Q. Are Dubailand condo hotels freeholds or leaseholds?
A. As of August 2006 all condo hotels located within Dubailand have been declared freehold estates. This includes the City of Arabia (Windsor and Arabian Crowne) and Dubai Sports City (Kensington Royale and Red Residence). And while everyone fully expected Dubailand projects to be declared freehold estates, it is nice to now have legal and binding confirmation of the property status.

Allow me to explain the difference between Dubai freehold estates and Dubai leasehold estates just for clarification. Originally, the condo hotels mentioned above were offered as leasehold estates. This meant that you owned the unit for 99 years, and you had the option to renew this lease, for what amounted to pocket change, for another 99 years. However, the land on which the condo hotel sat was owned by someone else.

Theoretically, at the end of a land lease, the owner of the land owns everything built on it, including your purchased unit. Now, the likelihood is that sometime in the next 198 years, you or your family members would choose to resell your unit, and this was never going to become an issue anyway.

Still, the new laws in Dubai give you 100% ownership of your unit from now on as long as you own it or if you choose to sell it. So now, you can enjoy your unit well into your 200's without ever worrying about the leasehold time clock running out and potentially affecting any value of your condo hotel investment.

The above question was submitted via e-mail by a visitor to www.CondoHotelsDubai.com. The answer was prepared by Joel Greene, a licensed real estate broker, who specializes in condo hotels and the Dubai real estate market.