Dubai Transaction Costs: DLD Fee, Agency, Trustee and NOC

Ask ten people about Dubai property transaction fees and most will tell you the same thing: the buyer pays 4%. It sounds like law. It is not. The Dubai Land Department (DLD), which registers every sale in the emirate, lists its 4% registration fee on its own service page as 2% from the seller and 2% from the buyer. Who actually ends up paying that money is a term written into the sale contract, which means it is something the parties agree, not something the state imposes. On a resale purchase it is the largest single cost you can move, and almost everything else on the bill is either small and fixed or set by someone other than the DLD.

All amounts below are in United Arab Emirates (UAE) dirhams (AED), with United States dollars (USD) alongside at the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) rate of AED 3.6725 to USD 1, as published on its rate table updated 19 October 2026. Our guide to buying property in Dubai as a foreign buyer and the step by step Dubai buying process set the scene.

Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013 sets DLD fees and lists registering a sale contract at 4% of its value. The DLD's Property Sale Registration page shows that 4% divided evenly: 2% for the seller and 2% for the buyer.

The idea that market practice puts the full 4% on the buyer is widely repeated, but no primary source we found confirms it, so we do not state it as fact. What can be said is narrower and more useful: the DLD lists a 2% and 2% division, and the actual allocation is whatever the sale contract says. If you are told the buyer always pays the whole 4%, treat that as an opening position, not a rule.

The other DLD charges on a ready property are modest. The same page lists AED 250 for the title deed certificate and a map fee that depends on the type of property: AED 250 for villas and apartments, AED 225 for a unified map under Dubai Municipality, or AED 100 for land outside the Dubai Municipality area. On top of those sit a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10. For a typical apartment that is 250 + 250 + 10 + 10, or AED 520 (about USD 142).

The larger fixed line is the trustee office fee. A trustee office, which the DLD calls a service partner, is the licensed office that processes the transfer. On a ready or resale sale it charges AED 4,000 plus Value Added Tax (VAT) where the sale value is AED 500,000 or more, and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that. At the standard 5% VAT rate that is AED 200 and AED 100 respectively, so AED 4,200 or AED 2,100 in total. The DLD page does not say who pays this, so that too is a contract matter.

The channel matters. Holders of a UAE identity card dealing in an unencumbered, subdivided freehold unit can use the DLD's Dubai Now digital service instead. There the service partner fee is AED 1,000 plus VAT for a value of AED 500,000 or more, or AED 500 plus VAT below it. The Dubai Now page lists the knowledge and innovation fees at AED 30 each rather than AED 10, alongside AED 250 for the title deed and AED 250 for the map. We report both as listed, without reconciling them. A non-resident buyer, who may register with a valid passport, uses the trustee office route and so pays the higher fee.

In freehold areas, the sale needs an electronic No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the developer, requested through the Dubai REST app. According to the DLD's investor guide, Know Your Rights, the NOC confirms that service charges on the unit are paid up and that there are no offences under the jointly owned property rules. The same guide says the developer may charge an administrative fee of AED 500. That document is undated, and AED 500 is the only official figure we found. Wider ranges quoted on market websites are not confirmed by any primary source, and current developer fees appear in no DLD schedule we read. Who pays it is not set by the DLD either. For where freehold ownership applies, see our explainer on Dubai freehold and leasehold zones.

Agency commission is the other large variable, often quoted as if it had a fixed rate. We found no fixed rate published by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), Dubai's property regulator. Under Law No. 85 of 2006, as the DLD's frequently asked questions summarise it, a broker's commission is set by agreement between the parties, and only if the agreement is silent does prevailing custom apply. The Know Your Rights guide adds that a broker representing a party must sign the DLD's standard appointment form, and the sale contract is the standard Form F. No official source gives a percentage, so we do not publish one. Whether VAT is added to commission was also not confirmed by any primary statement we fetched, so get the commission and any tax on it in writing.

A mortgage adds its own registration. The DLD's mortgage registration page lists 0.25% of the mortgage value, plus AED 250 for the title deed, AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee, and a service partner fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT, or AED 5,000 plus VAT where the property is off-plan and registered on the provisional register. Bank arrangement fees are not DLD fees and are not covered here.

One waiver comes with a caveat. The DLD page for registering the sale of a property that is already mortgaged says the registrar fee is waived if the new mortgage is registered on the same day as the sale, and that registering it the next day brings a further AED 4,000 plus VAT. That service also lists a mortgage release fee of AED 1,290 plus AED 315 for the registrar, and a sale registrar fee of AED 2,100 below AED 500,000 or AED 4,200 at AED 500,000 or more. The waiver wording sits on that specific service page, and we could not confirm it applies to every mortgaged purchase, so check with the trustee office before relying on it.

