Property & Investment in Dubai: Your questions about the market

[Monument]

Originally Posted by TerryPop

Very well put, the problem is when people further down the line continue to add-on their 'cut'.

It goes from 'oh my god' expensive to 'WTF?!?' expensive.

We found our own developer/building management team had switched (in the process of re-invoicing PDC) from imperial to metric readings or vice versa to heavily inflate charges to end users on one tower.


You think about the developer once he has handed over. He has very little revenue streams. He'll be looking at service charges and any utility he can re-invoice to an end user as his only real chance at income.

If there is no tax - you have to find other means of taxing people (i.e generating revenues for government). Government owned telecoms companies in monopoly situations are ideal. Would you prefer to be taxed or pay high telecom fees. I don't know the answer.

[TerryPop]

Originally Posted by Monument

If there is no tax - you have to find other means of taxing people (i.e generating revenues for government). Government owned telecoms companies in monopoly situations are ideal. Would you prefer to be taxed or pay high telecom fees. I don't know the answer.

Yes I always understood that. In fact I like the idea of paying for what we use.

But re PDC its the oldest trick in the book that is going on here. Paint one picture to lure you in, then once you are nicely settled and tied in.... oops the fee has doubled or trebled even.

It happens a bit in the free zones too- its diffcult to get an absolute figure of total costs and once you do things can change the following year dramatically.

[TerryPop]

PDC must come down in cost to the consumer if only to show the world Dubai can afford a sustainable housing market.

If electricty, water & cooling cannot be provided in a relatively affordable way perhaps its the wrong place to be challenging the elements???

i believe it can, but there is a boys club clearing massive profits at the top.

[True Blue]

I just had my service fees invoice for one of my buildings and they include fitting of BTU meters.

Here are the costs, tell me what you think compared to PDC TerryPop?

Supply only new meter 995AED each
Fit new meter 1000AED each
Admin account set up 100AED each
Read meter and issue bill 35AED/month
Meter admin charges 12AED/month (have no idea what this is, looks dodgy!)

So having been given all these charges, the one thing they completely miss out or keep secret is the tarrif charge. Just feel like we are being set up now after reading your post.

The fitting of the meters also looks high considering they expect to do the work in 2 months.

[I Know]

Originally Posted by True Blue

Crimes are commited after 11pm because the UK Police actually make arrests for disturbances caused by the chavs. Are you telling me that tooting horns, roaring loud cars and blaring stereos at 3 am in the morning is not a crime? It happens regularly on the JBR walk but there appears to be a total lack of respect for the residents and the Police do little or nothing about it. That is one of the main reasons why JBR properties are difficult to rent out, due to the level of disturbance!

JBR and Marina properties are difficult to sell or rent as you will indeed figure out why from the below article in todays paper.




..

You might have felt a pang of guilt earlier this week when a survey revealed that 72 per cent of expats living in the UAE don’t understand the country’s customs and traditions. But don’t hang your head in shame at the findings from Abu Dhabi Police’s ‘999’ magazine. UAE national Ali Alsaloom (inset), a cultural consultant and author of the ‘Ask Ali’ guidebooks, says Emiratis are not as worried by a lack of awareness, as they are by a lack of respect.


“There is some kind of a misunderstanding of what we need when we say we want people to ‘be aware’,” says Ali. “What we are trying to say is, ‘please recognise we are Muslims, we are Arabs, we are conservative, yet we are open and educated’. We want you to respect our needs and values.”


Ali says that although many expats are respectful of their hosts, plenty of people still stamp all over Emirati sensibilities. “Let’s take a walk in Jumeirah Beach Residence together,” he says. “It clearly says don’t wear anything above your knee, don’t hold hands in a sexual way and don’t kiss. It is where I live and guess what I see? I see people wearing almost nothing, kissing and hugging.”



Ali implores expats to go beyond a Google search to understand their host country’s identity and avoid cultural faux pas

http://www.7days.me/2012/02/getting-to-know-you/

[MarkWass]

Looks like the Brits and all are back in their thousands, snapping up properties…?

Property investors from the UAE, India and the UK return to Dubai - THURSDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2012
http://www.propertywire.com/news/middle-east/dubai-property-sales-boost-201202166181.html

Property transactions up 20 percent in 2011, RERA - Thursday, 16 February 2012 12:15 PM
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/property-transactions-up-20-percent-in-2011-rera-445698.html?tab=Article

[True Blue]

I already gave you the most likely reason why JBR rents are difficult. I don't think it has anything to do with holding hands, kissing or wearing short dresses. Seems your mind is restricted to accepting only opinions which align with your indoctrination.

[noir-dresses]

Last month I recieved an extra 1160 AED to pay on my PDC bill. When Imre, and me contacted them they're answer was they did a recalculation for the whole year, and that's what I own. You also clearly see that consumption was next to nothing because the apartment was empty.

What I don't understand is if I have a meter, and a person from PDC comes every month to check how much consumption I had, and bills me the usage in every months bill, why do I have to pay this extra money ??? Can the meter be so off that this is the case, or is it a scam ? I always leave extra money in my PDC account to cover any bills that need to be payed incase I'm not there. My perception was if you have a meter then billing is always 100 percent accurate.

