Swiss Property: the first year of a newly delivered building

Swiss Property delivered a hotel-branded residence on the creek in 2025. A building in its first year is a specific moment to buy into — most construction risk is gone, and a different set of questions has just begun. Almost nobody asks them.

The first year has its own checklist

• The defects liability period is running. New buildings carry a period during which the developer must remedy defects, and structural elements typically carry a longer statutory protection. Establish what applies, how long is left, and how a claim is actually made.
• Snagging is still being worked through. Ask the building manager what the common defects have been. Recurring items across many units tell you about the build, not about bad luck.
• The owners' association is being formed. Until owners take control, the developer or its manager makes the decisions. Ask where that process stands.
• The service charge is an estimate that has never been tested. The first budget is projected, not measured. Second and third-year figures are frequently higher once real consumption is known — this is normal, and it should be expected rather than treated as a surprise.
• The reserve fund starts near zero. A new building has no history of contributions, so the pace at which it is being built up matters for the next decade.

What buying at year one gives

• No construction risk and no handover date — the largest off-plan risks have already resolved.
• You see the finished product — the actual view, the actual common areas, the actual quality.
• Income can start immediately.
• Remaining warranty protection, which a ten-year-old building no longer has.

The branded element

Where a hotel brand is attached, establish whether an operator actually runs services in the building or whether the arrangement is a design licence. The first creates ongoing value and an ongoing charge; the second creates neither. Ask for the agreement's term and what happens at expiry — a new building makes this easy to check while the paperwork is fresh.

What else to check

• Occupancy. A part-empty new building has thin comparables and untested running costs; count furnished balconies in the evening.
• Achieved rents in the building itself, now that some units are let.
• What remains unbuilt nearby, and what is approved on it.
• Parking allocation and short-let rules.

Who it suits

• A buyer who wants a new building without off-plan risk and will ask the first-year questions.
• Investors wanting income now with warranty protection still running.
• Not a buyer who assumes the first service-charge budget is the permanent one.

Based on the Dubai Land Department register and standard handover and owners' association practice.