The Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance, Real Estate Regulatory Agency (Rera) and the Dubai Real Estate Institute (DREI) have signed a landmark deal to improve corporate governance within the real estate industry in the UAE.

Hawkamah is working with Rera to develop a code of corporate governance for the Real Estate Sector in Dubai and will undertake a series of trainings with DREI on Corporate Governance for the directors, senior management and officers.

The MoU, a first of its kind, landmark initiative, reflects Hawkamah, DREI’s and Rera's commitment towards improving the corporate governance regulatory framework and its implementation in the real estate sector, said a top Hawkamah official.

"Improving and strengthening corporate governance practices is one of the pre-requisites to protect property rights, gain and maintain investors’ markets, home owners, tenants and their associations and other stakeholders’ confidence in real estate sector," remarked Dr Nasser Saidi, executive director of Hawkamah, Institute for Corporate Governance.

"The real estate companies, property developers and valuation agencies need to become more transparent through better reporting of transactions and prices, as real estate nowadays is a global business and corporate governance therefore plays an important role for international and regional investors looking to invest in real estate," he added.

Dr Saidi pointed out that through this deal with DREI, Hawkamah will closely work with the Dubai Government to develop a corporate governance regulatory framework for the real estate sector and provide briefings and development sessions to the various stakeholders on how to implement the corporate governance framework.

"This landmark initiative will produce the first ever real estate corporate governance code in the region, and not only tackles the development of the framework but the on-going implementation challenge," he added.

Marwan Bin Ghalita, chief executive officer of Rera, said, “Our outlook is to have a real estate market that is up to the best international standards. By implementing governance practices Dubai’s real estate market will be the first market in the region to adopt such an important initiative."

This initiative, he noted,  will help make the real estate market more transparent and investment friendly.

"Rera will continue developing the regulatory framework for Dubai’s real estate market to go hand in hand with future development. Governance practices will be applied at the corporate level as well as at the project level to help enhance confidence in our market," he stated.

Mahmoud Al Burai, DREI managing director, said "Professional development along with corporate governance was needed in a mature realty market and we are committed to putting together infrastructure that's indispensable in post downturn era and implementing a corporate governance regulatory framework that is congruent with the Dubai real estate environment and at the same time adheres to globally established best practices."

DREI, is an industry-founded learning community providing top quality graduate and professional development programs on real estate. Over 14,000 professionals have undergone real estate training through the Institute during the past three years.

"DREI in collaboration with Hawkamah will be the first in the region to offer training courses in the field of real estate corporate governance and this in line with the strategic goal of developing a highly proficient and well qualified real estate workforce," he added.-TradeArabia News Service