The True Cost of Buying in Dubai: Every Fee, Explained

The most common surprise for first-time buyers in Dubai isn't the price of property — it's the costs that sit on top of it. Between government fees, registration, agency commission and the smaller administrative charges, you should budget roughly 6–8% of the purchase price in transaction costs, separate from your deposit. Knowing the breakdown in advance is the difference between a smooth completion and a scramble for funds at transfer.

The largest single line is the Dubai Land Department transfer fee: 4% of the purchase price, applied to every registered sale without exception — ready, off-plan or secondary. You'll sometimes see this described as "2% buyer, 2% seller," which is the historical convention. In current Dubai practice, the buyer pays the full 4%; the seller's half is, by standard contract, passed across in nearly every MOU. On an AED 2 million purchase, that's AED 80,000 — by far the biggest cost to plan for.

Then come the transaction mechanics. There's a DLD administrative fee of around AED 580, and a trustee office fee — paid to the registration office that processes the transfer — of roughly AED 4,000–5,000. Agency commission on a secondary-market sale is the market-standard 2% of the price plus 5% VAT, an effective 2.1%. If you're buying off-plan directly from a developer, that commission is usually covered by the developer rather than charged to you, though you'll have an Oqood (interim registration) fee instead. If you're financing, add a mortgage registration fee of 0.25% of the loan amount plus AED 290, and budget for a property valuation the bank will require.

There is one genuinely important 2026 change that catches buyers out. The UAE Central Bank now prohibits financing these transaction costs into the mortgage. Previously, some buyers effectively borrowed part of their fees; that's no longer permitted. Every closing cost — the 4% DLD fee, the agency commission, trustee and registration charges — must now be paid in cash, upfront, on top of your down payment. For a financed purchase this materially increases the cash you need at the table, and it's the number-one reason we tell buyers not to stretch their deposit to the limit.

A worked example makes it concrete. On an AED 2 million ready apartment bought with a mortgage, you're looking at roughly AED 80,000 in DLD fees, around AED 42,000 in agency commission including VAT, AED 4,000–5,000 in trustee fees, plus admin, valuation and mortgage registration — comfortably AED 130,000–140,000 in costs, all in cash, before a single dirham of your deposit. Build that into your plan from the start and there are no unpleasant surprises. The buyers who run into trouble are almost always the ones who budgeted for the price and the deposit, and forgot that in Dubai the fees are a cash line of their own.

“From 2026 the Central Bank no longer lets you fold closing costs into the mortgage. Every dirham of fees is now cash, upfront — plan for it.”