Ajman property regulator to restart stalled projects

Ajman will pass a decree next year that will help property investors stuck in stalled projects.

The Ajman Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) is on a mission to revive and streamline the emirate's freehold property market. It will pass a decree early next year that will offer clarity to investors whose funds were stuck in projects that stalled during the property market downturn in 2008.

"Currently, we don't have the right to take over a stalled project and give it to a new developer to restart work. But under the proposed new rules, we will have that power," said Yafea Al Faraj, executive director of Ajman Rera, on the sidelines of an event to announce a real estate conference in December.

"Once the decree is passed, investors will have clear guidelines on what they can do to compensate for funds. It could allow investors to seek alternate units in new developments that will be built in the emirate," he informed.

The Ajman Rera has played a key role in trying to get some of the stalled projects back on track and build infrastructure in the emirate.

"The good thing is even during the recession, we did not stop building infrastructure. Our roads and bridges are all in good shape. People want to live in low-density areas. There is smooth traffic movement in Ajman courtesy all the infrastructure upgrades," informed Al Faraj.

The Ajman real estate conference on December 14 will showcase property projects in the emirate and is expected to attract interest from investors based in the GCC, India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

The emirate has seen robust real estate activity in the year to date, with transactions worth Dh1.5 billion clinched so far. More than 18,000 freehold units were transacted during this period, up 39 per cent on 2015.

"The conference aims to show investors that Ajman is a safe place to invest," said the Rera official.

What attracted budget-conscious investors to Ajman freehold property in 2008 was the vast price difference in comparison with Dubai. That still holds true.

"Price wise, there is still a big gap between Dubai and Ajman. We have starting prices at Dh200,000 to Dh300,000 in Ajman. These can be paid on an installment basis and developers have in-house finance departments. We have around 15,000 ready-to-occupy units available in the market by reputed developers," added Al Faraj.

The Rera official also cited real estate returns in the range of 10 per cent. He added that GCC investors were mostly interested to purchase units in towers while Kuwaitis in particular were keen to purchase land plots. Al Faraj also cited Chinese investor interest in Ajman property.

"I am excited that developers want to get into Ajman. It means that that a viable property development market exists despite all that happened during the crisis years," Al Faraj concluded.

- deepthi@khaleejtimes.com

Deepthi Nair

deepthi@khaleejtimes.com