#APPROVED: ARABIAN CROWNE, 45F Res+Com (City of Arabia)

[AltinD]

Agreed; the redesign looks better.

[Moody]

What a Tower, remindes me of the Blue pearl in Bahrain.

[John-Dory]

From a Middle East Development press release "5 Star Quality Luxury 240 Room Hotel Style Apartment Residence Tower". This will be a hotel on the first 14 floors and then lease back apart-hotel type rooms on the other floors. MED are offering a 20 year lease-back deal on the apartments purchased with 8% rental income guaranteed for the first 3 years. (Not a great return by Dubai standards). Due for completion in October 2007.

I can post the full press release, but I can't figure out how to stick the picture in a post...can't find the brouse button..doh

[John-Dory]

just figured out I "may not post attachments" for some reason???...sorry

[dubaiflo]

you have to upload the picture first www.tinypic.com then click on the image button on the post reply site on SSC and paste the link you get when the pic is uploaded. otherwise SSC would need a 1000000GB server

so this is hot+res?

[John-Dory]

Bingo..



Thanks for the quick posting lesson dubaiflo.

[arfie]

This is currently being sold at Pre Launch and prices rise by 10% on the 1st of September.

[Dubai-Lover]

it still is not a hotel
it's like a hotel and managed by a hotel group, but it's a simple service apartments residential tower

[dubaiflo]

like the chelsea...

[Rcd]

Is this time share? 30 days / year?

[dubaiflo]

what?

[Rcd]

"Owner has up to 30 days personal usage per year"

What does that mean?

[Dubai-Lover]

more like burj dubai lake hotel
you own the apartment and rent it to other people while you as an owner can live 30 days in this apartment

[dubaiflo]

thats a new concept for me. sounds good.

[Rcd]

Sounds like you only own 30 days from it and there are 11 other owners too.
They have this kind of "time share" business in many holiday destinations.
Some times people feel a bit fooled when they find out what they have bought. Not saying this is happening in Dubai.

[John-Dory]

No, it's not timeshare or "Vacation Ownership" as it is called these days.

There are a load of developments in Dubai at the moment offering this "Apart-Hotel-LeaseBack" thing.

The idea is you "buy" an apartment on one of the top floors of the building. There is an hotel on the lower 15 floors. You lease your apartment back to the hotel for 20 years. They put there guests in "your" apartment, service it, maintain it etc..
You then can stay in "your" apartment for 30 days a year, if you want, or you can lease it to them for the whole year and never stay there.

The advantages to the "owner" are you have a property you can stay in for a holiday every year, that is then producing income for the rest of the year and is looked after for you. Disadvantages to the owner are you must rely of the hotel management to keep "your" property in good condition and in reality you don't actually own the apartment and there are restrictive covenanants on the title as to how you can sell it. The advantages to the Hotel are that they don't have to borrow money to build their hotel the "Owners" pay for the construction and they have all the income generated from the rooms (less what they pay you) and from the bar, restaurant..etc..

So..basically this is more a finincial investment than a property purchase and you should buy on that understanding and it might be cheaper and less bother just to rent an apartment off a friend for a month every year.

[dubaiflo]

this is not bad actually.
so arabina crowne will only have such rooms, and none of them will actually be owned by the operating hotel group.

[John-Dory]

well in this type of situation you really get into what the word "Own" means in terms of a property.
If you can only stay in it for 30 days a year, can's sell it to whom you like, have to go thru a hotel lobby and 15 floors to get into it, do you really "own" it at all?

[John-Dory]

You see in the case of apart-hotel leaseback you need to think in terms of property investment and not property ownership. Besides nobody ever really “owns” property anyway, or anything else for that matter, we just have the use of it while we and it are alive…but that’s another story and we won’t go there..he..he

By the way, this is another reason the impending Dubai property Law is so slow in coming out. It’s not just about freehold verses leasehold and emirate discrecion. Laws need to be put in place to cover timeshare, hotel lease backs, inheritance, divorce..etc..so lets not be in any rush to see a new property law, let them take their time and do it right.

[georgedubai]

We have bought a property in ARABIAN CROWNE(2 bed room hotel apartment).just only 710DHS/sp.ft. at july 2005. the developer M.E.D told for us completion date will be at OCT 2007. still now just doing the ground and infrastructure works .i think should be late for 2year's. now we aready 30% payment.the developer alway to say start next week.