Zirve Eki - ISTANBUL REstate

take their money, do the investment and get out as well? Right?
How did you build that transparency? How did you build that trust?
Marwan Bin Ghulaita: As I said from when I started my speech,
the trust of Dubai is since 1960 or before even that. But when you
look at it as a government perspective, if you need to bring direct
foreign investment, you need a unique system, a simple system.
You don't need that, too much procedures to finish any business
and this is what the Dubai government is doing. Putting a system
in place is very simple and secure because when you talk about the
real estate. It about protecting the rights. Everybody has his house
or has units or has business very valuable for him. So he need of
a proof from the government to do that. So investing in technology
this is what Dubai government did. Investing in technology, we
have one of the best systems regarding real estate transactions.
The other thing is partnering with the private sector. Private sector
partnership is a very big move in Dubai. You come to a strategic
partner like Reidin. We have been doing some advertisement for
them. But those people knows how to analyze the data. We have
the data as a government but with a partner from the private sector,
you make it more transparent for the private business to give them
the information from a third party source. We do provide them
with the information they need. The information that you are
getting in Reidin side or our, the Dubai side is very trusted and
secure information, it's coming from the government. But the way
that it has been presented, it is based on the requirement of a
private sector. So investing in technology, investing in HR, we are
human. We are most of the people who are working in land
department are local and if you look at our department, Ahmet
and you know that, three years in the row we always win the
customer satisfaction award among Dubai government. So this is
where any investor would like to come. He would like to come and
make secure transaction. Provide me the information and be
transparent to me and give me a simple, not complicated rules and
regulation, and this is what we give in Dubai. If somebody...
Ahmet Kayhan: Can you give some hard facts like samples like
escrow...developers.Some of them, they don't exist in Dubai, in
Istanbul, in Turkey. So I want you to hear re-trust. You are working
on that.
Marwan Bin Ghulaita: like the trust I talked about previously
people come in Dubai and just write a check to any developers
there in Dubai based on the trust of the government. But today
the structure is we have a trust account. This trust account guarantees
the investor's money. Whenever you buy any property in Dubai,
the first thing the developer will give you is the registry and initial
registration from the government. Even though if you are sitting
in the developer office, you are getting approval from the government
of Dubai that you have purchased a property in Dubai. We could
not be able to do it without a technology and without partnering
with the developer. So now when you go and buy a property from
a developer, he will give you approval from the government that
you own something or you start owning something. Second, all
your money will go in trust account monitored by the government.
So the developer cannot play with it. Only it will go to their
construction cost. And if you come to the agent, we do training
for the agent to serve the customer very well.
118 GYODER
Gayrimenkul Zirvesi 10
16-17 Haziran 2010
Ahmet Kayhan: Professionalism.
Marwan Bin Ghulaita: Professionalism. So if you go to any
agent in Dubai you should ask him the prices, you should ask him
about the regulation and he will give you with it add one more
index which is the rental index. If any of you today want to go to
Dubai and he want to stay there for opening a business or to stay
there for a year or so, before even he reach a ground in Dubai, he
can check all the rental index in Dubai. How much is going to cost
me to rent one bedroom, two bedroom or a villa. Why he is sitting
here in Turkey? We are that much transparent by giving the people
the information that they can do their diligence even before they
come to Dubai. And you cannot do this without the technology and
without partnering with private sector.
Ahmet Kayhan: Thank you. Doctor, for that experience and for
the developers perspective from there to here is painful. When the
government or any regulators starts fixing it, it gets more painful.
Right? Because there are things has to be done. Even though that
is crucial, you know, painful, it has to be done. That is why because
of these things are done. We are asking a stabilized economy,
stabilized real estate, which is even slowly going up, but more
healthier. How painful was it for you as a developer? Is there anything
painful? What was your perspective on that?
Mosab AlJassim: My personal experience actually it was not
painful. We were not used to be regulated. And also when it comes
with regulations, then you have to update your systems and make
yourself adapted to the new regulations because ultimately this is
for the sake of the investor himself, the developer because you are
sometimes, there is no trust and no investors will come and buy.
And once you do this with having the right regulations you actually
protecting the investor, protecting the developer or the landlord,
and eventually protecting and adding value to the economy. So this
differently had created a lot of not pain but a lot of compliance, I
would say, issues which took some time for us to be binded to. The
good thing here is that our friends are really very dynamic and they
are attached to the market. And they know what the market is. This
creates some turbulences as well, but eventually they come as
regulators to be in the middle between the landlord, the developer
and between the buyer and the investor. So I think this was for the
good of the economy and for the industry in general. It also filters,
in my opinion, the good ones from the bad ones. People who had
good intentions to complete and develop the projects will have to
issues to comply with the regulations. People who were short-term
investors or speculators; we don't want them in Dubai anyway. So...
Ahmet Kayhan: This is a long term game.
Mosab AlJassim: Exactly.
Ahmet Kayhan: I want to pass it to the crowd right now. Any
questions? Please raise your hand, share your name with us, and
the company. Any specific questions? Nobody is dying to ask a
question. Okay. I got it.
Mosab AlJassim: I am going to tell you about when you said...
Ahmet Kayhan: Please
Mosab AlJassim: Look at here. When you said more gain more
pain. So if you want to gain more you need to take the head. But
what I am saying is if you look at the chart guys, today Dubai is
giving you a lifestyle, an excellent lifestyle with affordable cost.