ASSET MANAGEMENT SALES LEASING VALUATION & ADVISORY SALES MANAGEMENT OWNER ASSOCIATION NEWS BRIEF 51 SUNDAY, 17 DECEMBER 2017 RESEARCH DEPARTMENT DUBAI | ABU DHABI | AL AIN | SHARJAH | JORDAN | KSA IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR 30 YEARS © Asteco Property Management, 2017 asteco.com ASSET MANAGEMENT SALES LEASING VALUATION & ADVISORY SALES MANAGEMENT OWNER ASSOCIATION REAL ESTATE NEWS UAE / GCC ADDING VALUE TO YOUR HOME STANDS THE TEST OF TIME US RATE HIKES WILL LEAVE SOME PAIN FOR UAE MORTGAGE TAKERS TRENDS IN OFFICE REALTY GETTING YOUR HOME READY FOR THE NEW YEAR HOW RETAIL WILL LOOK IN 2030 CROWDFUNDING REAL ESTATE: A NEW REALITY BOOMING? REAL ESTATE MARKETING IN THE DIGITAL AGE HOUSING AND RETAIL: FINDING THE RIGHT MIX MAKING AI WORK IN REAL ESTATE WHAT’S AILING THE OFFICE SEGMENT? EGYPT REVIVES DREAM OF NEW DESERT CAPITAL EXCLUSIVE: GFH PLANS TO DEVELOP ‘ONE OF THE KEY LAND BANKS IN THE REGION’ WHY ANIMAL SPIRITS ARE BLINDING REAL ESTATE INVESTORS GOLD MINES AND LAND MINES IN THE PROPERTY MARKET DUBAI GEMINI LAUNCHES CONSTRUCTION OF SYMPHONY MEGA DEALS LIGHT UP THE PALM THIS YEAR DUBAI’S SECONDARY MARKET PROPERTY SALES DON’T TELL FULL STORY DUBAI’S PALM SWAYS TO THE BRANDED LIFESTYLE BEAT SAUDI ARABIA’S BIGGEST DEVELOPER GOES FOR TALL IN DUBAI BULGARI TAKES A JEWELLER’S APPROACH TO BUILDING HOTELS DUBAI RENTAL DECLINES PICK UP IN OCTOBER: ANALYST DUBAI’S RENTAL DECLINES WILL BE LIMITED TO A NARROW RANGE THE GATE AVENUE AT DIFC REMAINS ON TRACK DIFC AIMS TO LEASE 90% OF UNITS AT DH1BN GATE AVENUE BEFORE COMPLETION, OFFICIAL SAYS HOW DO WE SELL OUR SPRINGS VILLA IF WE LIVE IN THE UK? DUBAI | ABU DHABI | AL AIN | SHARJAH | JORDAN | KSA IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR 30 YEARS © Asteco Property Management | 2017 | asteco.com Page 2 ASSET MANAGEMENT SALES LEASING VALUATION & ADVISORY SALES MANAGEMENT OWNER ASSOCIATION REAL ESTATE NEWS SAUDI DEVELOPER DAR AL ARKAN EXPANDS FOOTPRINT WITH US$218M DUBAI TOWER LIGHT SHOW TO TAKE CENTRE STAGE AT DOWNTOWN DUBAI’S NEW YEAR EXTRAVAGANZA 2017: THE YEAR OF THE SKYSCRAPER EMAAR SET TO DISTRIBUTE DH4 BILLION DIVIDEND DEVELOPERS GO ALL OUT TO WOO PROPERTY BUYERS DUBAI PRIME HOME RENTS MAY FALL FURTHER ABU DHABI ABU DHABI’S HOME RENTS WILL REMAIN UNDER INTENSE PRESSURE ABU DHABI RENTAL CORRECTION TO CONTINUE INTO 2018 INCENTIVES GALORE IN ABU DHABI PROPERTY ABU DHABI TENANTS SPOILT FOR CHOICE NORTHERN EMIRATES SEWA MULLS BOT PROJECT FOR HAMRIYAH POWER PLANT INTERNATIONAL COLONY BETS ON BREXIT BOOST FOR DUBLIN WITH $1.2B PROJECT SOUTHEAST ASIAN BUILDERS TO REAP GAINS FROM $323B SPREE INDIA'S BUILDERS HOPE FOR AN IMPROVEMENT NEXT YEAR EXPAT INDIANS TURN SNUB HOUSING MARKET AT HOME LONDON PROPERTY MARKET LIKELY TO CONTINUE PRICE DROP IN 2018 DUBAI | ABU DHABI | AL AIN | SHARJAH | JORDAN | KSA DEFINING LANDSCAPES SINCE 1985 © Asteco Property Management, 2017 asteco.com Page 3 ASSET MANAGEMENT SALES LEASING VALUATION & ADVISORY SALES MANAGEMENT OWNER ASSOCIATION ADDING VALUE TO YOUR HOME STANDS THE TEST OF TIME Saturday, December 16, 2017 To be sure, any discussion relating to smart home technology inevitably encroaches on the issue of home owners associations and by extension that of facilities management. There has been substantial commentary on the hyper- competitive nature of this industry, and how this has led to poor management services being offered. This ultimately boomerangs into poor upkeep of the asset and therefore lower re sale values. Unsurprisingly, this has already started becoming visible in the data; investors who have overlooked this critical aspect in the first boom-bust cycle of Dubai’s freehold have started to pay the price in terms of their resale values. Herein lies a clarion call: much like the real estate industry in the rest of the world, investors and end users in Dubai will have to make investment decisions based on the pro-activeness of the “association board” if they are to enjoy above market returns over time. It is not at all surprising that in the one-way markets that Dubai experienced in the first cycle of 2002-08, as well as the subsequent decline in asset values, the role of facilities management and that of home owners associations was systemically ignored. Evidence suggests that in the evolution of most real estate markets, this was the typical experience. In point of fact, the role of home owners associations (historically considered to be a “premium service”) was relegated to the backwaters of decision making. And thus was always outsourced using the extended enterprise model. The output, typically, was a degradation of the asset. The poor upkeep of the building led to lower resale values, and over time (measured over a decade and