DUBAI // Some 150 owners' associations have been registered and their service fees approved, said the head of Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) on Wednesday evening.
"They are the people in charge now," said CEO Marwan bin Ghalaita, speaking on the sidelines of a panel discussion at the Dubai School of Government.
Most of the registered OAs are located in the Marina, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Old Town and the Palm Jumeirah, he said.
The associations, which were introduced under Dubai's strata law, are meant to take control of property maintenance and costs from their residential building developers. For many years owners had complained that developers charged high fees with little accountability.
The average service fee charge these days is Dh14 per square foot, Mr Ghalaita said.
Rera is required to approve service-fee budgets for buildings but is not setting a cap on the amount, he said. "It depends on the property."
The deadline for developers to submit the documentation required to register their owners associations passed last October - at which time many developers had yet to comply. After that it was up to Rera to approve the registrations.
The number of registered OAs far exceeds that which had been publicised so far.
"That's fantastic news," said Adrian Quinn, chairman of Essential Community Management. "Last time we heard it was only three."
"In the next six months we hope that, with Rera helping put pressure on developers to make their OAs registered as fast as possible, it'll be for the benefit of all owners, purchasers and the whole investment market for Dubai," he said.
chuang@thenational.ae