Start with the card that lets you trade
The paper trail starts before the first lead. DLD's page for the real estate professional practice card puts the trade licence into Trakheesi first, then the broker card application through Trakheesi. DLD lists AED 500 for card issuance and AED 700 for the RERA practice exam, plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation. A Dubai Police good conduct certificate is required, plus an experience certificate: two years minimum for citizens, five for expatriates.
Two details catch agencies out. Card validity is tied to the validity of the trade licence, so a licence renewal that slips drags every broker card with it. The annual test must be passed to renew unless an exemption applies, and DLD names three: applicants over 55, brokers with five consecutive years in one office, and start-up licence holders. Brokerage itself sits under Bylaw No. 85 of 2006.
No advert goes out without a live Trakheesi permit
RERA's practice guide names 14 advertising categories that need a Trakheesi permit, and the permit number must appear on the advertisement. They run from newspaper, SMS, outdoor, vehicle, print and electronic ads to billboards, promotional campaigns, open days, classified ads, exhibitions, project launch ceremonies and seminars. One is real-estate promotion platforms, the portals: a Bayut, dubizzle or Property Finder listing is an advertisement like any other.
DLD's Real Estate Ad Permit page in August 2026 lists AED 1,000 for a standard permit, AED 5,000 for a project launch event permit and an AED 20 knowledge and innovation fee, with one working day of processing. For 11 of the 12 standard permit types, a copy of the marketing contract with the owner, Form A, is a required upload.
Enforcement is documented. In the first half of 2024, DLD fined 256 brokers for advertising non-compliance after 450 field inspection tours and 1,530 advertisement inspections, and it has reported AED 50,000 per violation under the Madmoun regime. Checks cover whether the QR code is present, whether it scans, and whether the ad matches the permit.
- ✦Permit lapses mid-campaign. The listing stays live and the ad is now unpermitted. Set the reminder a week before expiry, not on the day.
- ✦QR missing or unreadable. DLD has restated that the code belongs on every ad, visual or written. A shrunken code in a compressed image fails.
- ✦Boosted posts forgotten. Promotional campaigns and electronic ads are named categories. A paid Instagram or TikTok ad is not outside the list.
Madmoun issues a QR code with every permit, and DLD has required it on all real-estate advertisements since 24 April 2023. In April 2025 DLD added an AI-driven governance platform that monitors and automatically corrects listings on Property Finder, Dubizzle and Bayut, having reviewed over 279,000 advertisements and modified 29% of them at announcement. It corrects ads; it does not issue your permit.
Form A, Form B, Form F, and what Form I is not
RERA's November 2024 guide defines three smart contracts and says brokers must use them. Who signs each one is where the arguments start: a marketing agreement carrying the signature of one of two co-owners, or a buyer who never signed anything and now says a different agent introduced the unit.
Where a party breaches Contract F, the guide sets out an Amicable Settlement application filed through Trakheesi, after which RERA convenes a meeting. If no settlement is reached, the parties go to the judicial authorities. The quieter failure is a Form A that lapses mid-negotiation: the listing keeps running, the permit leaning on it is stale, and the seller is free to sign with another office.
- ✦Contract A, the listing agreement. The agreement to market a property, between seller and brokerage. It is the upload most Trakheesi permit types ask for.
- ✦Contract B, the buyer side. The agreement of desire to purchase, between buyer and broker. Your record of who you represent, on what terms.
- ✦Contract F, the MOU. The agreement to sell, between seller and buyer. The document the whole transfer is built on.
- ✦Form I, market practice only. Used between two brokers for cooperation, but RERA's guide names only A, B and F. Put the split in writing without claiming equal status.
Brokerage blogs give Form A a fixed 90-day validity. That period is not in RERA's November 2024 practice guide or on the DLD service pages reachable in August 2026. Check the current requirement, and track the end date you and the seller agreed.
Off-plan starts with escrow, not the brochure
Before marketing an off-plan project, RERA's guide requires the broker to confirm the project is licensed and registered with RERA, confirm an escrow account exists, instruct buyers to deposit only into that escrow account, and hold a marketing contract with the developer. Project status is checked through Mashrooi in Dubai REST. Four checks, a few minutes each, and the ones skipped on a launch weekend.
Law No. 8 of 2007 on escrow accounts is still the statute. The account is opened under a written agreement with the escrow agent, in the name of the project, and purchaser and financier payments go into it rather than to the developer. Catch a cheque written out to a developer's trading name before it leaves the client's hand.
Registration of the initial sale is Oqood. DLD's current pages put the fee at 4% of the property value, paid as agreed between seller and buyer, with an extra AED 1,000 where a developer self-registers a provisional sale through the Oqood portal.
Transfer day, the NOC and the trustee office
On a ready resale, the developer's no objection certificate is what usually costs you a booked trustee slot. Fees and turnaround differ by developer and are not published in one place, so confirm the current requirement with them. Record the date you requested it, not only when it arrives.
DLD's published schedule in August 2026 puts sale registration at 4% of the sale value. Add AED 250 for title deed issuance and AED 250 for an apartment or villa map, or AED 225 for a unified map with Dubai Municipality, plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation. The registration trustee fee is AED 4,000 plus VAT where the sale value is AED 500,000 or more, and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that. Mortgage registration is 0.25% of the mortgage value.
