The Full Cost of Buying Property in Dubai

AED 2,310,000 is not a round number chosen for convenience: it is the median starting price across Amber Homes' current listings, measured across the 73 projects carrying a published starting price on 3 August 2026. The stack below assumes the most fee-heavy route — a completed home bought from an existing owner, paid in cash.

The 4% DLD fee is common to both routes; almost everything else differs, and the differences are structural rather than negotiable.

Off-plan has no NOC fee and no registration trustee fee. Both exist to service a change of owner on a completed unit: the no-objection certificate is the developer confirming an existing owner left no unpaid service charges, and the trustee fee pays the DLD-approved office where the two parties meet to transfer. Buying from the developer there is no previous owner and no trustee appointment — the sale is registered by the developer on the Oqood interim register, which records your interest until the title deed is issued at handover.

The timing of the 4% is the real cash-flow difference. On a ready purchase it is paid at transfer, alongside the price. On off-plan it is normally collected at booking, through Oqood, together with the developer's registration admin charge — so it is due at the very start of a payment plan that may otherwise spread over years. Some launches promote a waiver or a deferral of it; treat that as a term to confirm in writing, not an assumption.

Commission usually reverses. On primary off-plan launches the developer typically pays the brokerage, so buyers commonly pay no commission on top of the price. On ready and secondary purchases, commission of typically 2% plus 5% VAT is the buyer's. The wider trade-offs between the two routes — payment plans, escrow, timelines and risk — are set out in our off-plan vs ready property guide, and the mechanics of the instalment structures themselves in our guide to Dubai off-plan payment plans.

The government charge on a mortgage is the mortgage registration fee of 0.25% of the loan amount — the loan, not the purchase price, which is why it scales with how much you borrow rather than what you buy. On our AED 2,310,000 example financed at 80%, the loan is AED 1,848,000 and the fee is AED 4,620.

How much you can borrow depends on the property and your residency. As of August 2026, UAE-resident expatriates can typically borrow up to 80% on a first home priced under AED 5,000,000; above that band, and on second homes, lenders require a larger deposit. Non-resident buyers are usually offered less.

Off-plan lending is more restrictive. Some UAE banks finance off-plan purchases from approved developers, but during construction the ceiling is typically around 50% of the price, with the balance following the developer's payment plan. If maximum leverage matters to you, that gap decides the route.

Banks add their own charges on top of the government fee — arrangement, valuation and life-cover premiums among them. They vary by lender and are not published as a schedule, so ask for them in writing alongside the offer letter and add them to the stack above before you compare two deals.

Service charges are the recurring cost that most changes the economics of a Dubai home. They are billed per square foot of your unit per year, and the rate is specific to the building or community — a tower with concierge, pool decks and extensive common areas costs materially more per square foot to run than a low-rise community, so no single figure is meaningful across the market. Ask for the current rate for the exact building, and for the last few years of it: a rate that has jumped repeatedly tells you more than the rate itself. In some communities district cooling is billed separately, with its own capacity charges, so establish whether cooling sits inside or outside the service charge before you model a yield.

Beyond that, expect utility account deposits at connection, home insurance if you finance, and — if you let the property — leasing and management fees. None of these are transaction costs, which is why they sit outside the tables above, but all of them belong in the budget you build before committing. If your purchase depends on selling something first, our selling guide covers the costs on that side of the transaction.