Stimulating Bahrain's real estate sector and attracting investors

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) Chief Executive Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said that the new plan includes five main pillars, 17 work priorities, in addition to 21 initiatives launched through this plan to stimulate the sector and attract investors.

Also, he referred to the five guiding principles of the plan, as it seeks to develop the professional competence of workers, improve and develop services for all those involved in the sector, and partnership between all government institutions, in addition to enhancing transparency and responsibility as well as the availability of reliable information to the public.

Shaikh Mohammed said the five pillars of the national plan include leadership in service innovation by attracting global expertise and setting controls to encourage the use of real estate technology; devising modern systems to facilitate procedures; enhancing supervision on the efficiency of workers; and creating new job opportunities through investment and innovation; in addition to cooperation with educational institutions to match the labour market’s needs.

Under the second pillar, is concerned with providing support and motivating developers, as this is done through the formation of a central committee to communicate with strategic investors and government agencies; and to search for an option for developers to own and manage the common parts of major projects, as well as enhance the rights of investors by determining percentages of the estimated value of sales projects.

Shaikh Mohammed said RERA is working in cooperation with the Information and eGovernment Authority to create a real estate database to enable stakeholders and investors to make sound investment decisions, adding the database is one of the most important five pillars of the plan.

Regarding the expected date for the launch of the real estate sector database, he said that work on it had already started.

Initially, it was expected to be launched this year, but the coronavirus pandemic had delayed the completion of the project. Instead, the database is expected to be officially launched next year.

Shaikh Mohammed said RERA is working to develop real estate technology and the digital transformation of all its services.