Dubai Property Buying Cost Calculator
Last reviewed: August 2026 · Amber Homes Real Estate (RERA ORN 18690) · Indicative estimate, not a quote
Buying a property in Dubai costs more than the listing price. On the worked examples below, one-off buyer costs land between 6.10% and 6.98% of the purchase price. The largest item is the Dubai Land Department transfer fee at 4% of the price; agency commission of typically 2% plus 5% VAT, an AED 580 DLD admin fee, a registration trustee fee and — when you buy from an existing owner — a developer NOC fee make up most of the rest. Financing adds 0.25% of the loan. On a AED 2,310,000 ready home bought from an existing owner without a mortgage, that is AED 146,190, or 6.33% of the price. Enter your own numbers below.
Estimate your costs
Every line below is computed from the published rates in the fee table further down. Nothing is sent anywhere — the calculation runs entirely in your browser.
Your estimated cost stack
On a purchase price of AED 2,310,000 · ready · from an existing owner · no mortgage
- DLD transfer fee
- AED 92,400
- DLD admin fee
- AED 580
- Oqood / off-plan registration admin
- —
- Agency commission
- AED 46,200
- VAT on agency commission
- AED 2,310
- Registration trustee fee
- AED 4,200
- Developer NOC fee
- AED 500
- Mortgage registration fee
- AED 0
4% of the purchase price. Applies on both routes.
Flat AED 580 on an apartment or office transfer.
Not charged on the ready route.
Typically 2% of the purchase price. On primary off-plan launches the developer often pays this instead — see the assumptions below.
5% VAT, charged on the commission — VAT applies to the service, not to the property.
Published range AED 2,100–4,200 including VAT, stepping up above AED 500,000. No VAT is added on top of this line — the trustee office confirms the exact amount at transfer.
Published range AED 500–5,000, set by the developer. This estimate uses the low end, so your quote is more likely to be above this line than below it.
No mortgage selected — nothing to register.
Indicative only, and not a quote. Lines are rounded to the nearest dirham, so they may not add up to the total exactly. See what is and is not included below.
Every cost line, and how it is calculated
Rates last reviewed August 2026. Government fees are set by the Dubai Land Department and can be revised.
| Cost line | How it is calculated | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| DLD transfer fee | 4% of the purchase price | Ready and Off-plan |
| DLD admin fee | AED 580 (apartment or office) | Ready |
| Oqood / off-plan registration admin | Developer-collected admin charge alongside the 4% | Off-plan |
| Agency commission | Typically 2% of the purchase price, plus 5% VAT | Ready and Off-plan |
| Registration trustee fee | Roughly AED 2,100–4,200 including VAT, by price tier | Ready |
| Developer NOC fee | Usually AED 500–5,000 | Ready — secondary-market purchases only |
| Mortgage registration fee | 0.25% of the loan amount | Ready and Off-plan |
What each fee is, and who it is paid to
DLD transfer fee and admin fee. Paid to the Dubai Land Department, the government registrar of every property interest in the emirate. The transfer fee is 4% of the purchase price and is the single largest cost outside the price itself; the flat AED 580 admin fee covers issuing the title deed on an apartment or office transfer. In Dubai market practice the buyer pays both, settled on transfer day.
Oqood registration, on the off-plan route. Paid to the developer, who registers your contractual interest on the Dubai Land Department's Oqood interim register until the title deed is issued at handover. Developers normally collect the 4% and their Oqood admin charge together at booking. The admin charge is set by the developer, so this page does not estimate it — ask for it in writing alongside the payment plan. Note that the fee stack is separate from the plan itself: across the 73 current Amber Homes projects with a published plan, the most common structure is 10/70/20 — 27 of 73 projects — meaning 10% on booking, 70% across construction and 20% on handover.
Agency commission and VAT. Paid to the RERA-registered brokerage handling the transaction, at typically 2% of the price, with 5% UAE VAT charged on the commission. VAT attaches to the professional service, not to the property. On primary off-plan launches the developer typically pays the brokerage instead, so buyers usually pay no commission on top of the price — confirm which applies to your purchase in writing before you sign.
