Costs and Fees When Buying Off Plan in the UAE

Costs and Fees When Buying Off Plan in the UAE

Every cost in an off plan purchase, itemised, including the ones that are not in the brochure.

The price is not the price

The number on the brochure is the purchase price. It is not what leaves your account.

On a Dubai off plan purchase you should budget roughly 4 to 4.5 percent on top of the price in government and developer fees, almost all of it payable early rather than at handover. In Abu Dhabi the equivalent figure is lower, around 1 to 2 percent depending on who bears the registration fee. Then there are annual service charges from the moment you take the keys, which most overseas buyers leave out of their yield calculation entirely.

None of this is hidden. All of it is published. But it is scattered across developer sheets, land department schedules and small print, and nobody hands you a single total. This page is that total.

At a glance

What you pay in Dubai

Dubai Land Department registration fee: 4 percent

The single largest cost on top of the price. Four percent of the purchase price, payable to the Dubai Land Department at registration.

One nuance that confuses a lot of buyers. The fee is legally structured as 2 percent from the buyer and 2 percent from the seller. In practice, market convention in Dubai is that the buyer pays the full 4 percent, and on an off plan purchase direct from a developer you will normally be quoted 4 percent. Some developers absorb part or all of it as a launch incentive, so always ask whether the price you have been given includes the DLD fee or whether it sits on top.

On an off plan purchase you pay this once. The Oqood interim registration converts to a title deed at completion, and the 4 percent is not charged again at handover.

Oqood registration and admin

The DLD administrative fee on an off plan registration is AED 40, which is deliberately low because the full charge comes at the title deed stage. There is also a combined knowledge and innovation fee of AED 20.

At handover, converting the Oqood registration into a title deed costs around AED 250.

Developer administrative fees

Separate from the government fees and set by the developer. Typically AED 1,500 to AED 6,000, covering Oqood processing, SPA issuance and similar administration. Ask for the figure in writing before you reserve. It varies more between developers than it should.

Trustee office fees: usually not your problem on off plan

You will see trustee office fees of AED 4,000 to 4,200 plus VAT quoted in Dubai cost guides. Those apply to transfers of completed property through a registration trustee office. On a first sale off plan direct from the developer, registration goes through Oqood instead, so this charge normally does not arise. It will arise if you later resell the property.

Developer NOC: only on resale

A No Objection Certificate from the developer is required when you sell a property on, not when you buy it from them. Fees range from around AED 500 to AED 5,000 depending on the developer, and the seller normally pays. Worth knowing now because it is a cost of your eventual exit.

What you pay in Abu Dhabi

Registration fee: 2 percent

Abu Dhabi charges 2 percent of the purchase price, registered through ADREC, the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, which has regulated the emirate’s real estate sector since late 2023 under the Department of Municipalities and Transport.

The convention in Abu Dhabi differs from Dubai. The 2 percent is commonly split between buyer and seller at 1 percent each, which means an Abu Dhabi purchase can cost you as little as 1 percent in registration against Dubai’s 4. On a developer direct off plan purchase, however, there is no seller in the usual sense, and practice varies: some developers absorb the buyer’s share as an incentive, some pass the full 2 percent across. This is a question with a five figure answer on a large villa, so ask it before you reserve rather than after.

Other Abu Dhabi charges

Title deed issuance is around AED 1,000. There is an administration fee of around AED 450 on transactions. Developer administrative fees apply as they do in Dubai and vary by developer.

Abu Dhabi also operates DARI, the emirate’s digital property platform, which holds official ownership records and can be used to verify a property’s registration and title status.

Service charges: the cost everyone forgets

This is the one that quietly ruins yield calculations.

Service charges are annual fees paid by every owner for the maintenance, security, cleaning, insurance and management of the building or community and its shared facilities. They are charged per square foot of your unit and set per development. You pay them from handover, every year, for as long as you own the property.

What they actually cost in Dubai

Figures are indicative ranges for 2026 and vary building by building.

Read that table carefully, because the gap between a villa at 4 and a Palm apartment at 35 is close to a tenfold difference, and it is the single largest ongoing cost of ownership. On an 800 square foot apartment in Dubai Hills Estate at 17 per square foot, you are paying roughly AED 13,600 a year. On a 2,000 square foot apartment on the Palm at 30, you are paying AED 60,000 a year, which on a property yielding AED 300,000 in rent is a fifth of your gross income before anything else.