Here's part of the bill, what's your take on this ?

[IMG]http://i42.************/103ex68.jpg[/IMG]

[noir-dresses]

This was PDCs email reply when I told them they made a mistake with the billing.

Dear Sir / Ma’am,

Please note that the excess credit had been adjusted against theprevious bills.

Kindly refer to your bills generated during the period of 06-09-2009till present to figure out the charges. Kindly check the amount paid versus thecovered period.

Regards,

Mohammed El Kayyali
Call Center Team Leader
Palm Utilities
Jumeirah Village South
(Site Office Gate #10) Al Khail Road
P.O. Box 215122, Dubai, UAE


[cid:a19eb0e@multimail]

Office: 800 (PALMU)
Web: www.palmutilities.ae<http://www.palmutilities.ae/>

Now if I had a meter, how could this happen ?

[Towers3]

Originally Posted by MarkWass

Looks like the Brits and all are back in their thousands, snapping up properties…?

Property investors from the UAE, India and the UK return to Dubai - THURSDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2012
http://www.propertywire.com/news/middle-east/dubai-property-sales-boost-201202166181.html

Property transactions up 20 percent in 2011, RERA - Thursday, 16 February 2012 12:15 PM
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/property-transactions-up-20-percent-in-2011-rera-445698.html?tab=Article

Widging poms? Bad press about bad business practices actually helps the market then. Pleased it only took a week in the same newspaper to clear that up.

This journo has been writing some great articles recently.

[I Know]

Originally Posted by speculator

Great news ! A lead for other countries.

Yes its excellent isnt it.


A great example I must say. Should really help these communitys when they are finished, some in the Marina should be done for Ramadan and the Night Prayers will be fantastic.



when the Mosque is handed over to them they check the sound systems etc etc ..

Conditions of Submitting New Masjid


The plan of the Masjid’s site/ Masjid’s Supervision and Monitoring / a copy of the contract/ a certificate of accomplishment from the contractor.
The final and complete Drawings issued from Dubai Municipality (As Built Drawing)


1- CD of the Drawings

2- Guaranty of paint work (5yrs)

3- Guaranty of insulation work (10yrs)

4- Guaranty of work safety from the contractor (one year)

5- Other guaranties (tanks / glasses and mirrors/ Aluminum and doors).

6- Fire-extinguishing equipment according to Civil Defense’s requirements

7- Guaranty of any long-lived elements of the Masjid

8- Guaranty of the electrical equipment (attached with receipts from the company and with the guaranties)


Sound devices

Chandeliers

Enlightenment

Air conditions

Heaters

Pumps

Electricity switches

other if any

Put the information board inside the main electricity panel, and submit the schedule of the electricity loads.

[I Know]

Originally Posted by True Blue

Everyone is drifting off track to go down their own riteous road. I will ignore your comments on the West having no religion or culture!


Crimes are commited after 11pm because the UK Police actually make arrests for disturbances caused by the chavs. Are you telling me that tooting horns, roaring loud cars and blaring stereos at 3 am in the morning is not a crime? It happens regularly on the JBR walk but there appears to be a total lack of respect for the residents and the Police do little or nothing about it. That is one of the main reasons why JBR properties are difficult to rent out, due to the level of disturbance!

Originally Posted by MarkWass

Talking of 'religion and culture', having seen recent debates on this thread, and also having lived in both Edinburgh and Middle East, I understand both. If anything, I am more inclined to side with Muslim beliefs if the only other alternative was the UK chav 'religion'/culture. BUT, sorry, the absence of regulation and control of criminals, continual ripping off of*Muslims and Christians and all other faiths... is unacceptable in this day and age surely?

I suppose this one sums up your first line nicely then.

As a general rule, property prices are reflective of the people who live in the area.

Legacy of a society that believes in nothing

By A N Wilson
Last updated at 1:27 AM on 13th August 2011


There was no mention of feral rats or of the sickness in our society. There were no calls for revenge. If he had screamed for retribution, if he had chosen the emotional occasion of his son’s death to denounce whole swathes of the community, there could easily have been an unspeakable outbreak of racial violence.



Father: Tariq Jahan holds a picture of his son Haroon as a schoolboy

Instead, Mr Jahan made an open and straightforward declaration of his faith. ‘I’m a Muslim. I believe in divine fate and destiny, and it was his destiny and his fate, and now he’s gone,’ he said. ‘And may Allah forgive him and bless him.’


It was a solemn, peaceful message that will make everyone who stereotypes Muslims as terrorists and fanatics feel ashamed of themselves. Tariq Jahan is a deeply impressive man, and like the great majority of Muslims in this country, he is hard-working, clean-living, guided in his conduct by religious belief, and unshakeable in his devotion to the ideal of family life.
Without that sense, human life falls into absolute chaos, anarchy, and unpleasantness. Yet in our secular age — an age in which, tragically, the Church of England appears to do little more than wring its hands as congregation numbers plummet — this moral bedrock is being steadily eroded.
Today, we live in a society where religion is something for which apologies must be made.


