Diary of a distressed property investor, Part II

Diary of a distressed property investor, Part II

I've visited Rera, confronted the developer and spoken to the real estate agent I bought the property from. I've gotten nowhere.

January 3, 2009 7:03 by kippreport

We know property investors are struggling, and for the most part, we know why. But what most us don’t know are the everyday struggles they’re going through. One investor agreed to write a journal of her experiences for Kipp. We asked her to be ruthless: she obliged.

We’ve withheld her name for legal reasons.

I went to Rera last week. And when I finally got someone to talk to me about my concerns, I was confronted with a Dubai truth: some government employees’ brains go on vacation well before the public holidays begin. I was advised to return after the New Year’s celebrations.

“Why?” I asked.

“It’s a holiday,” said a young attendant.

“What holiday? It’s the 29th (of December)?” I asked, a little hysterically.

I didn’t get a response from him. And that taught me another Dubai truth: any sign of hysteria, anger, disapproval or discontent on your part will result in an immediate breakdown of communication on theirs.

But rather than wait until 2009 to sort my property situation out, I decided to keep looking for answers and solutions to my problem. Here’s what I discovered:

My developer has no idea what it’s doing. I found out that the head salesman has been lying about the fact that they’ve broken ground (he said they broke ground in August, but the ground breaking ceremony is in the first week of January 2009), and he denies ever saying that they will be offering financing through Badr Al Islami. He even asked me to “stop causing trouble.” I almost choked on my own saliva when I heard that.

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Tags: Dubai, investor, problems, property, Real estate

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3 Comments

Bita Erfani on January 4, 2009 1:58 pm

Thank you for talking about your experience with your property investment in Dubai.

I think that what you have mentioned as your experience might be happening to several of the investors out there who might also be trying to resolve financial issues within a few days or push for answers.

Obviously this is not the general outlook of the market in Dubai.
In the current situation where people all over the world are losing money and getting no answers, all the developers in Dubai have been putting forward exeptional effort in keeping the construction going on and finding solutions that fit both the developer and the investor.

You must understand that right now solutions can not be decided and planned in a small time frame. That is the reason why you might not recieve an answer from the developer right away.

The Real Estate Regulatory AUthority is monitoring all developers and you can be assured that no one will run away with your money.

Its taking the american government forever to come up with a proposal, so i am sure you can give a developer a few weeks to sort out this problem.

Also I can promise you that if you get into a negotiation with a negative attitute all doors will immediately close. Be positive, accept delay and trust in this city’s ambition and intentions and future, and you will surely reap returns beyond any other investment, anywhere else in the world.

Bita Erfani
Global real estate
Dubai
Peter Hammilton on January 9, 2009 9:59 pm

Bita Erfani: You say : “Also I can promise you that if you get into a negotiation with a negative attitute all doors will immediately close”

Yes, excactly , if all of us, thousands of “once” valued investors is going to tell the truth about what we have to bear since years there in Dubai, with all this so high reputated Developers, who never heard the word Customer Service, who only are only the Best of the Best in the World………. if we the buyers are telling the truth ….. this is negative …. and in Dubai you the Developers together with other Departments are doing what you say. You call it , we blame something and a lot of more…. and thank you for showing the us here the truth , of the best well known action you take against investors:

“Also I can promise you that if you get into a negotiation with a negative attitute all doors will immediately close”

Thank you for this confirmation – and the acts how Dubai is punishing investors – that`s why all who had ever got this experience will never again fall in the charme of property market in Dubai.
Will Bartlett on January 12, 2009 10:17 am

This exposes Dubai for what it really is…. a scam, tax frauding economy that launders money on behalf of all crooks in the world.

Unless Dubai stops being the gateway to terror ridden Islamic countries, it will ot get anywhere. What was the world thinking, investing in a place like this? Dawood Ibrahim, the master mind behind all Indian sub-continent terrorism is based legally in Duabi.