Registration trustee fee. Paid to the registration trustee office — a private office approved by the Dubai Land Department to process transfers on its behalf, where buyer and seller (or their representatives) meet to complete. The published range is AED 2,100–4,200 including VAT, stepping up above a purchase price of AED 500,000. There is no trustee fee on an off-plan booking, because no transfer happens until handover.
Developer NOC fee. Paid to the community or master developer for the no-objection certificate confirming the seller has no outstanding service charges — without it the transfer cannot proceed. It arises only on a secondary-market purchase, because it is the existing owner's position being cleared. Developers set their own fee, usually within AED 500–5,000.
Mortgage registration fee. Paid to the Dubai Land Department to register your lender's charge over the property, at 0.25% of the loan amount — the loan, not the price — plus a small flat admin charge that this page does not model. Financed purchases also add a bank valuation and, usually, a bank arrangement fee, both set by the lender.
For the wider picture — how these fees sit inside the purchase process, and what else lands after transfer — read our guide to the cost of buying property in Dubai. If you are still choosing between the two routes, our off-plan versus ready comparison covers the trade-offs that matter more than the fee difference.
Worked examples
Priced at the low, median and high starting prices across the 73 Amber Homes projects with a published starting price (August 2026), so you can check them against our own current listings. Every figure is calculated with the rates in the table above.
| Cost line | AED 601,000Lowest starting price in our current listings · ready · secondary market · no mortgage | AED 2,310,000Median starting price · ready · secondary market · no mortgage | AED 2,310,000Same price · off-plan from the developer · no mortgage | AED 50,000,000Highest starting price in our current listings · ready · secondary market · no mortgage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DLD transfer fee | AED 24,040 | AED 92,400 | AED 92,400 | AED 2,000,000 |
| DLD admin fee | AED 580 | AED 580 | — | AED 580 |
| Oqood / off-plan registration admin | — | — | — | — |
| Agency commission | AED 12,020 | AED 46,200 | AED 46,200 | AED 1,000,000 |
| VAT on agency commission | AED 601 | AED 2,310 | AED 2,310 | AED 50,000 |
| Registration trustee fee | AED 4,200 | AED 4,200 | — | AED 4,200 |
| Developer NOC fee | AED 500 | AED 500 | — | AED 500 |
| Mortgage registration fee | AED 0 | AED 0 | AED 0 | AED 0 |
| Estimated total | AED 41,941 | AED 146,190 | AED 140,910 | AED 3,055,280 |
| Share of the purchase price | 6.98% | 6.33% | 6.10% | 6.11% |
Two things fall out of these numbers. First, the flat fees — the AED 580 admin fee, the trustee fee, the NOC — weigh far more at the bottom of the market than the top: they push the AED 601,000 purchase to 6.98% of the price while the AED 50,000,000 purchase settles at 6.11%, close to the 4% and 2% percentage lines that dominate it. Second, the fee gap between routes is narrow: at AED 2,310,000 the off-plan route saves AED 5,280 in the lines modelled here, before the developer's Oqood charge is added back.
Financing changes exactly one line. Take the AED 2,310,000 ready purchase and add a loan of AED 1,848,000 — 80% of the price, the indicative expat first-home ceiling below AED 5,000,000 — and mortgage registration adds AED 4,620, taking the total to AED 150,810, or 6.53% of the price.
What this estimate assumes, and what it leaves out
- Agency commission is applied on both routes. On primary off-plan launches the developer typically pays the brokerage — if that is your case, subtract the commission line and its VAT.
- The developer's Oqood admin charge is not estimated. It is set by the developer, so there is no published rate to compute from. Ask for the figure at booking.
- The NOC uses the low end of its range. AED 500 of a published AED 500–5,000 spread, so the estimate is more likely to come in under your quote than over it.
- The trustee fee uses the published tier figure. The published AED 2,100–4,200 range already includes VAT, so no VAT is added on top of this line. The trustee office confirms the exact amount at transfer.
- Not included at all: DEWA and district-cooling deposits, the first service-charge cycle, conveyancing and independent legal fees, bank valuation and arrangement fees, currency-conversion costs, and the small flat DLD admin charge on a mortgage registration.
