Law will curb development of luxury towers

The law will aim to restrict the 'uncalculated expansion' of luxury buildings in Dubai by ensuring a specific number of homes be set aside for mixed-income residents.

The plan to build a specific number of homes for mixed-income residents was devised by the municipality to alleviate traffic jams on entry roads to the emirate. Sarah Dea / The National
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DUBAI // Property developers must build a specific number of homes for mixed-income residents as part of a law due to be passed by the end of the year, Dubai Municipality has announced.

The law will aim to restrict the "uncalculated expansion" of luxury buildings in the emirate. As a result, up to 20 per cent of the residential land set out in the Dubai Urban Plan 2020, about 6,785 hectares, must be made available for homes for lower and mixed-income residents, said Abdullah Rafie, assistant director-general of planning and engineering at Dubai Municipality, in an interview with Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National.

Mr Rafie said the plan had been devised by the municipality to alleviate traffic jams on entry roads to the emirate, which are expected to worsen in the future as part of projected population increases by 2020.

He said that a previous urban planning study had shown that a lack of mixed-income housing was why such problems persisted, despite the fact that land is fit for different purposes. That is why, he explained, areas must not exclusively be limited to luxury buildings that often benefit only senior managers and business owners.

He said that people living in luxury buildings need services that are offered by people who need a different kind of housing, housing that is priced according to their incomes. But such houses must be in the vicinity of serviced areas, such as shopping malls and business and tourist destinations.

Traffic problems were the result of the unnecessary movement on the roads of a large number of people, Mr Rafie said.

This also leads to economic consequences, lower productivity among individuals because of wasted time, increased environmental burden on quality of air and growing carbon footprint.

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