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Strata Law Needed to Aid Property Market: Expert
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With the property sector growing at a fast pace, a strata law needs to be adopted in Qatar to ensure transparency and protection of the buyers, boost investment confidence and further expand real estate projects, an expert has said.
“Basically strata law is all about transferring control of buildings from developers to owners through an owners’ association,” said Peter Crogan (pictured), Chief Executive Officer of BCS Strata Management Services in Dubai. He was talking to The Peninsula after his presentation at the two-day ‘Next Generation Facilities Management Forum’, which concluded yesterday at the Millennium Hotel.
A strata law provides uniform rules and regulations for all jointly owned property, long-term funding for asset protection, proper insurance cover, and most importantly, owner involvement at all levels.
The association may elect a board with a manager who is an owner or avail of professional management services, which is preferable since the majority of owners here are nationals or living outside the country so they are not well represented in the community. The manager takes charge of the community in the best interest of the owners, guaranteeing the building is properly run and maintained and assisting in dispute mediation, among other things.
The strata law has been very effective in Dubai, the first and only place in the region to adopt it, and Crogan is of the view that it would also work well here since Qatar is taking the same direction.
“Owners associations have not been seen in Qatar at this stage because the government has yet to adopt a strata law,” Crogan explained. Currently, it is the developers that control the buildings, putting in place their own companies to maintain them. Transparency is not guaranteed in many situations.
“There’s around $23.5bn worth of projects between now and 2017. Investors look into buying properties in which they have control and they have their say, not only developers,” Crogan said.
He suggests the government improve the foreign investment environment, introduce new property laws to regulate and control industry sectors, register and license developers and real estate brokers, allow establishment of owners’ associations, and introduce laws and regulations for owners and an authority to monitor compliance.
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