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But legally in the UAE, Free Hold is not what you defined... What I am trying to say is that Free Hold as per your description is not applied by law... Correct? Unless there is such property out there?

Yep, free-hold, as it is defined is not available for EXPATS in the UAE, what we are able to get is lease-hold.

Only if you are a UAE national will you be able to own free-hold in the UAE... I would assume that this means that UAE nationals who buy in Emaar, Nakheel developments etc, can only own these properties lease-hold, as that is what they are offered as - the developer still retains full legal control of the property???? when they could own free-hold in the middle of um sequiem or jumeirah...

anyone know the legalities on this one??? would be intrested to find out

I gotta admit that the rule of expats being prohibited from free hold is annoying... But then again we don't live 99+ years all the time

Lets say I buy lease to hold (currently available for expats), qand I wanna sell say in 10 years, if the laws remain as is, can i sell to a national who has the right to freehold or not?

The difference is with lease hold, you might own the bricks and mortar, but not the land the property is built on! So if whoever owns the land decides they want to knock down the property of building and just give you what you paid for the apartment/villa you're a bit screwed.

Yeah that blows....

Liban wrote:I gotta admit that the rule of expats being prohibited from free hold is annoying... But then again we don't live 99+ years all the time

Lets say I buy lease to hold (currently available for expats), qand I wanna sell say in 10 years, if the laws remain as is, can i sell to a national who has the right to freehold or not?

no.... if you buy the property from say for example, emaar (lease-hold) and in 10 years time you sell it to a national, the property is sold via the developer (emaar) to the national, it is not a direct sale from yourself to the national.

emaar is the developer and "landlord"/ caretaker of the property - and as such is responsible for the utilities, maintenace, upkeep and security of the property.

emaar may or may not own the land - depends on the local governement, sometimes shk mhd cedes (sic - not to sure on the spelling of that one!) land for development, but the land is retained by the state, and is only developed but never owned by the developer! and sometimes it it given - as is without any conditions. actually have heard of a case or two where he gives land for development, and if he drives past the next time and nothing has happened on the site - he takes it away again

anyway, where were we..... emaar being the caretaker (or possibly) owner of the property cannot "sell" the property free-hold to anyone - as it is still against the law (federal), even a local, as the development is a lease-hold development....

one intresting annomally (so i am told) is plam island (jumierh) as the land originally was "created"/ manufactured, it was not part of Dubai Municipality (DM), the developer wanted to retain their independance from DM and was going to put in all the services themselves (water, electricity, roads, waste, etc....). then switched plan (due to the maintenace costs of running all this) and "gave" the land to DM. in this case is the land still a lease-hold development or a true free-hold development??? this last one is a bit of gossip, so may not have any real substance to it, but is food for thought never the less

If its the developer that sells it to the national as freehold, then the developper can take a percentage of either the profit or the total sale value that I as the lease holder would get?

That would technically make sense and also suck a$$...

What about all the high profile international buyers in the palms...like David Beckham and Julio Iglesias....what rules govern the nature of their acquisition? Am sure no one here has the cojones to screw them over

The law is the law, why should they be treated any differently?

Hi there, im an aussie expat living in dubai, not too sure if I can answer yur question but try emailing my boyfriend at grdodd46@hotmail.com, he works in the real estate industry here in dubai and he might be able to help you, dont worry he wont be charging you money for his advice, just be careful though as there are some dodgy agents out here so do your homework. Like everything, there are negative and positive view points about buying in Dubai, I have bought two apartments here to save on rent as it is becoming so expensive, I also sold one apartment and made some quick (not alot but some spending money) cash and I am definitely not rich!! Its just about shopping around!!!