Tag Archives: dubai
New campaign launched to help residential landlords in the UK
The National Landlords Association (NLA) has launched its latest campaign in the UK, Reinventing Renting, which identifies opportunities for landlords to enhance their lettings businesses. The campaign is designed to help landlords transform their businesses into more successful profitable enterprises and it contains useful resources, guides and presentations, including how to choose the right investment, improve financial planning and expand portfolios and maximise gains. It also looks at how to reduce exposure to a range of risks associated with letting property, such as impending interest rate rises, rent arrears and rogue tenants. The campaign focuses on supporting landlords who are struggling to turn a profit by exploring different business approaches and tenant markets, while providing assistance for landlords looking to make their business more profitable. It comes as changes announced earlier this year in the Summer Budget and the Autumn Statement a few weeks ago are set to seriously affect profitability within the sector. ‘As the leading landlord association we’re here to provide landlords with all the tools and information needed to make a success of letting,’ said Carolyn Uphill, chairman of the NLA. ‘Over the next few months, Reinventing Renting will look at some of the key issues for landlords and provide support and tips to improve the way they run their business,’ she explained. ‘The campaign has something for both new and experienced landlords and will be particularly useful for those who are struggling to make things work or worried about how the changes to mortgage interest taxation will affect them in the future,’ she added. Continue reading
Bling could be back in Dubai property market
Some of the bling that once characterised the Dubai real estate market is set to return with celebrities seeking to build a new breed of luxury villas and over 50 shelved projects being resurrected. From the ordinary buyer and seller perspective some 51 real estate projects valued at AED12 billion are being revived with government backed funding initiatives which means that developers registered with the Dubai Land Department can get building again. Some 12 projects worth AED2 billion are underway and along with others set for starts in 2016 the initiative will see developers like Emaar Properties, Al Wasl and ICD-Brookfield working on projects. To get the funding the projects need to have adequate infrastructure planned or already in place, a properly managed escrow trust account for off plan sales under Dubai real estate law, a technical report showing that at least 60% of the construction is completed and at least 60% of the project has been sold. Meanwhile, the famous Palm Jumeirah is set to be rejuvenated with reports that leading celebrities and wealthy individuals are looking to build luxury villas on the manmade island. This could see a series of lavish Los Angeles style super villas being built, according to property agent Anne Ogilvie, Palm luxury sales specialist at Luxhabitat. She believes that wealthy investors are set to return to Dubai. ‘These end users look to buy plots on the remaining unbuilt fronds in order to build super villas, akin to those in California or Miami. We expect a sizeable number of them to build and then introduce them to the secondary market,’ she said. However, there are a number of issues associated with development on Palm Jumeirah. Some owners are not happy that fees for extensions to their existing villas have increased by 233%. Under the terms and conditions laid out in developer Nakheel’s Guidelines and Procedures for Villa Extension Applications, residents are required to pay an application fee as part of the approval process before they can start construction. According to property experts this means that for an extension of 1,000 square foot an owner would end up paying over $100,000 to Nakheel but on Palm Jumeirah the fee for a 1,000 square foot extension could be over half a million dollars. Continue reading
Experts urge UK govt not to sacrifice quality for quantity in house building crusade
The UK’s oldest housing and planning charity has expressed its concern about the implications of the Government's announcement of further significant deregulation to planning. According to the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) the recent announcement from Prime Minister David Cameron that he wants to build a million new homes by 2020, many of them affordable and aimed at first time buyers, quality could be sacrificed for quantity. It will means the introduction of US style zonal planning for brownfield sites, and the removal of a range of controls that are vital to ensure that high quality homes are built, it says while fully supporting the initiative. The TCPA is concerned that local communities will have no control over the quality of many of the homes built in their areas and says that by allowing large numbers of new homes to be created without going through the usual planning processes, there is a clear risk that we will build poor quality developments which increase the pressure on community facilities such as roads, schools and doctors' surgeries. It also criticises the plant to make permanent the temporary changes to permitted development rules so that offices can be converted into homes without the need for planning permission. It says this risks creating poor quality housing with no space for children to play, no car parkin; and no consideration of the need for more local school places, GP surgeries and other community facilities and infrastructure. Granting outline planning permission for any housing built on brownfield land, in effect, represents the introduction of zonal planning, it says, a system that can work well if properly implemented with detailed procedures to ensure quality but represents a major change to English planning that the Government is introducing with no consultation, and no safeguards to safeguard quality. ‘The decision to extend permitted development from office to residential seriously undermines the ability to create decent homes in vibrant communities. The Government says it is committed to localism and that it wants planning to give power to local communities. However, the announcements mean that local communities will have even less say over how their neighbourhoods are developed,’ said Kate Henderson, TCPA chief executive. According to Hugh Ellis, head of policy at the TCPA, it is a major deregulation of local planning and the loss of community control over large parts of the urban environment.’ It is worrying that this has come at a time when we know we need smart green cities that can deal with climate change and provide healthy environments for ordinary people. These announcements are a missed opportunity to ensure we create high quality, successful and climate resilient places,’ he added. The TCPA is currently undertaking a major new project, Planning4People, which pushes for strong and democratic planning system which puts the needs of ordinary people at the heart of planning. ‘As we strive to address the housing crisis and build the homes that the nation… Continue reading
