{"id":39557,"date":"2017-01-04T04:21:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T21:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/?p=39557"},"modified":"2017-01-04T01:51:48","modified_gmt":"2017-01-03T18:51:48","slug":"abu-dhabi-introduces-three-per-cent-municipality-charge-on-households","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-introduces-three-per-cent-municipality-charge-on-households\/","title":{"rendered":"Abu Dhabi introduces three per cent municipality charge on households"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nABU DHABI \/\/ The new municipality fee payable by every expatriate tenant in Abu Dhabi is to be backdated to February last year. The fee, equivalent to 3 per cent of a tenant’s annual rent, has begun appearing in water and electricity bills from Abu Dhabi Distribution Company.\u200bThe backdating to last February, when the fee became law after its publication in the Official Gazette, means tenants face a double blow: they will pay not just for this year, but for 11 months of last year.In addition, the portion of the fee from last year is payable as a single lump sum, rather than monthly. Abu Dhabi Distribution Company is referring queries from worried tenants to Abu Dhabi Municipality.”With the tough market conditions and rising household costs, this will be an added pressure on every tenant, as it needs to be factored in by every household,” said Hitesh Raigaga, a senior analyst at the property agents Chestertons. “Increased costs and tighter wage increases mean households will have comparatively lower spending capacity.”Residential rents in Abu Dhabi fell by about 5 per cent last year as job cuts in the energy and banking sectors weakened demand, especially at the premium end of the market. But Andrew Covill, a director of property brokers Henry Wiltshire, said he did not expect that most people in the mid-income housing sector would be able to negotiate discounts. “The upper end of the market is definitely down – the big villas on Saadiyat and big apartments in Al Raha Beach. But the one and two-bed apartments haven’t changed. “I honestly don’t see it. We get a lot of people who come to us because their rental contract is due for renewal and they look around, make some low offers, people don’t accept them and they end up staying where they are. “These magic cheap places that everyone seems to think they can get simply aren’t there.”Mr Raigaga, however, said landlords should brace themselves for more requests from tenants for discounted rents when contracts come up for renewal.”Due to the continued cost cutting and downsizing in the oil and government sectors, we’ve witnessed increasing economic uncertainty, job cuts and, in many cases, a drop in allowances, forcing residents to seek cheaper and smaller options. So landlords should not be completely surprised by rent discount negotiations.”mfahy@thenational.ae
\n
\nSource : thenational.ae
\nRead more…Abu Dhabi introduces three per cent municipality charge on households<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABU DHABI \/\/ The new municipality fee payable by every expatriate tenant in Abu Dhabi...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-ai1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51514,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-homeowners-told-to-alter-value-of-homes-to-avoid-municipality-fee\/","url_meta":{"origin":39557,"position":0},"title":"Abu Dhabi homeowners told to alter value of homes to avoid municipality fee","date":"April 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ Homeowners have been advised to falsify the value of their property on an official document to avoid being billed for Abu Dhabi's new municipality fee, which should be charged only to tenants.The extraordinary advice came from Abu Dhabi Distribution Company, the utilities provider that collects the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50926,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/abu-dhabi-property-owners-wrongly-billed-for-municipality-fees\/","url_meta":{"origin":39557,"position":1},"title":"Abu Dhabi property owners wrongly billed for municipality fees","date":"April 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ Property owners are being wrongly billed for tens of thousands of dirhams in taxes from which they are exempt - and threatened with having utilities cut off if they do not pay.It is the latest problem for the new municipality fee system, introduced in January.Expatriate tenants\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39635,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/homeowners-off-the-hook-for-abu-dhabis-three-per-cent-municipality-fee\/","url_meta":{"origin":39557,"position":2},"title":"Homeowners off the hook for Abu Dhabi's three per cent municipality fee","date":"January 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Abu Dhabi's Department of Municipal Affairs and Transport (DMAT) said on Wednesday that the new 3 per cent municipality charge being introduced this month will not apply to homeowners, merely expatriate renters of property.A spokesman confirmed to The National that the fee covers tenancy agreements only, and is directly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10654,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/new-3-municipality-fee-on-abu-dhabi-expat-rentals-could-give-government-dh612m-boost\/","url_meta":{"origin":39557,"position":3},"title":"New 3% municipality fee on Abu Dhabi expat rentals could give government Dh612m boost","date":"April 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r The new municipality charge being levied against rental contracts in Abu Dhabi is likely to boost government revenues by about Dh612 million a year, according to National Bank of Abu Dhabi.The levy, which will be added as a monthly charge to utility bills, has been introduced as another\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28401,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/register-your-abu-dhabi-tenancy-contract-or-you-cant-sue-for-rental-fraud\/","url_meta":{"origin":39557,"position":4},"title":"Register your Abu Dhabi tenancy contract or you can't sue for rental fraud","date":"October 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r ABU DHABI \/\/ Prosecutors will no longer accept lawsuits filed by victims of rental fraud if their lease contract is not registered with Abu Dhabi Municipality.The decision will come into force next year and is aimed at decreasing the number of fraud cases involving rented property, said Hassan Al\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20756,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/average-abu-dhabi-housing-rents-fall-for-first-time-in-three-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":39557,"position":5},"title":"Average Abu Dhabi housing rents fall for first time in three years","date":"July 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Average housing rents in Abu Dhabi have fallen for the first time in three years driven by thousands of job cuts and an increase in the cost of living.The first signs of long expected falls in housing rents in Abu Dhabi started to appear in the three months to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}