DIFC Revises Freehold Transfer Fee

In order to address the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) concerns about overinflated markets and to secure long term stability of the DIFC property market, the DIFC Authority announced a revised freehold transfer fee from 3.5% to 5%. The amendments came into effect on Tuesday 01 April 2014 to allow one week grace period for relevant parties to register their freehold transfers at the current rate of 3.5%. The DIFC Authority proposed amendments to the Real Property Regulations relating to an increase of its Freehold Transfer Fee in the publication for consultation Paper No. 1 of 2014. The original proposal was to increase the Freehold Transfer Fee to 6% but based on the comments received, the increase was revised to 5%.