Taxes and fees
A buyer's checklist of the cost categories that come on top of a UAE property's price: what each one is, who typically pays it, and at what stage of the deal it arises.
The price on a listing is not the full cost of buying it. A UAE purchase typically carries several additional categories of cost, tied to registration, financing, and ongoing ownership. This guide names each category, and for the government-set fees, land department registration, Oqood registration, and mortgage registration, now states the sourced percentage and fixed AED charges; the remaining categories depend on the specific agency, building, or developer rather than a single published rate.
Registering the transfer of a ready property with the emirate's land authority, the Dubai Land Department (DLD) in Dubai, carries a registration fee. It is charged once, at the point the title is registered in the buyer's name, and is typically paid by the buyer alongside the purchase price. Per DLD's official sale-registration e-service, the fee is 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the buyer (in practice the buyer commonly covers the full amount by agreement with the seller), plus fixed charges: a title deed fee (AED 250), a land or unified map fee (AED 225 on Dubai Municipality land, AED 100 elsewhere), a knowledge fee (AED 10) and an innovation fee (AED 10), plus a trustee office (service partner) charge of AED 4,000 plus VAT for a sale value of AED 500,000 and above, or AED 2,000 plus VAT below that threshold (data checked 11 September 2026, source below). These are the fee categories DLD publishes for this service; confirm the exact total for a specific deal with the trustee office or a lawyer before paying.
For an off-plan unit, the interim registration in the Oqood system carries its own fee, separate from the final title registration that follows once the project is complete. It is paid by the buyer at the point of Oqood registration, which follows signing the sale and purchase agreement. Per DLD's official Oqood (initial sale) e-service, the fee is 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the buyer, plus a knowledge fee (AED 10) and an innovation fee (AED 10); a developer using self-registration through the Oqood portal pays a separate AED 1,000 fee (data checked 11 September 2026, source below).
An agent involved in finding the property or negotiating the deal is paid a commission, commonly calculated as a percentage of the purchase price. Who pays it, the buyer, the seller, or both, and at what point, depends on the agreement with the agency and is usually set out in a separate agency agreement. The specific rate charged by Republic is not stated here, see the services page for how our brokerage works.
If the purchase is financed through a bank, the mortgage itself is registered with the land authority once the loan is approved, and this registration carries a fee separate from the property registration fee above. It is paid by the buyer, the borrower, at the point the mortgage is registered, alongside or shortly after the property title itself. Per DLD's official mortgage-registration e-service, an ordinary mortgage on a property with an ordinary or usufruct title deed carries a fee of 0.25% of the mortgage value, plus a title deed issuance charge of AED 250 where applicable, and the AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees (data checked 11 September 2026, source below).
Once the buyer takes ownership, the building or community's owners association, or the developer's management company, invoices an ongoing service charge to cover the upkeep of shared facilities, security, and common areas. It is billed annually (sometimes payable in instalments) to the owner, starting from handover, and continues for as long as the unit is owned, not a one-time cost. Rates vary by building and are set by the relevant owners association or management company, not stated here.
When an owner sells a property, the developer issues a no-objection certificate confirming there are no outstanding service charges or dues, without it the transfer cannot be registered. The fee for issuing it is charged by the developer and is typically paid by the seller as part of preparing the resale for registration. The exact fee is set per developer and is not stated here.
This guide now states the government-set percentages and fixed AED fees for land department registration, Oqood registration, and mortgage registration, each with its official DLD source above; the agency commission, service charge, and NOC fee still depend on the specific agency, building, or developer, not a single published rate. The one-off purchase costs section of the calculators page already models a transfer fee, an agency fee, a flat registration fee and a mortgage registration fee as separate, editable lines, use it together with the rates above for an indicative estimate; the rental yield calculator on the same page also has a service charge line for the ongoing cost after handover. The NOC fee on resale is not currently modelled there, since it applies to a seller, not a buyer.
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