of property worth more than 1 million dirhams ($272,300) in the UAE have to renew their visa every six months.
Dubai’s property sector has been hit hard in recent years with billions of dollars worth of projects put on hold or cancelled, while property prices slumped as much as 60 percent largely due to lack of buyers in the market.
Dubai property values have fallen by more than half in some places since the peak in 2008 as the flow of international buyers dwindled. Analysts expect prices in many neighbourhoods to decrease another 10 to 20 per cent in the next year.
Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) said earlier this year it cancelled as many as 217 registered property projects over the past two years. ($1=3.672 dirhams) (Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Gulf newsroom)
This year Qatar moved to grant residency visas to property buyers, adding a new twist to the regional competition for second-home buyers.
"Qatar's move to liberalise its visa regulations could exert further pressure for similar changes within the UAE," Jones Lang LaSalle noted in a report released in April, adding a residency visa extension in the UAE would "represent a major boost for the Dubai residential market".
The new law is unlikely to have an immediate impact, property executives say. The summer season is traditionally the slowest time of the year for sales.
Never been to Dubai but I hope in the next few months soon!
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