Abu Dhabi sets up new section for property registration - Khaleej Times (from WAM)

Rights to buy and sell:

The law grants citizens the right to sell and purchase, housing, commercial, investment and agricultural plots other than industrial plots leased from the municipality, provided that they get written permission from the respective municipalities and after, at least, five calendar years from the date the plot was acquired.

(emphasis added)

Why this waiting period regulation? Is there some concern that there would be a speculative bubble in real estate transactions if they were allowed right away? Perhaps. But, no, I think it's because the government doesn't want the owner to immediately convert the property to cash and then spend it profligately. It's a cooling off period.

Right to demand a house from the government:

The land buyer [seller, actually] will also pledge in a written commitment never to demand another land to make for the one he is willing to sell or engage it in other transactions.

(emphasis added)

This is interesting. It's like the U.S. government saying if you build your house in a flood plain we won't help you replace it. That's a hard pledge for a paternalistic government to make, and people take advantage of that softheartedness. Forseeing that problem, the U.S. government limits your ability to build in a flood plain -- similar to the way the UAE government says you cannot sell within the first five years of acquisition.

Property registration:

The law provides for the appointment of a registrar at each property registration section, who will report to the chairman of respective municipality. The registrar will be assisted by citizens. The property registration section's duties include creation and maintaining of a property register, registration of all property transactions, endorsement of relevant signatures on the registration documents, filing original registration documents while issuing copies of them to the parties involved and issuing of survey certificates for properties as per entry in the register.

Was there property registration section before, or if there was how did its duties differ from these? I don't know. Ambiguity over property rights has serious negative consequences. I wonder if that is what motivated the new law.

I think the new ruler, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has the aim of creating an ownership society:

An ownership society values responsibility, liberty, and property. Individuals are empowered by freeing them from dependence on government handouts and making them owners instead, in control of their own lives and destinies. In the ownership society, patients control their own health care, parents control their own children's education, and workers control their retirement savings.

(emphasis added)

If so, he's following George W. Bush's rhetoric.

I'm waiting to see when the citizens of the UAE are given ownership rights in the country's natural resources, all of which are currently possessed by the government.