Everything you pay on top of the price
Every buyer in Dubai knows the 4%. Almost nobody budgets the rest, and the rest is roughly as large again. Between the Land Department, the trustee office, the bank and the agent, a mortgaged purchase carries around 7–8% of the price in fees — and unlike the down payment, none of it turns into equity. Below is the bill, split into what the government charges (published, fixed) and what the market charges (negotiable, and frequently misquoted).
Part one: what the Land Department actually charges
These figures come from the DLD's own service pages rather than from an agency blog, which matters because the official schedule is itemised differently from the way the market quotes it. The famous "4% transfer fee" is not one fee — it is 2% payable by the seller and 2% payable by the buyer. In practice essentially every Dubai sale contract shifts the seller's half onto the buyer, so you pay 4%; but it is a contract term, not a law of nature, and it is the one line in this table that has ever been negotiated.
| Sale registration | 2% of sale value (seller) + 2% of sale value (buyer) |
| Title deed issuance | AED 250 |
| Property map — apartment or villa | AED 250 |
| Land plot map (unified with Dubai Municipality) | AED 225 · AED 100 for land outside the Municipality |
| Knowledge fee + Innovation fee | AED 10 + AED 10 |
| Trustee office (the "service partner" fee) | AED 4,000 + VAT on properties from AED 500,000 · AED 2,000 + VAT below that |
| Mortgage registration | 0.25% of the loan amount + AED 250 title deed + AED 10 + AED 10 |
| Trustee fee on the mortgage side | AED 4,000 + VAT · AED 5,000 + VAT where the unit is off-plan (Oqood) |
| Mortgage release, if the seller has a loan | AED 1,290 + AED 1,000 base fee on the mortgaged-sale registration |
One honest wrinkle. The DLD lists a full service-partner fee on both the sale registration and the mortgage registration — read literally, a mortgaged purchase carries two AED 4,200 trustee charges. What buyers report paying in practice is one AED 4,200 on the transfer plus a small charge of a few hundred dirhams on the mortgage side (AED 290 is the figure that circulates). We cannot reconcile the two from published pages, so the worked example below shows both ends. Ask the trustee office for the itemised receipt before you hand over the cheques — the difference is about AED 3,900.
Part two: what the market charges
- Agent commission — 2% of the price + 5% VAT. The single largest non-government line. On AED 1.5M that is AED 31,500. It is customary, not regulated; on a quiet listing it is occasionally split or trimmed.
- Bank valuation — AED 2,500–3,500 + VAT. Non-refundable, and paid before you know the answer. If the valuation comes in below the agreed price, the bank lends against the valuation, and the gap becomes extra cash from you.
- Bank arrangement / processing fee — 0.5–1% of the loan + VAT. Reported as the most reliably negotiable number in the whole transaction; banks routinely cut it to 0.25% or waive it in a competitive quarter.
- Developer NOC — AED 500 to AED 5,000. Charged by the developer to confirm service charges are clear. Usually the seller's cost, but the MOU decides — check which way yours points.
- Life insurance on the loan. Mandatory with most lenders, roughly 0.3–0.8% of the outstanding balance a year, often folded silently into the rate. You can normally assign an external policy instead, which is where the savings are.
- Conveyancer — AED 5,000–10,000, optional. Worth it on an off-plan resale or a mortgaged-seller deal, hard to justify on a clean cash transfer.
The whole bill on an AED 1,500,000 apartment
Expat buyer, first property, 20% down, AED 1,200,000 loan, seller owns outright.
| Down payment (20%) | AED 300,000 |
| DLD sale registration 4% | AED 60,000 |
| Title deed + map + knowledge + innovation | AED 520 |
| Trustee office (transfer) | AED 4,200 |
| Mortgage registration 0.25% of AED 1.2M | AED 3,000 |
| Mortgage-side trustee and title deed | AED 290 to AED 4,470 (see the wrinkle above) |
| Bank valuation | AED 3,000 |
| Bank arrangement fee (0.5–1%) | AED 6,000–12,000 |
| Agent commission 2% + VAT | AED 31,500 |
| Fees, excluding the down payment | AED 108,500 – 118,700 — 7.2% to 7.9% of the price |
| Cash you need on the day | AED 408,500 – 418,700 |
Run your own numbers — including the monthly payment and the 50% debt-burden test — through the UAE mortgage calculator, which applies the Central Bank down-payment minimums for your buyer profile automatically.
Where the AED 118,700 goes on a mortgaged AED 1.5M purchase
Two lines — the DLD fee and the agent — are three quarters of the bill. Only one of them is fixed by regulation.
