# How to buy a holiday flat in dubai?



## kingrulzuk (Jan 19, 2010)

Hiya im brittish cittizen 
i was in dubai last month and i love it 
i wud like to buy a 1bed or a studio flat over here
how do i buy one or wht the process of buying a home in dubai
im a avg class worker and i do have some savings
so any help wud be nice
thanks for ur time


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

What is your main reason for wanting to buy an apartment in Dubai? On the basis that you are not a resident, then I would advise that you do a search on the forum and understand the key issues that you would need to deal with.

With respect to your query, you would effectively need to obtain a mortgage (as with UK properties) and purchase the property, either off plan or go for a finished property. I am not sure whether you can get a mortgage in the UAE as you are not a resident but you would typically need 20 - 30% of the property value as a deposit. 

Please use a lawyer before you enter into any formal agreement - the law is very ambiguous and if you do get it wrong, the law affords you very little protection. Research the area and particularly the maintenance fees - whilst property values have been plummeting, this has not stopped developers from increasing the service charges. You can simply go through an agent, who will show you property fitting your requirements but it is advisable that you view any property before making an offer. Importantly, the average life of a property is about 30 years and most will come with some sort of problem, be it cosmetic or structural, from the very first day! It is also very difficult to get the developer to fix latent defects. Patent defects are fixed on the basis that you point them out and ask for them to be fixed, else you are on your own!

Also, one point to note. You can no longer obtain a residence visa through the purchase of a property. Therefore, you will be reliant of tourist visas to visit your property for any length of time.


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

Out of curiosity, on the basis that you are looking for a holiday home, are you planning to finance the property outright or are you looking to rent it out to part-finance your mortgage repayments? If it is the latter, bear in mind that there is a massive over supply of property on the market and property prices keep plummeting, so that will affect any rental that you get.


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## Divebum (Apr 15, 2011)

Why would you want to buy a holiday home here????.? 
With the glut of hotels we have out here, for you to make financial sense you would have to a he'll of a lot of holidays out here on an annual basis to even come close to making it worth your while. 
The biggest piece of advice is, come put here on quite a few more visits and then decide I'd it's for you. The current Market out here is no longer an investment dream. Yes property prices have come down, but if you only intend to spend 2or 3 weeks here per year, you would be throwing your well earned money away.


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## ash_ak (Jan 22, 2011)

he is probably thinking with the crash in prices, he can invest now and hopefully expect the prices to go up in a few years. I am assuming prices will go up in 5 years atleast from what they are now.


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## Jumeirah Jim (Jan 24, 2011)

You should only buy here if it's DIRT cheap and in a good established area. Certainly don't consider anything off plan or in an "up and coming" (ie desert for the next 20 years) area..

If you find a bargain somewhere like the Marina or downtown ask around and speak to some other owners, better still someone on the owners' association, to find out how he building's run and the service costs (which are usually extortionate). 

If you need a local mortgage then good luck as a non-resident. If you find a bank willing to lend then don't expect them to lend more than about 60% and the interest rate will be sky high. 8-9% minimum. Better to try and remortgaged in the UK if you have equity there then buy in cash here. 

Good luck if you go ahead with this - it's a bold move!


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## Maz25 (Jul 6, 2008)

ash_ak said:


> he is probably thinking with the crash in prices, he can invest now and hopefully expect the prices to go up in a few years. I am assuming prices will go up in 5 years atleast from what they are now.


Prices may or may not go up. It's a dangerous game to play to buy a property on the assumption that it will increase in value.
The costs of maintaining a property has been on the increase and therefore any rise in property value may not actually translate into a profit.

The property market in Dubai is too new and too ambiguous to enable a realistic prediction of the market to be made. The crash in 2008 brought home the fact that nothing is certain here and I'm sure that whilst tenants could not be any happier with the crash, developers and investors never could have predicted the crash and the extent of the financial crisis.


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## Bigjimbo (Oct 28, 2010)

I would say only buy in finished projects, such as the Palm, or certain towers in the Marina, greens, or Downtown. There is an increase in direct foreign investment at the moment, but there are severe supply issues as well. But carefully and you will have a really nice option, buy badly and you will be shovelling your cash into a big sandy hole.......


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