New law to regulate Abu Dhabi real estate sector

The President, HH Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has issued a law regulating the real estate sector in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The new law specifies the jurisdictions of the Department of Municipal Affairs (DMA) regarding all real estate issues. The most important jurisdictions include preparation of a real estate register to save all data and documents relating to any real estate development, and opening of a project guarantee account by the developer for each development upon approval from the DMA for depositing all amounts paid by buyers of real estate units. This is to protect the rights of buyers in case the units are sold as off-plan property.

The law also provides details regarding licensed individuals involved, including the developer, the mediator and his employees, the seller who transacts in auctions, the appraiser and the surveyor. The law explains the rights and commitments of these individuals.

To address the issue of selling off-plan, the new law created a new register, to be named ‘initial real estate register’, to record all transactions related to the real estate units sold off-plan. The aim is to cover all previous issues like failure to implement sale contracts and failure of developers to implement projects and to protect the rights of the developers and buyers of real estate units.