MUSCAT -- Shaikh Saif bin Mohammed al Shabibi, Minister of Housing, has issued a ministerial decision on the executive regulation on ownership of real estate ownership in comprehensive tourist complexes. The decision includes 30 articles that seek to enforce the regulation which was issued under Royal Decree No. 12/2006. The articles tackle procedures related to ownership and inheritance applications. The regulation is aimed at encouraging the private sector to support tourism due to its good potential to boost the national economy.
The regulation requires the parties concerned to install the necessary infrastructure facilities and to extend the required services before finalising the registration of real estate units or lands. The regulation specifies the price of the land plots to be offered for development per metre as per the current market price. It also stresses that a land plot obtained in a tourist complex should be built within one four years to be extended by two more years only on the recommendation of the Ministry of Tourism. The regulation bans any transaction (sale or transfer) of the lands offered to be owned under usufruct contracts, except by mortgage.
As for inheritance applications of such land plots, this can be arranged by the beneficiary (potential heir) informing the Ministry of Housing about the death of the owner of the land plot in question as soon as the death occurs. Other rules refer to the management of land plots in tourist complexes, the disqualification/reinstatement of owners, sale of property by auction, residency and fines. The Ministerial decision calls upon owners of real estate in tourist complexes to stick to the rules set by the regulation.
© Oman Daily Observer 2007
