In a move that will come as a relief to many Dubai residents that suffer under the stress of rent increases, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) has announced that it will be introducing longer term tenancy agreements with fixed rates. This should put a stop to greedy landlords increasing the yearly rates beyond the current rent caps and threatening to evict tenants if they don’t pay, which has become an all too familiar problem for many people that live here (tell us your views on this). Its shocking to see just how quickly rents have increased; in 2004 your average one bedroom apartment ranged from 32,000dhs to 45,000dhs at the most, yet now, only 3 years later they range from 54,000dhs if you’re very lucky all the way up to 130,000dhs, that’s on average a three-fold increase, and they wonder why rents have taken traffic’s place as local resident’s biggest complaint!

Marwan Bin Galita, chief executive of RERA, indicated that the new rental contracts must be adhered to. “It will be a model tenancy agreement in which all the rights and privileges of the tenants will be reserved. We will ensure that everyone strictly adhere to the contracts. The long term contracts will be transparent and fix the rents for that period and help the tenants in coping with rising rental costs,” he said.

The primary reason that landlords have been able to extort the general population has been due to the large demand for housing outstripping supply, coupled with delays in the completion of many of Dubai’s freehold projects. While the Dubai property market is still in an upswing, and obviously many residents have purchased property here, these construction delays mean that investors are paying mortgages on Dubai real estate developments, as well as stupid rent prices. All this does is make residents reminisce about the years before all this inflation and construction, which shouldn’t have to be the case as there have been a lot of improvements and benefits since then.

Residents, new and old, are happy to see the growth this country has achieved, but the lack of anticipation with regards to inconsiderate landlords and potential problems that come with trying to grow too fast make people doubt the government’s handling of such situations. Now that RERA is in place, we are sure to see a change in the way that Dubai real estate is managed, let’s hope it’s not too late.