Dubai Land Department (DLD) stresses the importance of dealing with accredited and licensed real estate brokers who hold a real estate broker card issued by DLD. The message is consistent with the untiring efforts made by DLD to establish a secure real estate environment for all parties operating in the sector.
A secure real estate environment
In late 2016, DLD released a report confirming that at the end of the year, 5,933 active brokers and 2,285 registered offices were working in Dubai. In light of these figures, real estate brokers play an important role in supporting DLD’s vision by enhancing the rate of property transactions in the Emirate.
Yousif Al Hashimi, Deputy CEO of RERA– the regulatory arm of DLD – commented: “Our mission is to create a secure and sustainable real estate environment in Dubai, and this informs all of our operations and services. Dealing with registered and certified real estate brokers is central to achieving this, and to guarantee their rights, customers and investors must take great care in verifying the accuracy of ownership data for all property before entering into buying, selling and leasing activities.”
Regulation and support
DLD is regulating broker activities, by issuing controls and protocols via its various specialised sections and administrations. These are designed to guarantee the rights of all parties and reflect the crucial role brokers play in promoting Dubai’s real estate market. The department also runs comprehensive training programs that qualify brokers for work in this sector, including intensive initial sessions that award successful candidates with certified real estate broker cards. The training programmes teach brokers to perform with high efficiency and full transparency, while also providing high quality service and managing queries and complaints professionally.
The department also supports brokers in the field with its ‘Dubai Brokers’ smart application, which allows parties to enter ownership data and verify its accuracy for all properties. The Real Estate Licensing Department encourages all real estate brokers to make full use of this tool prior to the sale or lease of any property.
Al Hashimi has expressed his appreciation for the commitment of brokers in facilitating trade and providing options for a wide variety of investors. On the importance of the ‘Dubai Brokers’ application, he stressed that the tool has been designed to help brokers successfully close deals that are free of errors and complications, commenting: “Brokers can download this application from the ‘Play Store’ or the ‘Apple Store’ to take advantage of the many services at their fingertips. It is a crucial tool for everyone operating in Dubai’s real estate sector, including brokers, property owners, investors and buyers.”
UAE citizens top broker numbers
Dubai is home to a diversity of nationalities and this is also true of the Emirate’s real estate sector, where brokers and real estate office employees come from all over the world. Al Hashimi highlighted that this reflects the global nature of investments in Dubai.
DLD’s report reveals that UAE citizens ranked first in terms of the number of brokers in the market, followed by Indian nationals and Pakistani nationals, who have also achieved excellence in this field. In descending order, the other most active nationalities in the real estate market were discovered to be the UK, Egypt, Russia, Lebanon, Jordan and the Philippines.
The report also confirms the growing presence of women brokers in Dubai’s real estate market; today there are 1,946 women working in this field, compared to 3,987 men, representing 33% of the total numbers of brokers.
Brokers and real estate offices operating in the Emirate secured a high income from commissions for their services to investors and real estate development companies across the world. Together, they performed 32,932 transactions amounting to AED 1.52 billion.
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