Commission is contractual in Dubai, not a regulated tariff. Two per cent plus VAT is the market convention on sales, normally payable by the buyer. Charging more breaks no rule, and a broker may take it from both sides provided both know and have agreed. The contract should state the parties, the property, the amount, the rate and the DLD registration date.
DLD's own fee schedule splits sale registration as 2% seller and 2% buyer. The buyer absorbing the full 4% is a negotiated convention, not the rule. Put who pays what into the MOU and say it to both sides early, not the week of transfer.
Ejari, the rent index and the increase you can ask for
Ejari registration of a tenancy contract is AED 100 plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation on DLD's service page in August 2026. Through the Dubai REST app the total is AED 177.75, including a AED 55 service partner fee and AED 2.75 VAT. At a Real Estate Services Trustee centre it is AED 220, with counter service of 25 minutes excluding waiting.
Renewal increases run on Decree No. 43 of 2013, issued in Dubai on 18 December 2013. Article 1 sets five bands: no increase where the rent is less than 10% below the average market rate, 5% where it is 11 to 20% below, 10% at 21 to 30%, 15% at 31 to 40%, and 20% where it is more than 40% below. Article 2 applies this to all landlords, including special development areas, free zones and the DIFC.
Article 3 requires that average to come from the RERA-approved rent index. The benchmark is the Smart Rental Index, launched by DLD on 2 January 2025, which rates buildings from one to five stars against more than 60 criteria and which DLD says can be refreshed daily. There is no separate 2026 index.
Owner numbers come from the Green List, nowhere else
RERA's practice guide is blunt here. Brokers are not allowed to contact owners who are not registered on the Green List in the Dubai REST app, and a broker who does faces a violation and suspension of operations if a client or investor complains. It is the only sanctioned source of registered owners' phone numbers and email addresses.
It is enforced. In a case published on 29 April 2022, RERA fined one brokerage AED 50,000 and suspended nine of its brokers for three months for direct telemarketing, and the public can report unsolicited calls through Dubai REST. The practical control is dull: record where every owner contact came from. In Raabta that is a source field on the lead; a shared sheet works too, as long as somebody fills it in.
What to track, per listing and per deal
Almost none of this fails from ignorance of the rule. It fails because a date passed and nobody was looking. Attach the dates to the records, give each one a named owner, and set the reminder before the deadline rather than on it.
Raabta is a CRM built for Dubai brokerages by Bedflow, and this is the part it is meant to carry: calls and WhatsApp messages logged to one client timeline, the deal and its commission on a pipeline, and the next follow-up scheduled the moment an outcome is logged. A shared sheet does the same job, as long as one named person works through it weekly, before a permit lapses and the portal pulls the ad. Free trial, no card.
- ✦Per listing. Trakheesi permit number, category, issue and expiry date; QR present on every published image; Form A signature and agreed end date.
- ✦Per sale deal. Form B on file, Form F date, ID copies, NOC requested and received dates, mortgage status, trustee appointment, and the commission rate with who pays it.
- ✦Per off-plan deal. Project and escrow confirmed on Mashrooi, developer marketing contract, the account the client paid into, Oqood registration, milestone dates.
- ✦Per tenancy. Ejari registration and expiry, the index band the renewal was calculated against, and the contract's notice dates.
- ✦Per agent. Broker card number and expiry, plus the trade licence renewal date that every card in the office hangs off.
Key takeaways
- Put the Trakheesi permit number, category and expiry on the listing record, and check the Madmoun QR code still scans on every published image before the ad goes out.
- Track the Form A end date you and the seller actually agreed rather than the 90 days brokerage blogs quote, and check the current DLD or RERA requirement.
- Write who pays each half of the 4% DLD registration fee into the MOU, and say it to both parties in the first conversation.
- Take owner numbers only from the Green List in Dubai REST, and record on every lead where the contact details came from.
- Set a reminder a week before each trade licence, broker card, permit and Ejari expiry, and give every one of those dates a named owner.
Questions
Does every Bayut or Property Finder listing need its own Trakheesi permit?
Real-estate promotion platforms are one of the 14 advertising categories named in RERA's practice guide, and the permit number must be displayed on the advertisement. DLD's AI-enabled governance platform monitors and automatically corrects listings on the portals, but it does not replace the permit or issue one for you.
Is Form A valid for 90 days?
That figure is repeated across brokerage blogs but does not appear in RERA's November 2024 Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide or on the DLD service pages reachable in August 2026. Check the current DLD or RERA requirement, and diary the end date written into your own contract alongside the listing's Trakheesi permit expiry, so the two are reviewed together.
Who actually pays the 4% DLD transfer fee?
DLD's published fee schedule splits sale registration 2% to the seller and 2% to the buyer. The buyer absorbing the full 4% is a negotiated market convention rather than a rule, so agree it in writing in the MOU and tell both parties early.
Can I call an owner whose number I found on another agency's advert?
No. RERA's guide states that brokers are not allowed to contact owners who are not registered on the Green List in the Dubai REST app, and a complaint can lead to a violation and suspension of operations. In an April 2022 case RERA fined a brokerage AED 50,000 and suspended nine brokers for direct telemarketing.
Try it on today’s leads
Put this into practice before the next enquiry lands.
One inbox for every portal and ad, one-tap call logging, and follow-ups that schedule themselves.