Master Community Planning from a Real Estate Law Perspective

Analysis

A ‘look-through' approach is employed, highlighting how issues at the planning stages permeate the entire development, sales and post handover management of a master planned project and accordingly why such issues may need to be addressed in sales documentation with end users. Although this article is written primarily from the perspective of a master developer it may also be of interest to sub-developers who may purchase plot(s) in a master planned community. This article is regional in its outlook and would be relevant to many Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”) countries.

Planning and Master Planned Communities

GCC countries, like other jurisdictions, operate on the basis of an urban plan. The relevant government authority sets out its vision for development in its urban plan and, dependent upon priorities and resources this plan will be achieved over time through a mixture of private enterprise and government initiatives. Master planned communities are a sub-set of this fairly typical planning outlook.