Property guide · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
DLD fee and the cost of buying property in Dubai
What buying in Dubai costs on top of the price: the Land Department fee and how buyer and seller split it, the trustee and title-deed fees, and mortgage fees.
- Registering the sale, of the contract value4%Dubai law
- The seller's half, and the buyer's2%Land Department
- Registration trustee, AED4,000Land Department
- Checked2026-09-12
The DLD fee
Seller and buyer split the DLD fee
Registration is the one large cost of a Dubai purchase: a share of the price written into the sale contract, which the law divides equally between seller and buyer unless the two of them agree otherwise.
The rate is 4%Dubai law of the value of the sale contract, and the instrument that sets it also says it is shared equally by seller and purchaser. The Department's own service page states the same thing as 2%Land Department from each side. That is one rate presented two ways, not two rates, and an estimate that mixes the two readings is wrong by half.
Everything else on a straightforward purchase is a fixed sum rather than a share: the title deed, the trustee centre that processes the transfer, and two small statutory fees. A mortgage adds a percentage of its own, charged on the debt.
Every fee
The full list of Dubai purchase fees
Besides registration, a buyer pays the trustee centre, the title deed and two small statutory fees; a mortgage adds fees of its own.
The trustee's fee turns on the size of the sale and is quoted before tax. The two smallest fees, knowledge and innovation, are added to almost every transaction the Department registers.
An off-plan purchase is registered differently and at its own fees — those are in off-plan payment plans. A buyer coming from outside the country pays the same rates as a resident; what changes is the paperwork, set out in buying from abroad. To run these rates against your own price, use the DLD calculator.
- Registering the sale, of the contract value4%Dubai law
Executive Council Resolution 30/2013, Table (1) item 1, charged on the value of the sale contract.
- The seller's half, and the buyer's2%Land Department
Res. 30/2013 art. (3): shared equally unless agreed otherwise; the Department's service page states the same rate as two halves.
- Registration trustee, AED4,000Land Department
Plus VAT, where the sale value is AED 500,000Land Department or more — DLD e-service «Property Sale Registration».
- Registration trustee, smaller sales, AED2,000Land Department
Plus VAT, below that threshold — same service page.
- Issuing the title deed, AED250Dubai law
Res. 30/2013, Table (1) item 22.
- Knowledge fee, AED10Land Department
DLD e-service «Property Sale Registration», fees section.
- Innovation fee, AED10Land Department
Same service page, same section.
- Registering a mortgage, of the debt0.25%Dubai law
Res. 30/2013, Table (1) item 10, and the DLD mortgage registration page.
- Discharging a mortgage, AED1,000Dubai law
Res. 30/2013, Table (1) items 11–13; transferring one is charged at the registration rate.
- Understating the price in the contracta fine of double the fee
Res. 30/2013 arts. (5)–(6).
The law
Charged on the contract price; understating is fined
The fee is shared equally unless seller and buyer agree otherwise, and a mortgage carries its own registration, transfer and discharge fees.
The fee follows the contract. Writing a lower figure into it to shrink the fee is the one act the resolution punishes by name, and the fine is double the fee it was meant to save.
- Res. 30/2013, Table (1) item 1The fee is charged on the value of the sale contract — the price the parties register, not a valuation either of them prefers.
- Res. 30/2013 art. (3)The fee on a sale is shared equally by the seller and the purchaser unless they agree otherwise, which is what makes the common arrangement lawful without documenting it.
- Res. 30/2013 arts. (5)–(6)Declaring a price lower than the real one is punished by a fine of double the prescribed fee — the saving and its penalty are the same size, twice over.
- Res. 30/2013, Table (1) items 10–13A mortgage carries its own fees: registration and transfer as a share of the debt, discharge as a flat sum.
- DLD e-service, «Property Sale Registration»The trustee centre's fee belongs to the centre, not to the Department, and is quoted before tax on one page and after it on another.
Not yet published
Admin fees that no DLD document sets
Three of the round sums quoted most often for a Dubai purchase appear in no DLD document, and the law usually cited for the rates has no English text on the legislation portal.
Two of the Department's pages present the same registration fee differently: one gives the whole rate, the other gives each side's half. Both are correct, and both are shown here, because a buyer who sees only one will budget for the wrong figure.
The trustee's fee appears on one page before tax and on another as a round sum with the tax already inside it. The fee in the list is the service page's figure, before tax; the tax is added on the invoice.
- The administrative fees quoted almost everywhere—
they appear in no DLD document and match no sum of the fees it lists
- Who pays the whole registration fee in practice—
the resolution leaves it to the parties to agree
- The tax added to the trustee's fee—
the service pages quote the fee both before and after tax
- Law 7/1997 on land registration fees—
no English text on the legislation portal; the rates here come from the 2013 fees resolution
Checked 2026-09-12
Sources
The 2013 fees resolution and DLD service pages
Executive Council Resolution 30/2013 for the rates, and the Land Department's sale and mortgage registration pages.
- Resolution
Executive Council Resolution No. (30) of 2013 approving the fees of the Land Department, 18 September 2013
Table (1) for the rates, Article (3) for the split, Articles (5)–(6) for the penalty.
- Service page
DLD e-service «Property Sale Registration», read 12 September 2026
The trustee's fee and its threshold, the statutory fees, the documents a buyer brings.
- Service page
DLD e-service «Mortgage registration application», read 12 September 2026
The mortgage registration rate as the Department states it today.
- DocumentsGet the documents
The source documents
The English texts carry the portal's own caveat: for interpretation and application, reference must be made to the original Arabic, which prevails in case of conflict.
Questions
Ask about the fees on your purchase
Send the address and the price: we reply with every fee that applies to that purchase, each with the document that sets it.