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%.
