The True Cost of Buying Property in Dubai: All Fees Explained

Quoted "cost of buying" figures vary widely across brokerages and blogs, partly because they bundle different things — some quote DLD fees alone, others add commission, few separate cash-purchase costs from mortgage-specific ones. The table below lists every fee individually, sourced against Dubai Land Department's own published figures where available.

Everything below this table works through each line individually, then applies the full set to four worked price bands.

The Dubai Land Department charges 4% of the sale value to register any property transfer — the single largest cost in any purchase. DLD's own property sale registration service states the fee as 2% payable by the seller and 2% by the buyer. In practice, Dubai market convention has shifted the full 4% onto the buyer in most resale transactions, and this is what typically appears in the Form F (MOU) both parties sign — but nothing in DLD's fee schedule requires this split, and it remains open to negotiation, particularly in a buyer's or seller's market. Whatever is agreed, get it stated explicitly in writing before signing, rather than assuming the market-convention split applies automatically.

DLD does not process most resale transfers directly — a DLD-licensed Real Estate Registration Trustee office does, charging its own service fee on top of the 4% transfer fee: AED 2,000 plus 5% VAT for properties under AED 500,000, or AED 4,000 plus 5% VAT (AED 4,200 all-in) at or above that threshold. A flat AED 20 (a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee) applies to the registration itself.

Title deed issuance is where sources diverge: DLD's own property sale registration page states AED 250; other reporting quotes AED 500. Given how small a share of the total this line represents, the discrepancy will not change your overall budget meaningfully — but it illustrates why every figure in this guide is sourced individually rather than presented as settled.

Standard convention in Dubai's secondary market is a 2% agency commission, plus 5% VAT charged on the commission amount itself, so effectively around 2.1% of the price. This is separate from, and additional to, the DLD transfer fee above. RERA governs the paperwork around it — Form A for a listing, Form B for buyer representation, and Form F for the MOU itself — requiring the agent's commission to be disclosed to all parties, but RERA does not itself fix the percentage. Because it is convention rather than law, commission is technically negotiable; get any agreed rate confirmed in writing before an agent starts working on your behalf, not after a deal is found.

Dubai Land Department will not register a resale transfer without a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the property's developer or master community, confirming the seller has settled all service charges and has no outstanding violations on the unit. This requirement sits on top of the service-charge and Owners' Association framework set out in Law No. (6) of 2019 Concerning Ownership of Jointly Owned Real Property, which governs how service charges are levied and collected in the first place.

The fee for issuing an NOC is set by the individual developer, not DLD, and commonly cited industry ranges run from AED 500 to AED 5,000 depending on the developer and property type. It is customary, though not compulsory, for the seller to bear this cost. Because an NOC typically takes several working days to issue, and outstanding service-charge balances are the most common cause of delay, confirming a seller's service-charge position early is worth doing well before a transfer date is fixed.

A mortgage adds two costs a cash buyer skips entirely: a 0.25% DLD mortgage registration fee, calculated on the loan amount rather than the property price, and a bank-arranged valuation fee, commonly cited in an AED 2,500-3,500 plus VAT range for a standard residential unit. A reported Central Bank of the UAE instruction to lenders, described as taking effect from February 2025, also changed how these costs are funded in practice: buyers using a mortgage had, until then, commonly been able to finance a share of the DLD and agency fees within the loan itself; the reported instruction requires these to be paid from the buyer's own liquid funds instead, on top of the down payment. How much you can actually borrow against a given property also depends on Central Bank loan-to-value limits, which differ meaningfully for non-resident buyers — covered in detail in How to Buy Ready Property in Dubai.

There is no dedicated capital purchase tax and no annual recurring property tax in Dubai. Under Federal Decree-Law No. (8) of 2017 on Value Added Tax, the resale of residential property is treated as an exempt supply — no VAT applies to the purchase price of a residential resale. A developer's first sale of new residential property, within three years of completion, is zero-rated rather than exempt, which has the same practical effect of no VAT charged to the buyer, but is a technically distinct treatment. VAT at the standard 5% rate does apply to service fees generated around the transaction — agency commission and bank valuation fees among them — and commercial property sales and leases are taxed at the standard rate throughout, unlike residential.

Applying the core fees above — DLD 4%, trustee fee, AED 20 admin, AED 250 title deed, 2% agency commission plus VAT — to four price bands, on a cash basis and assuming the buyer pays the full 4% DLD fee by convention:

The percentage edges down as price rises because the trustee, admin and title deed fees are flat AED amounts, not percentages — at AED 10 million they represent 0.04% of price, against 0.45% at AED 1 million. On top of any of these totals, add a developer NOC (AED 500-5,000, seller-paid by convention) and, if financing, a 0.25% mortgage registration fee calculated on your loan amount plus a bank valuation fee — for example, a 75%-LTV loan on the AED 2 million property above would add roughly AED 3,750 in mortgage registration alone, before valuation costs.

The figures above cover the purchase itself; they are not the end of ownership costs. Every unit in a jointly owned building or community pays annual service charges, set through RERA's Mollak system and billed per square foot, which vary considerably by building and amenity level. Utility connection (DEWA) and, if you plan to let the property, Ejari tenancy registration are separate, comparatively minor costs at handover. None of these change the purchase-cost figures above, but a genuine cost comparison across two properties should weigh service charges alongside the headline price, not just the fees in this guide.