2011 land valuation requests worth

The Land Department has witnessed a decline in the number of valuation requests for projects in the emirate, citing evidence of stability in the real estate market. The department's Real Estate Valuation Committee said yesterday it valued 1,971 properties in 2011, clocking in at a value of Dh99 billion — 63 per cent of which were for undeveloped plots of land and 37 per cent for finished buildings. "In the last two years we used to receive up to 3,000 requests as the market was going through a restructuring and correction process. However, the number is less this year as the market is showing a kind of stability," said Mohammad Khodr Al Dah, head of the Real Estate Appraisal Centre. Dubai's Land Department is the only authorised body to evaluate property or land in the emirate, meaning developers or owners have to go to the appraisal centre for valuation in the case of property disputes, sales or other transactions. This is due to change once Dubai passes its long-awaited Valuation Law, which will allow private companies to perform valuations but which has been pending for three years. "[Once the law is passed] we will be authorised to license private valuation companies to issue fair evaluation reports about land in Dubai," Al Dah said. According to the annual report issued by the Appraisal Centre, 32.4 per cent of applications were requested by Dubai Municipality for government-owned land, banks were responsible by 12 per cent of requests. Other requests were linked to court cases, financing and auctions.