UAE | Housing & Property

Dearth of Khalifa flats stalls lottery

The Shaikh Khalifa Committee continues its lottery system to distribute vacant housing units to residents.

  • By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:53 May 23, 2008
  • Gulf News

  • People queue up at the Khalifa committee to register for the lottery of apartments.
  • Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
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Abu Dhabi: The Shaikh Khalifa Committee is still continuing with its lottery system to distribute vacant housing units to residents.

"We don't hold the draw regularly because there are no vacant flats every day," a senior official told Gulf News.

"Whenever a vacant flat is available we put the details on the website to conduct the draw," said Mohammad Abdullah, Deputy Director of the rent section at the Finance Department of the Commercial Buildings Department of Abu Dhabi Government, popularly known as the Shaikh Khalifa Committee.

He was responding to complaints from residents that no vacant flats are available on the committee's website.

"I have been regularly participating in the draw for more than a year but I have not found any flats on the website during the past three months," a resident told Gulf News.

"Earlier at least I had a distant hope of moving out of my shared accommodation. Now that too has faded as I haven't found any flats on the website," said B.S., an expatriate.

Gulf News has received a number of similar complaints from residents.

He said 773 people participated in the draw for the only available apartment on Tuesday, a two-bedroom flat on Hamdan Street with an annual rent of about Dh30,000.

"The number of participants was not so high because the building is old and people may not be checking the website regularly as there aren't vacant flats every day," said the official.

The official made it clear that the committee still manages a number of residential buildings. He said transferring the management of buildings to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has not yet been completed.

Bank role

Abu Dhabi government had given the mandate to ADCB to take over the management of the Shaikh Khalifa Committee by concluding an open tender in 2006.

The chief executive officer of ADCB had earlier told Gulf News there are about 3,500 commercial buildings with the committee and that is about 55,000 residential units and the bank is still in the process of taking over.

"But the target date for full takeover is July 1," said Ervin Knox, ADCB's chief executive officer.

"The general concept was to give the management of the programme to the private sector.

"The government is still funding new projects and I think the new ones are close to 200 buildings under development, which we are also handling and managing their tender and development programmes," he said.

Renewals and administration work will also be handled by ADCB's office for both landlords and tenants.

"So, if the government chooses to maintain the current lottery process we will be doing it, and if they have another selection criterion, we will be the party to implement it," the CEO said.

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