OPEN DAY
Opening up to people RERA’s new initiative of ‘Open Tuesday’ is a step for investors and developers to reach out directly to the government By Ambily Vijaykumar
DUBAI REAL TIMES
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t is a new initiative that RERA believes will help bridge the communication gap between builders, developers, investors, banks and the government. Started just over two months ago, Open Tuesday has become a platform for people involved in the real estate sector to communicate with the government authorities and convey their problems and fears at a time when there of considerable uncertainty with regard to the status of various projects. “It is not possible to address the issues of all our clients in one day with fixed appointments. So we thought this open forum will be a great platform to interact with the parties concerned, and get a feedback from end-users as well, on what their apprehensions and problems are. Earlier, it would take me an hour at least to listen to individual complaints. Now all I need is five minutes,” says Essa Saeed Ahmed Al Mansoori, Head of Trust Accounts Section at RERA. This step is part of the larger initiatives the regulatory agency plans to implement in the coming months. The general complaint the agency has been getting through its ‘Open Tuesday’ initiative is with on the construction status of various projects. “Most complaints are on the lines that people have paid up to 40 per cent of the money for the project, but the construction has not begun.
Essa Saeed Ahmed Al Mansoori, Head of Trust Accounts Section at RERA
So they are keen to know what is going on,” says Essa Saeed Ahmed Al Mansoori. “This is something the developers need to clarify with their investors,” he adds. However, people want a direct interaction with the government. It is to address this issue that RERA is also planning to offer chat room facility on its website for clients in the future. But investor confidence is something RERA is working hard to rebuild and so they have mooted a plan to launch a project within the next three months that will enable investors to keep track of their payments. “The investor will be given a username and password and they can track on their payments. RERA has been working on this project since November last year and we are hoping to get it ready within
the next three months,” informed Al Mansoori. Despite all the concerns however, RERA says the market has stabilized. Both developers and investors are looking for information and RERA is ensuring that it is acting as a medium to dispatch the information. “They are satisfied that the information being given to them is keeping them on track and they are better able to understand what is going on with regard to their projects and investments.”