“Revamping Ras Al Khaimah”: How the New 3rd Edition of “Building Regulations” Benefits the Private Housing Sector

Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) is the fourth largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates?(United Arab Emirates' Government portal, 2021). Its growing population and booming economy are key drivers for residential demand. According to RAK Center for Statistics & Studies, the total number of building permits issued by the RAK Municipality for private housing units (both villas and service blocks) in 2020 was 4,862 permits which represent around 90% of the total permits issued for that year. Understanding the new regulation updates that happened on private housing sector is fundamental to grow and success in any construction business.

Increasingly, the Municipality has been adopting architectural guidelines to enhance the quality and physical character of the community. In the last few months RAK Municipality released the 3rd edition of “Building Regulations and Construction Specifications. As one of the engineers who contributed to this edition, I’m going to highlight the key updates in private housing requirements.?

Putting together the edition required a collaborative process one that took a lot of time and collaboration from different specialties. Each individual in the team was responsible for a specific role, and my responsibility was reviewing & examining the Architectural Part \ Residential section from a designer point of view. My method of examination was to look at the regulation as an end product from the lens of an architect by implementing it on an actual housing project. I selected an actual project and redesigned it from scratch including all possible components for a private housing unit like (basement floor, roof floor, gates, swimming pool, Majlis, pergolas, etc.) using one of building information modeling (BIM) software’s to be able to test the regulation and visually highlight any development needed with the other team members.

Let’s start by identifying the project components and terms in the figure below, and go straight then to the key updates that has happened.

1.?Built-Up Ratio

Built up Ratio has increased by 15% on average to become 65% of the plot area for all Ras Al khaimah areas including the regions of Al Jazirah Al Hamra , Al Refaa, Al Dhait (North & South), Al Kharran, and Khuzam. Green areas, entrances, car parks, uncovered swimming pools, children's play areas, shaded car parking, temporary majlis and caravans are permitted and not included in this ratio

2.?Setbacks

Residential Villas now are permitted to construct with a setback equal to 2.00 meters from the main street side instead of the previous 3.00 meters. The setback is measured from building line. Architectural projections are allowed and not included in setbacks. For example; an unexploited architectural projection up to 1.00m is permitted for roof's parapet in villas, and it’s not considered as a measuring reference for setbacks.

3.?Minimum Heights?

Minimum floor heights for residential use have changed for all floors. For example, basement and roof floors previously were permitted to have a minimum height equal to 2.50 m, but now the minimum height has been increased to 2.70 m. Similarly, ground and first floors’ minimum height has been increased to 3.00 m from the previous 2.70 m?

4.?Service Blocks

It is now permitted to construct (6) service blocks within a residential plot instead of the previous (4) blocks with an increase of (25%) in built up ratio from the total plot area instead of 20%. Note that all these service blocks is limited to residential use only.

An, interesting addition in the 3rd edition was the permission to add an extension to residential villas over service blocks per some conditions. Another, revision changed the permitted maximum external height of service blocks to not exceed 6.00 m instead of 5.50 m in the previous edition.?

5.?Roof Floor

The total permitted area of the roof floor has been increased to be (50%) of the total area of the first floor instead of the former 35%. Setbacks should be equal to or more than 1.50 m with the first floor edge and the roof slap material constructed from reinforced concrete. Interestingly that all uncovered swimming pools and pergolas are permitted to be constructed on the roof floor without being included in the mentioned percentage?

6. Boundary Walls

The regulation has been refined to allow more leeway when it comes to boundary walls. The new 3rd edition allows a projection of 30 cm of wall’s instead of the previous 10cm. Additionally, it’s permitted to set the wall inside the plot from the street side with the aim of allowing more creative designs. Other changes include: having up to (3) pedestrian entrances instead of (1).?

Residential regulations have changed in the new 3rd edition “Building Regulations and Construction specifications”. The article highlight the key updates in private housing requirements. This has given architects more creativity and allowed more flexibility for their designs of residential projects. And in a dominos effect, owners will in turn capitalize these benefits directly from their lands and enjoy their property much more.?