New initiatives soon to regulate housing sector
Governance of the real estate brokerage sector aims to regulate brokerage companies and reduce unlicensed real estate brokerage
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning is implementing eight initiatives in the field of governance and preparing a set of laws and regulations that regulate the real estate sector and related activities in the Sultanate of Oman with a view of achieving strategic objectives, enhancing decentralisation, developing institutional performance as well as boosting sustainability and competitiveness.
The most prominent among those initiatives are the governance of the real estate valuation sector, establishing controls and standards for regulating real estate valuation companies and offices in the Sultanate of Oman and classifying them, preparing highly qualified real estate appraisers for organising and controlling the real estate market to conduct true valuation of lands and properties as well as preparing a draft regulation with the participation of the authorities concerned.
The governance of the real estate brokerage sector initiative aims to regulate the real estate brokerage companies and reduce unlicensed real estate brokerage. The draft is expected to be referred to the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs by the end of this year.
Another initiative aims to issue a regulation of the real estate registry law, which is one of the important initiatives that the ministry is currently working to prepare the final draft of the regulation of the real estate registry law to encompass all the requirements of the real estate registry law and keep pace with the digital transformation of transactions.
The law will set controls and conditions to regulate the real estate registry in accordance with provisions of the Land Registry Law in the Sultanate of Oman The ministry is finalising the issuance of the regulations for the expropriation law for the public benefit and reviewing the executive regulations for the expropriation law for the public interest to be consistent with the requirements of the next phase. The initiative aims to issue a regulation for the expropriation law for the public interest within the course of this year.
Also on the cards is an initiative to issue an integrated Urban Planning Law alongside its executive regulations by seeking assistance from an expert house in accordance with the foundations and standards of the strategy for urban development and the future directions of the ministry.
In addition, the ministry is preparing the Housing Law and its executive regulations. This initiative aims to complete the procedures for issuing the Housing Law by reviewing and unifying the laws related to the field of social housing and land and organising the use of lands in the Sultanate of Oman under the unified umbrella of the Housing Law in a way that keeps pace with future changes.
In the field of real estate regulation, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning seeks to review and unify laws related to the field of real estate development, escrow accounts, owners’ associations, real estate brokerage, and real estate evaluation in the Sultanate of Oman under the single legal system titled the Real Estate Regulatory Law.
The ministry is also studying the current situation of the governance of foreigners’ ownership of usufruct for a period of 99 years by opening the door to ownership for foreigners as a usufruct outside integrated tourism complexes by specifying areas in which they can own usufruct for a period of 99 years.