- Rates change. Government fees are set by the Dubai Land Department and market practice moves. The figures on this page were last reviewed August 2026 — verify current rates before you transact.
This calculator produces an indicative estimate, not a quote, and nothing on this page is financial, tax or legal advice. Engage independent legal counsel for your purchase and a qualified tax adviser for your own position. Amber Homes Real Estate is licensed by RERA under ORN 18690.
Dubai buying-cost FAQs
How much does it cost to buy a property in Dubai?
Budget for one-off buyer costs on top of the purchase price. Across the worked examples on this page they land between 6.10% and 6.98% of the price. On a AED 2,310,000 ready home bought from an existing owner without a mortgage, the stack comes to AED 146,190, or 6.33% of the price. The largest item is the Dubai Land Department transfer fee at 4% of the price; agency commission of typically 2% plus 5% VAT, the AED 580 DLD admin fee, the registration trustee fee and the developer NOC fee make up the rest. Rates last reviewed August 2026.
What is the DLD fee and who pays it?
The Dubai Land Department transfer fee is 4% of the purchase price, plus a flat AED 580 admin fee on an apartment or office transfer. In Dubai market practice the buyer pays it. On a ready purchase it is settled at the registration trustee office on transfer day; on an off-plan purchase the developer normally collects it at booking, alongside the Oqood registration charge. The Dubai Land Department is the authority for the current schedule and can revise it — the figures here were last reviewed August 2026.
Does buying off-plan cost less than buying ready?
On fees, slightly — and only because three lines drop away. At AED 2,310,000 the ready, secondary-market route in this calculator totals AED 146,190 while the off-plan route totals AED 140,910: no DLD admin fee, no registration trustee fee and no developer NOC, because there is no trustee transfer and no existing owner. Against that, the developer's Oqood registration charge is added at booking and is not estimated here. The 4% DLD fee applies either way, so the fee difference between the two routes is small — the real difference between them is timing, financing and risk, not cost.
Do I pay agency commission when I buy off-plan?
Often not, on a primary launch. Prevailing market practice in Dubai is that the developer pays the brokerage on primary off-plan sales, so the buyer usually pays no commission on top of the price; on ready and secondary-market purchases the buyer pays typically 2% of the price plus 5% VAT. This calculator applies the 2% on both routes because it cannot know your launch's terms — so if the developer is covering the commission on yours, subtract the agency commission line and its VAT from the total. Confirm who pays the brokerage in writing before you sign either way.
Is VAT charged when you buy property in Dubai?
UAE VAT of 5% applies to the professional services in a purchase — agency commission, conveyancing, valuation — not to the property itself. This calculator applies VAT to the agency commission only, because that is the one service line it estimates; if you engage a conveyancer or commission a valuation, add 5% to those invoices too. This is general information and not tax advice — confirm your own position with a qualified tax adviser.
How much is the mortgage registration fee in Dubai?
Mortgage registration is 0.25% of the loan amount, not of the purchase price, plus a small flat DLD admin charge that is not modelled here. On the AED 2,310,000 example, a loan of AED 1,848,000 adds AED 4,620 and takes the total to AED 150,810. Loan-to-value ceilings are set by the bank: UAE-resident expats can typically borrow up to 80% on a first home under AED 5,000,000, while lending against an off-plan unit during construction is typically capped at around 50%.
Is this calculator a quote?
No. It is an indicative estimate, built only from published rates and simple arithmetic, so every line can be checked by hand. It uses the low end of the developer NOC range and the published tier figure for the trustee fee, it does not estimate the developer's Oqood charge, and it excludes DEWA and district-cooling deposits, service charges, conveyancing and valuation fees, bank arrangement fees and any currency-conversion cost. Fees are set by third parties and can change. Nothing here is financial, tax or legal advice — for a figure you can rely on, ask us to price the specific property and engage independent legal counsel.
Send us the property you are considering and we will price the whole stack against it — the developer's actual Oqood charge, who is paying the brokerage, the NOC your community charges — so you are budgeting from real figures instead of a range.
Or call +971 4 368 4497.