The General Real Estate Authority has confirmed that it does not permit the practice of off-plan real estate projects or advertising them in local or foreign media, or holding exhibitions for them and promoting them, except after obtaining a license permitting such activities, and that violators of the off-plan sales and leasing regulations shall be subject to the penalties and sanctions set forth in the regulations, which were established to regulate the real estate market and ensure the protection of the rights of all contracting parties.
Advantages of Off-Plan Sales
The Authority clarified that the “Regulation on the Off-Plan Sale and Lease of Real Estate Projects” includes numerous provisions that will take effect ninety days after the date of the regulation’s publication in the Official Gazette, and the system repeals any provisions that conflict with it, as it includes provisions regulating off-plan sales and leasing activities in a manner that enhances the efficiency of developers and practitioners engaged in the ownership or leasing of real estate for the purpose of developing, selling, or leasing it, and to reduce violations and visual pollution resulting from inefficiency, and to control violations in building, construction, and development by establishing oversight and inspection mechanisms under engineering, accounting, and legal supervision, as well as regulating and prohibiting the collection of funds except through official permits and into real estate development guarantee accounts, from which funds may only be disbursed in accordance with disbursement documentation.
The “Real Estate Authority” stated that, in order to ensure reliability and streamline procedures, system allows for the registration of natural persons in the developers" registry and grants them a license to engage in the sale and lease of off-plan real estate projects, and a commitment by the developer to commence construction of the real estate project within six months of obtaining the license, and grants the competent authority the right to add or amend certain licensing conditions, The draft regulation also stipulates that the competent authority must decide on the application within thirty days of the date the required documents are completed; if that period expires without a decision, the application is deemed approved, If the competent authority rejects the application, the decision must be supported by reasons.
