Dubai Property Buying Costs: Every Fee on Top of the Price

Buying a property in Dubai comes with a set of fees paid on the day of transfer, on top of the price and on top of your deposit. Since February 2025 banks cannot add these costs to the mortgage, so every dirham of them has to be in cash.

Most buyers know about the 4% Dubai Land Department fee. Fewer have added up the rest before they make an offer, and that is how a purchase that looked affordable falls short at the trustee office.

Fees every buyer pays

• Dubai Land Department (DLD) transfer fee: 4% of the price. By law it is split between buyer and seller, but in practice the buyer almost always pays all of it.
• Title deed and admin fees: a few hundred dirhams for issuing the new title deed.
• Registration trustee fee: AED 4,000 plus VAT for a property above AED 500,000, and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that. The trustee office is where the transfer is completed.
• Agent commission: normally 2% of the price, plus 5% VAT, when you buy through a broker.

Extra fees when you use a mortgage

• Mortgage registration fee: 0.25% of the loan amount, plus AED 290, paid to the DLD to record the bank’s charge on the property.
• Bank arrangement or processing fee: up to 1% of the loan, plus VAT. Some banks waive or reduce it, which is worth comparing.
• Valuation fee: usually AED 2,500 to AED 3,500 plus VAT, paid before the bank issues its final offer.
• Life insurance and property insurance: required by most banks for the life of the loan, paid monthly or yearly.

A worked example: AED 2 million with a mortgage

An expat resident buys a ready apartment for AED 2,000,000 with a 20% deposit and a loan of AED 1,600,000.

• Deposit: AED 400,000.
• DLD transfer fee at 4%: AED 80,000, plus about AED 580 in admin fees.
• Trustee fee: AED 4,200 including VAT.
• Agent commission at 2% plus VAT: AED 42,000.
• Mortgage registration: AED 4,290.
• Bank arrangement fee at 1% plus VAT: up to AED 16,800.
• Valuation: about AED 3,150.

The costs come to about AED 151,000, roughly 7.5% of the price. With the deposit, the buyer needs about AED 551,000 in cash before the keys are handed over. A cash buyer skips the mortgage fees and pays about AED 127,000, or just over 6%.

Costs after you move in

• Service charges: paid yearly to the building or community, set per square foot and published by the DLD for each project.
• DEWA connection: a refundable security deposit for electricity and water, plus connection charges.
• Chiller and district cooling fees, in buildings that use them.
• Housing fee: charged through the DEWA bill, based on the property’s rental value.

Buying off-plan or a resale

Off-plan purchases also carry the 4% DLD fee, registered through the developer, and some developers pay part of it as a sales incentive. A bank will generally lend no more than 50% on off-plan property, so most of the price is paid from savings through the developer’s payment plan. On a resale, the seller’s developer usually charges a fee to issue a no-objection certificate, and the amount varies from developer to developer.

How to plan the cash

1. Set the deposit at the legal minimum or above: 20% for expat residents on a first property up to AED 5 million.
2. Add 7% to 8% of the price for fees if you are using a mortgage, or about 6% for a cash purchase.
3. Keep a buffer for a valuation shortfall.
4. Ask the bank for its arrangement fee in writing, and compare it between lenders, since it is the fee with the most room to negotiate.

Our mortgage calculator shows the deposit and monthly payment for any price. We compare offers from several banks, including their fees, and handle the application through to the transfer.