Oman legalises foreign home ownership
(11/9/2004)
The Ministry of Housing, Water and Electricity issued the much-awaited decree last Tuesday, said a news report.
`Both the buyer and his relatives of the first degree will be allowed to reside in the Sultanate,` tourism undersecretary Mohsin bin Khamis Al Balushi was quoted as saying.
`If some foreigner is buying the property, he, his wife and children will be granted residential visas,` Mohsin said said in remarks published in the Times of Oman.
`Separate visas will be introduced and they will be very flexible and suitable for the foreign visitor or freeholder,` Mohsin said in the report.
`The private sector and international companies have been waiting for Oman to issue this for a long time and they are obviously going to be delighted,` Mohsin added.
This foreign ownership has been allowed to promote inward investment and encourage residential tourism, he further added.
The law allows individuals - expatriates, foreigners and corporate entities - to own real estate in designated tourism-related areas, for residential or investment purposes.
The decree has stipulated that the real estate bought should be developed within a maximum period of four years from the date of purchase.
The ministry will re-posses the property at the price of purchase or the price of the property determined in a public auction, whichever is lower.
A governmental committee will be formed to license and designate comprehensive tourism-related areas in Oman.
`This, by and large, is the framework of the law. The bylaws will be drafted and issued before the end of this year,` said the official.
`Once that is done, it will help organise the detailed procedures which the foreigner should follow if he/she is interested in buying property in Oman,` Mohsin said in the report.
`As we speak, we don`t have such integrated tourism projects that are ready.
`We have projects like The Wave, The Muscat Golf course project, Al Sawadi tourism project, but it is only when they are ready, that the process can be implemented.`
Mohsin said this freehold ownership would greatly encourage and enhance the existing investment in the real estates sector and also attract further investment.
According to the law, if an expatriate or a foreigner shows interest and is financially capable to buy the property and also meets the necessary criteria as set and defined by the laws of the country, he/she will be entitled to own it.
`This is for people who are living and working in this country and also residents of GCC countries, or any friendly and brotherly countries. They are allowed to buy property within this designated tourism projects,` Mohsin said in the report.
`Such buyers will be granted entry visas according to the existing procedures with the authorities concerned. They will be granted visas for themselves and relatives of the first degree.
`A buyer with his wife and children, for example, will automatically be granted visas through the existing procedures.
`In other words, if it is an expatriate living here, he would not need a local sponsor, once he has proven that he has bought a property here.`
Comparing the law with other countries, Mohsin said in the report that most countries had only 99-year lease schemes.
`So, in terms of the soul and essence, it is different. What we have here is totally freehold - you own it. And your inheritors will own it and so on, forever.
`Also, the property is yours and your children and your grandchildren (depending on your will). And the feature of automatic visas to the buyer and his wife and children are also unique to this law,` Mohsin was quoted as saying.
`We had reviewed similar laws and we tried to make sure that it is unique on one hand and encouraging on the other.
Mohsin said that there has been a lot of interest from various sectors for Oman to introduce such a law.
`We have had some inputs from the developers of the Muscat Golf course, as far as it contains real estate elements.
`There was also sufficient interest from foreigners from friendly countries to own properties in Oman.
Oman will be promoting the law at the World Travel Mart, which will begin in Britain from this Thursday.
`We will announce it throughout the world through our representatives as well as through the Ociped,` Mohsin said in the report
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