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Unified Property Law
Essential, Say Expats

However, while the council and Ministry of Interior sought to restrict the practice of property developers of offering residency visas, expatriates said it could boost the sector.

Abdul Sattar Pardesi, an expatriate from Pakistan who is working here as a property developer and social worker, said it was crucial to have a uniform law for the whole of the Emirates.

“The UAE should not waste any time in passing and implementing the unified law. Otherwise the developers would flee from the UAE, unable to bear the legal confusions prevailing in the property sector now,” he said. According to him it was important to grant residency visa to those who buy properties irrespective of the fact that the buyer was an expatriate.

Abraham Thomas who works as a finance manager in a private firm engaged in servicing construction and oil industries, said it would be unfortunate to discriminate people on the basis of nationalities when allowing the rights to own property.

He said granting of residence visa will improve the expatriates’ confidence in buying properties in the UAE.

“Here the residence of an expatirate is linked to his employment. So the expatriates will buy properties here only if they were granted residence visa.”

J K Nair, an expatriate from India who works as a chartered accountant with a leading retail firm in Dubai, said: “The existing laws in the different emirates of the UAEhave so much of grey areas and it is difficult to dream of the possibility of an expatriateconfidently buying a property here with the hope of owning it in a real sense.”

Abdul Nabi Bangash from Pakistan, who works also as aproperty developer here, said even though it was wise to have a uniform property law for all the emirates, there would be lots of practical problems in its implementation.

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