Dubai allows owner associations to open bank accounts

Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) has inked an agreement a major local bank, which will provide escrow account services to owners associations, thus allow the associations to manage their own finances.

Emirates NBD will be the first bank in the UAE to offer escrow account services for owner associations.

Until now, service charges are still being collected in bank accounts managed by developers, but in some cases, developers have got board members of interim owners associations (IOAs) as co-signatories. Dubai, currently, has over 400 IOAs, far less than the 2000 odd expected.