Dubai property buying cost calculator
The real cost of buying property in Dubai: the 4% DLD transfer fee, trustee, title deed, agency commission, mortgage registration and bank fees, itemised, plus the total cash needed at purchase.
Free, no sign-up. Rates reviewed 26 July 2026Your purchase
Adjust the variable fees
The government fees are fixed. These three are not, so they are yours to set.
The full price plus 98,050 in fees.
That is 6.54% of the price, itemised below. Most published guides quote 7 to 10%, which assumes the top of the variable bank and NOC ranges.
Every fee, itemised
Dubai Land Department
Agency
Other
Use this calculator on your own site
Free to embed, on any site, commercial or not. It resizes itself, follows the visitor's light or dark theme, and stays up to date when the fees change. All we ask is that you keep the credit line.
How this is calculated
The fees fall into three groups, and only one of them is fixed. Government fees are set by the Dubai Land Department and are the same for everyone: the 4% transfer fee, an admin fee of AED 580 on a ready property or AED 40 on off-plan, a registration trustee office fee of AED 2,100 below AED 500,000 and AED 4,200 at or above it, AED 250 for the title deed and AED 20 in knowledge and innovation fees.
Agency commission is market convention rather than regulation. The Dubai standard on a resale is 2% plus 5% VAT, which is 2.1% in cash. On off-plan bought from the developer the buyer normally pays nothing, because the developer pays the broker, so it is off by default and can be switched back on.
Mortgage costs are charged on the loan, not on the price: 0.25% mortgage registration plus AED 290 admin, a bank arrangement fee that is typically up to 1% and is often negotiable, and a valuation of roughly AED 2,500 to 3,500. A larger down payment therefore reduces them.
The headline figure is the cash needed at purchase, which is the down payment plus the fees. That is the number that stops transactions, because fees cannot be added to the mortgage.
Questions people ask
How much are the fees when buying property in Dubai?
On the published fee schedule a cash resale works out at about 6.5% of the price: the 4% DLD transfer fee, the AED 580 admin fee, a trustee office fee of AED 4,200 above AED 500,000, the title deed and knowledge fees, and 2% plus VAT agency commission. Financing adds mortgage registration at 0.25% of the loan, a bank arrangement fee of up to 1% and a valuation of about AED 3,000, which takes it to roughly 7.5 to 8%. The 7 to 10% figure most guides quote assumes the top of the variable bank and NOC ranges, so treat it as a ceiling rather than an estimate.
Who pays the 4% DLD transfer fee, the buyer or the seller?
The fee is legally shared, but in practice the Dubai market convention is that the buyer pays all 4%. Anything else has to be negotiated into the contract, and the transfer will not complete at the trustee office until the full 4% is paid.
Are the fees different for off-plan?
The 4% is the same, but it is paid to DLD at Oqood registration rather than at a transfer, and the admin fee is AED 40 instead of AED 580. There is normally no agency commission for the buyer, because the developer pays the broker, and there is no NOC fee because there is no seller to clear service charges with. Some developers run limited DLD-waiver offers, in which case the 4% is on them.
Is there any annual property tax in Dubai?
No. There is no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on residential property in Dubai. The recurring cost is the service charge, set per community and charged per square foot, plus a 5% municipality fee on rent for tenants. The purchase costs are front-loaded rather than spread over the years you own.
How much cash do I need in the bank on the day?
The down payment plus all the fees, because the fees cannot be borrowed. On a AED 2,000,000 ready property with an 80% mortgage that is AED 400,000 of down payment plus roughly AED 145,000 of fees, so about AED 545,000 in cash. This calculator shows that figure directly.
Other free tools
These numbers, against real Dubai inventory
Doment tracks Dubai off-plan, resale and rental stock against the Dubai Land Department register, with published payment plans, handover dates and prices on every project.