Five steps and as little as three days to grab a building permit in Dubai

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ratified a shortened building permit process, helping to further enhance the emirate’s real estate sector.

The strategy, initially announced in February, has five steps requiring all the involved public authorities to reply to submitted applications within three days for each step, dependent upon the consultant and contractor meeting all requirements. The assistant director general of Dubai Municipality of Engineering and Planning, Daoud Al Hajri, said that the committee overseeing the process has formed four teams to revise the process as needed.

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One team will work on developing the new building regulations based on customer and company feedback. The other teams will look into licensing of consultancies and contractors, ensuring compliance of building materials, and analysing bids from IT firms to develop an electronic payment system.

The Emirate's strategy on building permit procedures is based on three pillars: the development and streamlining of permit procedures, bringing together systems and requirements, and providing a “one-stop shop” where the complete permit process from A to Z can be completed.

In the future, contractors and consultancies will have a streamlined building regulatory framework in place providing a comprehensive guideline. This will be executed via an advanced electronic platform, in line with the Smart Dubai initiative.

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Part of the emirate’s Smart Dubai initiative is to increase digitisation within government offices. The government released a Dubai data economic impact report earlier this year that said open and shared data had the potential to add more than Dh10 billion to the economy annually. “This estimate includes the impact of publishing and sharing both private and government sector data. That’s an additional Dh4,000 per person added to the economy,” the report said.

The government said that by opening government data alone, the added value would be Dh4.3 bn to Dh6.6bn annually as of 2021. “It is clear that the big value drivers of impact for Dubai are the transport, storage and communication sector; the public administration sector; wholesale, retail trade, restaurants and hotels sector; and the real estate sector,” the report said.