Dubai timeshares offer tourism option
Tenants and home owners would benefit, industry experts say
A plan to develop a local timeshare market in Dubai will help to broaden the tourism sector by offering holidaymakers more options for affordable accommodation, industry experts said.
The initiative, which was unveiled by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing in Dubai on Saturday, is designed to woo more tourists to the emirate.
It aims to list between 500 and 1,000 timeshare properties, but is unlikely to be run under the traditional timeshare model that had its heyday in Europe in the 1970s and ’80s, experts said. In that arrangement, which many now see as outdated, numerous people bought a stake in the same property, and each “owner” would stay in it for about a week per year.
Dubai’s version of the timeshare would be more akin to an Airbnb-type arrangement, where people book short stays in a property with one owner on an ad hoc basis, the experts said.
That was illegal until a new system last year made it possible to let property for less than a year.
“What you were not able to do before is rent [your property out] for less than a year. What they are now saying is you can rent it for a day or a week, or a month, or whatever,” said Craig Plumb, head of research at JLL Mena. “This is probably the next step in that direction.”
It will inevitably create more competition for the hotel industry, but it was a positive move overall, Mr Plumb said.
Mario Volpi, sales and leasing manager at Engel & Volkers, said home owners and tenants would also benefit.
“The properties are lying empty, in some cases for at least a month or maybe longer with the school kids being off, so why not earn something,” he said.
“In addition, Dubai requires more hotel rooms in the runup to the Expo, so it would be a welcome addition to the market tourism sector.
“The concept of Airbnb is fantastic, so personally I feel it’s a great initiative that will open Dubai up to a different type of tourist. We have too many four and five-star hotels.
“I don’t think we have enough budget hotels, because Dubai is marketed as a five-star city, so this might open up to a different type of tourist,” Mr Volpi said.
A local short-stay timeshare market would be helpful in encouraging more stop-off passengers to spend longer in Dubai – particularly people seeking more affordable accommodation and those travelling with children, Mr Plumb said.
“If you are travelling with a family you might need two or three rooms,” he said.
“And then it boils down to price at the end of the day. You would probably prefer to stay in an apartment with the kids.”
He said he expected more emirates to eventually follow with similar systems.
“Although [the others] don’t have the same number of transit passengers, so Dubai is the obvious place to do this,” Mr Plumb said.