Off-plan is a different bill
Buying from a developer changes the shape of the costs rather than the size. The 4% still applies, paid at the point of Oqood (interim) registration rather than at a trustee office, and the trustee/service-partner fee on a mortgaged Oqood unit is listed higher, at AED 5,000 + VAT. There is usually no agent commission on a direct developer purchase — the developer pays the broker — which removes the second-largest line entirely. Against that: the Central Bank caps off-plan lending at 50% LTV for every buyer, so the cash requirement on day one is far higher even though the fees are lower. And DLD registration of a provisional sale with a mortgage is a six-business-day process, not a 25-minute counter transaction.
Four ways this bill goes wrong
- Budgeting 4% instead of 7.5%. The most common failure, and it surfaces at the worst possible moment — after the 10% deposit cheque is already with the agent.
- A valuation below the agreed price. The bank lends its percentage of the valuation. On an AED 1.5M purchase valued at AED 1.42M, an 80% loan drops by AED 64,000, and that shortfall is yours in cash within the MOU deadline.
- The seller's outstanding mortgage. If the seller still has a loan, the transaction runs through the mortgaged-property route — extra cheques, an extra AED 1,000 base fee, a AED 1,290 release, and a dependency on the seller's bank issuing a liability letter on time. Ask on day one whether the property is mortgaged; the answer changes your timeline more than your budget.
- Service charges nobody checked. The developer's NOC confirms they are settled, which is exactly when a large arrears figure appears. It is the seller's debt — but discovering it two days before transfer is how deals collapse.
Before you sign anything
- Get a mortgage pre-approval in writing before you make an offer. It is free at most banks and it fixes your real budget.
- Add 8% of the price to your cash plan, not 4%.
- Ask whether the seller has a mortgage, and whether the building's service charges are clear.
- Negotiate the bank's arrangement fee and the life insurance before you sign the offer letter — after signing, neither moves.
- Get the trustee's itemised fee list in advance and check it against the table above.
FAQ
How much are the total costs of buying a property in Dubai?
Budget roughly 7–8% of the purchase price in fees on top of the down payment when buying with a mortgage. On an AED 1.5 million apartment that is about AED 108,500–118,700, of which AED 60,000 is the DLD transfer fee and AED 31,500 the agent commission.
Who pays the 4% DLD transfer fee in Dubai?
The Land Department's own schedule splits it: 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the buyer. In practice almost every Dubai sale contract assigns the whole 4% to the buyer, which makes it a negotiable contract term rather than a fixed obligation.
What is the mortgage registration fee in Dubai?
0.25% of the loan amount, plus AED 250 for the title deed and AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees. A service-partner (trustee) fee also applies — AED 4,000 + VAT on the published schedule, AED 5,000 + VAT for off-plan Oqood units.
How much is the trustee office fee in Dubai?
AED 4,000 plus VAT (AED 4,200) for properties from AED 500,000, and AED 2,000 plus VAT (AED 2,100) below that threshold.
Are the buying costs lower for off-plan property?
The fee bill is usually smaller — there is normally no agent commission on a direct developer purchase — but the cash requirement is higher, because Central Bank rules cap off-plan mortgages at 50% loan-to-value for every buyer.
What happens if the bank values the property below the price?
The bank lends its LTV percentage against the valuation, not the agreed price. The difference has to be covered in cash, within the deadline set by the MOU, or the deposit is at risk.
Sources
- Property Sale Registration — fees, documents and 25-minute service time — Dubai Land Department
- Mortgage registration application — 0.25% and service-partner fees — Dubai Land Department
- Registering the sale of a mortgaged property — base fee, release fee, registrar fees — Dubai Land Department
- Sale registration associated with an initial mortgage (off-plan) — Dubai Land Department
- Expatriates buying property in the UAE — u.ae, official UAE Government portal
Verified 18 August 2026 against the Dubai Land Department's published service pages. Government line items are quoted from those pages. Agent commission, valuation, arrangement fee, NOC and insurance figures are market ranges reported by lenders and brokers, not official tariffs, and vary by bank and developer. General information, not financial or legal advice.
Related
- The transfer, step by step — Form F, the NOC, the manager's cheques and the day at the trustee office.
- Pre-approval, and why banks say no — the DBR test, the credit file and the property-side rejections.
- Fixed or variable, and the exit fee — what happens when the fixed period ends, and the 1% settlement cap.
- Mortgage Calculator UAE — payment, LTV caps, DBR check and upfront cash in one view.
- Buying off-plan and defaulting — the four retention bands, and why three of them are a percentage of the price rather than of what you paid.
- Service charges after handover — the annual cost the purchase price does not include, and the RERA approval that makes it collectable.
- Selling a unit that still has a mortgage — the extra AED 1,605 release line, and the three cheques the DLD asks for.
- Golden Visa eligibility — a DLD valuation of AED 2M or more opens the 10-year route.