Property & Investment in Dubai: Your questions about the market

[True Blue]

Originally Posted by Imre

Gulf News today

Come on!! 180,000aed for a 1 bed in MD1 thats about £25,000pa. I suppose if the company is picking up the tab then tenants would not consider the value aspect.

Not so special offer surely! I saw a post on the PJ thread where a shoreline owner managed to let for 140,000aed per annum.

[HarryKane]

Originally Posted by Krazy

I have spoken to a representative of Barclays and they have given me an interest rate of 8.25%.

Have you tried Tamweel or DIB? I know they do Emaar props.

[carpetking]

Originally Posted by Krazy

I have asked Emaar about residence visa. I don't know if this applies to all developers, but my father or I will be applying for visa for our property in Paloma. Emaar has told us that the six month visa does indeed apply. However, Emaar issues a letter for Dhs 100, which is mailed to you when your abroad for more than 6 months. You can present this letter to the imigration and enter the country without any problems.

Krazy,is it so that you must pay only 100 Dh's for a visa if your father
takes the residence visa for 5000 Dh's ?

[Krazy]

on a one bedroom apartment, only one owner can apply for the residence visa. So if needed, either myself or my father will apply for a visa. Then if the visa holder is out of the country for over 6 months, Dhs 100 fee will apply.

[Morrismarina]

So husband and wife purchase a one bed....... is it the case that only wife can have a residency visa then ???

[Krazy]

no.. the rule is on a one bedroom unit, only ONE owner can apply for residence visa and this includes his/her direct dependants (in the UAE, that is spouse, unmarried daughter and son till the age of 18)

[carpetking]

Originally Posted by Krazy

on a one bedroom apartment, only one owner can apply for the residence visa. So if needed, either myself or my father will apply for a visa. Then if the visa holder is out of the country for over 6 months, Dhs 100 fee will apply.

Thanks for information Krazy

[Krazy]

saskia,

Did Barclay require you to purchase Life Insurance from one of their recommended vendors BEFORE your loan could be approved or do they let you take your time to decide after your loan has been approved?

[Imre]

Originally Posted by carpetking

Krazy,is it so that you must pay only 100 Dh's for a visa if your father
takes the residence visa for 5000 Dh's ?

my friend has got a residence visa from Emaar , but it is very expensive...

he paid 6750 dhs/3 years , because visa fee 5000, medical fee 400, admin fee 250 etc fee....

[Krazy]

saskia,

Do you know anything about Barclay's "Buy to Let" option? How does one qualify for this option and how does the interest rate vary?

[IISinbadII]

Originally Posted by Imre

my friend has got a residence visa from Emaar , but it is very expensive...

he paid 6750 dhs/3 years , because visa fee 5000, medical fee 400, admin fee 250 etc fee....

I dont think it has much to do with Emaar as most of it seem to be going to the government.

[IISinbadII]

Originally Posted by Krazy

no.. the rule is on a one bedroom unit, only ONE owner can apply for residence visa and this includes his/her direct dependants (in the UAE, that is spouse, unmarried daughter and son till the age of 18)

plus you could be eligible to sponsor a female House Maid (only Eritrean, Thai, Filipino, Indonesian or Sri Lankan nationals).

Please note that Emaar does not provide visas for:

-Parents of the applicants
-Sons over age of 18
-Married daughters
-House Maids of some nationalities
-Drivers/Houseboys (plus no Cook or Watchman, etc)
-Sisters and brothers of applicants
-Applicants on restricted list (Iraq, Somalia, Yemen)
-Applicants who do not pass the Medical examination
-Husbands of women who have applied for residence visas as sole buyers
==========

I asked Emaar if they sponsor Visit Visas for those who are coming to Dubai for pre-handover inspections or handover of their property and they said No.

[saskia]

Krazy,

On life insurance - Barclays will only approve your mortgage after the life insurance is in place; they need to see the policy as part of their mortgage approval process. You don't need to use any of their recommended insurance providers, you are free to chose any provider you want. We did find it hard to find an insurance that was willing to assign the life insurance to the bank (which is why we ended up with a UK insurance company).

There are a number of conditions to qualify for the mortgage; it starts by completing the application forms, then the apartment needs to be valued (this costs approx 3000 dhs). Also, as a non-resident, the UAE embassy in your country needs to attest your proof of address and you need the life insurance to be in place. We also had to submit the original sale and purchase contract for the bank to register the mortgage (for which Emaar charges 3000 dirhams).

There are no additional requirements for a buy-to-let mortgage; you simply need to indicate what type of mortgage you want on the application form.

Do keep in mind that is a time-consuming (and at times frustrating!) process to get everything organised. For the life insurance, for example, we had to attend medicals and the valuation of the property will also take some time to organise.


Saskia

[Morrismarina]

Originally Posted by saskia

Krazy,

On life insurance - Barclays will only approve your mortgage after the life insurance is in place; they need to see the policy as part of their mortgage approval process. You don't need to use any of their recommended insurance providers, you are free to chose any provider you want. We did find it hard to find an insurance that was willing to assign the life insurance to the bank (which is why we ended up with a UK insurance company).

There are a number of conditions to qualify for the mortgage; it starts by completing the application forms, then the apartment needs to be valued (this costs approx 3000 dhs). Also, as a non-resident, the UAE embassy in your country needs to attest your proof of address and you need the life insurance to be in place. We also had to submit the original sale and purchase contract for the bank to register the mortgage (for which Emaar charges 3000 dirhams).

There are no additional requirements for a buy-to-let mortgage; you simply need to indicate what type of mortgage you want on the application form.

Do keep in mind that is a time-consuming (and at times frustrating!) process to get everything organised. For the life insurance, for example, we had to attend medicals and the valuation of the property will also take some time to organise.


Saskia

Cheers for the info Saskia but are you able to tell us how the affordability is calculated on these BTL mortgages please ? Do they need to take any of your earned personal income into account or are they happy to use only the potential rental income. If so what percentage rental is required to cover the mortgage payments ??
On the issue of the residency visa whilst this does seem initially expensive this only works out to around UK £300 per year and living in Dubai the great benefit of course is all your income will be tax free

[saskia]

Cheers for the info Saskia but are you able to tell us how the affordability is calculated on these BTL mortgages please ? Do they need to take any of your earned personal income into account or are they happy to use only the potential rental income. If so what percentage rental is required to cover the mortgage payments ??

As far as I know Barclays did not take the potential rental income into consideration - they never mentioned or asked about this; they only looked at our personal income and financial commitments (mortgage in home country etc). The only clause with regards to rental is that they reserve the right to approve rental agreements. Barclays told me this is a formality - they want to avoid you would rent the apartment out to five families with 10 kids each...

[Krazy]

thanks again saskia..

can I rent out my apartment on completion even if I dont go for the BTL option?

[mission]

Originally Posted by Krazy

thanks again saskia..

can I rent out my apartment on completion even if I dont go for the BTL option?

Of course you can, your mortgage lender will never know. Its very common in the UK

[Krazy]

but is it against their terms n conditions?

[mission]

Originally Posted by Krazy

but is it against their terms n conditions?

How would they ever find out?

This is how i got onto the buy to let market in the uk!!!!

For example:

If you own a house and you get together with a woman who also has a house. You decided to move into your girlfriends house and rent the other house out!!!!!

Same situation very common in the uk

[kano]

^ krazy it's only when you default and can't pay that you will get problems from them...