And all the while, our governing classes and academics and teachers chip away at the fundamental truths of the great religions — truths that have stood the test of time for thousands of years — in their arrogant certainty that there are no moral absolutes and that the human race can make up the rules as it goes along.

At the nuttier fringes of the chattering classes there are those, like the geneticist Richard Dawkins and the journalist Christopher Hitchens, who actually believe that religion is a mental poison responsible for all the evils in the world.

The misguided and vacuous thinking of these so-called intellectuals is compounded by a sordid celebrity-culture which holds up role models who should be despised rather than admired.



Heroines: Amy Winehouse and Jade Goody, who both died tragic deaths


Amy Winehouse, a pathetic drug-infused alcoholic girl of very modest talent, is held up as great diva; and when she died, her house was surrounded by fans, laying empty vodka bottles as a ‘tribute’.


Jade Goody, the foul-mouthed, racist daughter of a pimp and drug-pusher who died of a heroin overdose in the lavatory of a Kentucky Fried Chicken, appears on Big Brother and becomes a heroine despite — or because of — her ignorance and tendency to strip off in front of the cameras.


Fornicating footballers, who swagger through public lives dripping with gold and jewellery, parading the vulgar acquisitions of their vast wealth — whether it is fleets of fast cars or call girls, are venerated by generations who have never so much as heard of the very real heroes of history.


In the absence of a moral law, we see a decline in standards in all walks of life. Bankers continue to fill their boots even after they have brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy; politicians fiddle expenses and see no reason to resign when they have committed wrongdoings; town hall fat cats pay themselves ever greater salaries as Britain slips further into debt.


By contrast, every day, Muslim men like Tariq Jahan go to the mosque and fall prostrate before the mystery which Immanuel Kant knew lay at the heart of existence.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...#ixzz1mXj9tF83

[True Blue]

I Know, I'm guessing you are quite young and don't have much experience of real and diverse life.

I am a True Blue in every sense of the word and live up to my forum name, however I'm sure you just think you know!!

Now stop wasting this thread with your anti Western Sermons!!

[AppleMac]

Originally Posted by I Know

JBR and Marina properties are difficult to sell or rent as you will indeed figure out why from the below article in todays paper.

LOL - if the locals are shocked by what goes on at JBR then they make a good show of hiding it - they flock there in ever increasing numbers.

[MarkWass]

Originally Posted by I Know

Jade Goody, the foul-mouthed, racist daughter of a pimp and drug-pusher who died of a heroin overdose in the lavatory of a Kentucky Fried Chicken

Thought everyone on the planet knew that Jade Goody died in her sleep, after a long battle with cervical cancer. Even if the journalist is too young to remember way back to 2009, when goody died, he could have googled it in one second.

[MarkWass]

Oh, my mistake, the journalist is actually referring to her father's cause of death…

[I Know]

Dear True Blue


Please note that it is not a sermon, It is an article written by the Daily mail which is relavent to the comments that you post.


Only the Awqaf is allowed to do the sermons in the United Arab Emirates, as you may already be aware it takes place in the Mosques before the Midday Prayer in Arabic and some Mosques have a translation in English after the prayer.


If you would like to listen to a sermon then please do not hessitate to make your way to a Mosque which may have an English translation.


Therefore please respect other users on this thread as it is relative to the discussion that we are having with regards to the community facilities, like providing Mosques, which directly affect investors and the community.


I dont understand why you may feel upset about Mosques being built in JBR, Marina and JLT.

[MarkWass]

I Know:

As Everyone Knows, you are a master of the copy/ paste thing. Anyway you copied my below quote. I am interested to hear your comments on the latter part (in bold)?

Originally Posted by I Know

Originally Posted by MarkWass
Talking of 'religion and culture', having seen recent debates on this thread, and also having lived in both Edinburgh and Middle East, I understand both. If anything, I am more inclined to side with Muslim beliefs if the only other alternative was the UK chav 'religion'/culture. BUT, sorry, the absence of regulation and control of criminals, continual ripping off of*Muslims and Christians and all other faiths... is unacceptable in this day and age surely?

The * thing wasn't intentional, by the way, just a glitch that happens when my cell/mobile phone randomly adds on SSC..

I think, that now even the investment gurus such as TPop and TB are slowly waking up to the fact that tried and tested shrewd property investor theory (location, location, location etc, etc…) is all very well, but sadly in this particular marketplace, text book theory is not all…

[speculator]

Originally Posted by True Blue

I Know, I'm guessing you are quite young and don't have much experience of real and diverse life.

I am a True Blue in every sense of the word and live up to my forum name, however I'm sure you just think you know!!

Now stop wasting this thread with your anti Western Sermons!!

You aint so TRUE and you are definitely BLUE. In fact you are very ignorant. You live in another country as a guest and wish to impose your BLUE slanted way of thinking.

Instead of discussing constructively you have resorted to insults. Like I said maybe you need to get away from it all.

Above all you need to keep your quilt on

[I Know]

It may be easy to reply in that manner on a keyboard but if you imagine the person in front of you, would you react in the same way.

It should not matter what insults someone throws at you, you should thank them or ignore it rather than do the same.