Dubai Property Costs: What You Pay Beyond the Price

At Purchase

• Dubai Land Department transfer fee: 4 percent of the purchase price, plus small fixed admin fees. On off-plan, this registers the Oqood.
• Registration trustee fee: a fixed fee of roughly AED 2,000 to 4,000 depending on price bracket, for ready transfers.
• Agent commission: typically 2 percent on ready resale. On developer sales the developer pays the agent, not the buyer.
• Mortgage registration, if financing: 0.25 percent of the loan amount to the DLD.

What Does Not Exist Here

There is no annual property tax on residential ownership, no personal income tax on rental income for individual owners, and no capital gains tax on resale. This is the structural difference that makes Dubai's headline yields comparable to net yields elsewhere, and it is policy, not a promotion.

The practical caveat is your home country: tax residents of other jurisdictions may owe tax there on Dubai income and gains. That is a question for a tax adviser in your country of residence, and the honest answer differs by passport.

Owning and Running a Unit

• Service charges: the real annual cost, billed per square foot and set per building. Towers with heavy amenity floors run higher; confirm the current rate before buying, in writing.
• DEWA (utilities): connected in the owner's or tenant's name with a refundable deposit.
• Chiller (district cooling): in some towers, cooling is billed separately. Ask, because it changes a tenant's total cost and therefore your achievable rent.
• Short-term letting: legal with a DTCM licence, either self-managed or through an operator.

The Honest Summary

Budget roughly 4 to 5 percent on top of the price at purchase, then service charges as the main running cost. Nothing here is hidden, and nothing recurs annually from the state itself. Figures are indicative and change with regulation; the binding numbers are always the ones in your transaction documents.