above), the predominant distinguishing factor between upper and lower quartile resale values was not views or locations, but rather the role of owners associations. In an article for “Harvard Business Review”, the authors concluded that 63 per cent of the price differential could be accounted for by the level of budgets and the role of the Board over a 15-year time frame. In Dubai, the role of the home owners association has been a recent development. Already, however, what has been witnessed is a clear distinction in prices. Even in upscale areas like Dubai Marina, there have been instances (more so towards the southern part of the area), where the differential between the upper quartile and lower quartile prices have been an astonishing Dh300 per square foot. While this looks surprising, anecdotal evidence abounds where tenants and investors have been complaining about the upkeep of certain assets as developers have cut corners, that have only shown up visibly over a passage of time. Across Dubai, the min-max levels are actually increasing, suggesting greater degrees of variable quality in post handover building management. What investors and end users need to keep in mind is that a proactive home owners association is part of capital expenditure. It adds value to the asset only over the longer term. In Dubai’s market, where the bulk of the investors historically have been based abroad, the emphasis thus far has been to keep costs low, thereby maximising yield. This has come at the cost of the upkeep of the asset. What we have seen in our experience (this stands the evidence of time internationally as well) is that “high yielding” buildings subsequently trade at discounts to the market. Moreover, in times where the market is focused on quality more than price (the current environment of Dubai), even the yields start to fall, as tenants have better options to choose from. This implies that there is no free lunch available to the long term investor. It is up to the investor and the end-user to exert pressure on to their building managers if they are to preserve the value of their asset. Happily, we are starting to seeing this factor enforcing itself more and more in the local real estate market. For overseas investors, as well as domestic residents, the role of technology in the upkeep of assets is moving to the forefront of decision-making. This will force developers to engage with their stakeholders and instill a culture of a proactive homeowners associations, one where longer term thinking prevails. This is a slow moving trend in the industry; what is obvious is that this trend is finally underway. Source: Gulf News Back to Index DUBAI | ABU DHABI | AL AIN | SHARJAH | JORDAN | KSA DEFINING LANDSCAPES SINCE 1985 © Asteco Property Management, 2017 asteco.com Page 4 ASSET MANAGEMENT SALES LEASING VALUATION & ADVISORY SALES MANAGEMENT OWNER ASSOCIATION US RATE HIKES WILL LEAVE SOME PAIN FOR UAE MORTGAGE TAKERS Friday, December 15, 2017 Is the US Federal Reserve out to spoil the UAE property market’s mortgage party? The latest rate hike, up by 0.25 per cent, and the ones to follow in short order will be leaving UAE mortgage takers with much higher instalment costs than what they had signed up for. Here’s a typical example; assume an end-user made a 30 per cent down payment (Dh450,000) on a Dh1.5 million apartment and takes out a mortgage of Dh1.05 million for 25 years. When the monthly repayments mirror the 0.25 per cent hike, the buyer will have to pay Dh171,000 extra in interest payments over the lifetime of the mortgage. And if the Fed takes the rate hike to 1 per cent in the coming months, the EMI (equated monthly instalments) on this Dh1.05 million mortgage will jack up to Dh5,682 a month from Dh5,111 (before the 0.25 per cent hike effected on December 13, according to estimates from GCP-Reidin. The rates hikes do come at a crucial time for the mortgage marketplace in the UAE. All through the year, there has been a gradual increase in the number of end-users buying property financed through homes loans. The latest data records that this year, 97 per cent of apartment deals were effected through mortgages (as against a mere 19 per cent in 2010). As for villas, mortgages are there in 58 per cent of the deals and up from 48 per cent in 2010. According to Sameer Lakhani, Managing Director of Global Capital Partners, the burden of the US rate increases needn’t be felt by all those with mortgage exposures in the UAE. “Mortgages are on fixed rates for between one and three years and thereafter switch to a floating mechanism,” said Lakhani. “So, the impact of rate rises in the US will be felt with a lag in the mortgage market, especially on the recent mortgage deals.