Dubai has become one of the most expensive cities in the world, having recently joined world centres like London and New York on that list.
At the same time, however, the Dubai government has not done much by way of regulation on rising property prices. They did institute a rent cap earlier on in the year, but even with that in place, there are many people that cannot afford to live in Dubai because of the excessive rental increase compared to income.
In an effort to encourage more innovation in their economy, the Dubai government has decided to step in once again and put a control on rent prices. However, rather than controlling what landlords can charge for rent, the Dubai government will work through the commercial property owned by the Dubai Real Estate Corporation.
According to a DREC member, the rent discount will be 20% in size, which represents a large chunk of money for entrepreneurs operating on a fixed amount of capital. According to the latest DREC figures, the rent reduction will positively help over 3,000 small business organizations as well as over 1,000 individual operations. All in all, a large number of people living in Dubai will see some direct or indirect effects from this move by the Dubai Real Estate Corporation.
There is as yet no word from the Dubai government on whether similar plans are in line for individuals living in Dubai or whether they have any plans to curb the rising property prices, but for the moment it appears as if this is the extent of the regulatory measures that the Dubai government will be imposing on the real estate market in 2008.