An off-plan sale is first recorded on the interim register, Oqood, rather than with a title deed. Our piece on Oqood and off-plan title in Dubai covers the mechanics. The DLD's initial sale registration page lists the same 2% for the seller and 2% for the purchaser, an AED 10 knowledge fee and an AED 10 innovation fee, plus a developer self-registration fee of AED 1,000 through the Oqood portal. Whether that AED 1,000 is passed on to the buyer is not stated, and we have not used the other Oqood figures quoted on secondary websites.

The contract must be registered on the provisional register within 90 days of signing, and the DLD gives a service time of 6 business days for a sale registered together with an initial mortgage. On completion, if the registration fee was already paid, converting to a title deed costs AED 250 for the title deed, AED 250 for the map of a unit or villa, and AED 10 each for knowledge and innovation: AED 520, as on a ready purchase.

The standard UAE VAT rate is 5%, under Article 3 of Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017. Residential property is treated differently. According to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) real estate guide and the Ministry of Finance summary, the first supply of a residential building within three years of its completion is zero-rated, later supplies of residential property are exempt, and commercial property is charged at 5%. So VAT normally does not fall on the price of a home.

It does appear on services: the DLD pages add it to the trustee office fee, hence the AED 200 on AED 4,000. On agency commission we found no primary statement either way.

Take a ready apartment at AED 2,000,000 (about USD 544,588), paid in cash, processed at a trustee office. Only DLD-listed lines are included; the NOC and commission are set by the developer or by agreement, so they are left out.

The title deed is AED 250, the apartment map AED 250, and the knowledge and innovation fees AED 10 each, giving AED 520. The sale is above AED 500,000, so the trustee fee is AED 4,000, plus 5% VAT of AED 200, giving AED 4,200. The DLD fee at 4% of AED 2,000,000 is AED 80,000, which the DLD lists as AED 40,000 from each side.

If the buyer carries the full 4%

80,000 + 520 + 4,200 = AED 84,720. At AED 3.6725 to the dollar, 84,720 / 3.6725 = USD 23,068.75, or about USD 23,069.

If the buyer pays only the listed 2% share

40,000 + 520 + 4,200 = AED 44,720, which is 44,720 / 3.6725 = about USD 12,177. This still assumes the buyer pays the trustee and fixed fees, which the DLD does not specify.

The gap between the two is AED 40,000, about USD 10,892. Nothing else on the official list comes close.

If the same purchase used a mortgage of AED 1,500,000, the mortgage registration would add 0.25% of 1,500,000, which is AED 3,750, plus AED 250 for the title deed, AED 20 in knowledge and innovation fees, and a service partner fee of AED 4,000 plus AED 200 VAT: 3,750 + 250 + 20 + 4,000 + 200 = AED 8,220, about USD 2,238. Whether the same-day waiver would reduce that for a fresh purchase is not confirmed, so the full figure is shown.

This piece covers the cost of registering a purchase. It will not tell you whether a property is fairly priced, and it does not cover running costs. If your question is whether a flat pays its way, our piece on realistic rental income in Dubai is the better start. If you are still deciding whether to buy at all, read should you buy in Dubai if you keep returning first.

Nor is it a substitute for your contract. Every allocation question here is answered by what you sign, and a lawyer reading your Form F will give a firmer answer than any article. Buyers comparing markets should be wary of lining up headline percentages; our note on Thailand property taxes and fees shows how differently the pieces can be divided elsewhere.

The official cost of a Dubai purchase is one large number and a handful of small ones. The small ones, a few hundred dirhams in DLD fees and a trustee fee of AED 2,000 or AED 4,000 plus VAT, are fixed. The large one, the 4% registration fee, is listed by the DLD as a 2% and 2% split, and who pays it is a contract term. Commission and the NOC fee are set by agreement or by the developer, not by any DLD schedule.

The useful habit is to settle these lines in writing before you commit, rather than accept a quoted total. Whether you are looking at a tower in Downtown Dubai, as described in our Downtown Dubai guide, or at a waterfront flat in Dubai Marina, the arithmetic is the same. Our Dubai destination guide, the wider UAE guide and our piece on community life in Dubai cover what comes before the paperwork.

• Dubai Legislation Portal: Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013
• Dubai Land Department: frequently asked questions
• Dubai Land Department: property sale registration
• Dubai Land Department: buy or sell property via Dubai Now
• Dubai Land Department: request for mortgage registration
• Dubai Land Department: registering the sale of a mortgaged property
• Dubai Land Department: Know Your Rights investor guide
• Dubai Land Department: request to register the initial sale
• Dubai Land Department: sale registration associated with an initial mortgage
• Dubai Land Department: completing initial procedures data
• Federal Tax Authority: Federal Decree-Law No. 8 of 2017 on VAT
• Federal Tax Authority: Real Estate VAT Guide VATGRE1
• Ministry of Finance: Value Added Tax
• Central Bank of the UAE: exchange rates