Aldar to allow customers to pay rent by credit card

Payments can be made monthly, quarterly or annually, with the developer offering to pick up the relevant card fees

Aldar Properties reported a 2% jump in second-quarter net profit despite the impact of Covid-19 as a result of a 21% surge in revenue. Christopher Pike / The National

Aldar Properties is offering customers the option to pay their rent by credit card starting from today.

Abu Dhabi's largest listed developer says customers can now pay rent in advance using a credit card either on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis, with the developer offering to pay the relevant credit card fees. Payments can currently only be made in person at one of the offices of the developer's real estate management arm, Provis, but online and mobile payment options are set to follow.

“At Aldar, we are always looking for new ways to enhance the customer experience and allowing customers to pay rent by credit is yet another example of our commitment in this regard," the developer's executive director of portfolio management, Meqdad Al Mubarak, said.

"We believe that this new payment method will offer considerable value to our residents."

Currently, most rental payments in the UAE are made in the form of post-dated cheques. This has occassionally caused difficulties for both landlords and tenants alike, with landlords exposed to lost revenue from tenants whose cheques bounce, while some tenants have handed over large cheques covering annual rental payments to fraudsters who do not own the properties they are supposedly leasing.

Aldar said the new payment option is available across all of the company’s communities and builds on initiatives recently undertaken "to increase flexibility and convenience for residential customers".

These initiatives include the launch of rent-to-own schemes across projects including West Yas, Ansam, Al Hadeel, and Meera and Dh190 million worth of support measures for customers during the pandemic, such as monthly payment plans for residential rents and subsidised financing for homeowners. The developer also offered payment plans on Aldar Education school fees and additional support for retail tenants in its communities.

Last week, Aldar said it increased net profit by 2 per cent to Dh484m in the second quarter while revenue jumped 21 per cent to Dh2 billion despite "a challenging market environment".

Average rental rates in Abu Dhabi dropped 2.2 per cent for apartments and 2 per cent for villas quarter-on-quarter for the three months ending June 30, according to Chestertons, and sale prices fell 1.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively, over the same period.

However, sales volumes are forecast to pick up in the second half of the year due to "generous developer incentives, such as extended post-handover payment plans, initial service charge waivers and discounted prices", Chestertons MENA's head of strategic consultancy, Chris Hobden, said last month.

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