Note the cooling column. Where district cooling is included in the service charge the headline rate looks higher but your tenant’s bills are lower, which affects what rent you can achieve. Comparing two rates without checking what each includes tells you nothing.

How service charges are regulated

In Dubai, developers and owners associations must submit annual service charge budgets to RERA for approval, calculated from actual maintenance costs and divided across the total built up area to produce the per square foot rate. The Dubai Land Department publishes approved rates for buildings registered in the Mollak system, so you can check a building’s approved charge before you buy. Owners can challenge unjustified increases through RERA’s dispute process.

In Abu Dhabi, service charges are set per community and overseen by ADREC under its own framework.

What to do about it before you buy

Ask the developer for the projected service charge per square foot for your specific unit, in writing, before you reserve. Then treat it as a projection rather than a promise, because the figure quoted at launch for a building completing in 2030 is an estimate made years in advance. Branded residences and high amenity buildings cost more to run, and a sky bridge, a beach club or two swimmable lagoons all appear on your annual invoice eventually.

VAT

Straightforward for most buyers, and better news than people expect.

Residential property is not charged VAT at 5 percent. The first supply of a new residential property, which includes an off plan purchase from a developer, is zero rated for VAT. Subsequent sales of residential property are exempt. Either way, you are not paying 5 percent VAT on a home.

Commercial property is different. Sales and leases of commercial property are taxable at 5 percent. This does not apply to anything I sell, since I handle residential only, but it is worth knowing if you are looking at offices or retail elsewhere.

Services attract VAT even when the property does not. Agency commission, legal fees, valuation, snagging and property management are all services, and 5 percent VAT applies to them.

Agency commission

On the developer direct primary market sales I handle, the developer pays the commission. You do not pay me anything to buy an off plan property through me.

This is worth being precise about, because it differs from the secondary market and the difference catches people out. On a resale in Dubai, the standard agency commission is 2 percent of the purchase price plus 5 percent VAT, paid by the buyer to their own agent, with the seller paying their listing agent separately. On a developer direct off plan sale, the developer pays the agent out of its own margin and the buyer pays nothing.

The practical consequence: buying off plan through an agent costs you nothing more than buying direct from the developer, and the price is the same either way. If anyone asks you for a buyer commission on a developer direct off plan purchase, ask them to explain what it is for.

If you are financing

Mortgage costs sit on top of everything above.

Mortgage registration in Dubai is 0.25 percent of the loan amount plus AED 290, charged on the loan rather than the property value. Releasing the mortgage later costs around AED 1,290.

In Abu Dhabi, the mortgage registration fee is around 0.1 percent of the loan, subject to a minimum charge.

Arrangement and valuation fees are charged by the lender and typically run from 0.5 to 1 percent of the loan for arrangement, plus a few thousand dirhams for valuation.

Two things specific to non resident borrowers. Loan to value ratios available to non residents are generally lower than those offered to UAE residents, so you need a larger deposit than a local buyer would. And on an off plan property, mortgage finance normally becomes relevant at handover rather than at purchase, because most lenders will not finance a property that does not exist yet. If your plan depends on a mortgage covering a large handover payment in 2030, understand that no lender can commit to that today.

I can refer you to a mortgage partner who works with non resident buyers.

Your own costs

Easy to overlook and not trivial on a large purchase.

Currency conversion and international transfer. On an AED 8 million purchase, the spread your bank takes on the conversion can exceed every government fee combined. Get quotes, consider a specialist currency provider rather than your retail bank, and ask about the rate rather than the fee.

Independent legal review. Optional, and I would recommend it on any purchase large enough to matter to you. A UAE property lawyer reading the SPA before you sign typically costs a few thousand dirhams and is the cheapest insurance in the transaction.

Snagging inspection. If you appoint an independent snagging company rather than relying on your agent, budget a few thousand dirhams depending on the size of the property.

Power of attorney. If you are buying remotely and granting a POA, there are notarisation, legalisation and sometimes translation costs in your own country as well as in the UAE.

Worked example 1: Dubai apartment at AED 1.96M

An entry level off plan apartment in Dubai Hills Estate.

That is 4.2 percent on top of the purchase price, almost all of it due at registration rather than at handover.

Then, annually from handover: at a Dubai Hills Estate rate of around 17 AED per square foot on an 800 square foot unit, roughly AED 13,600 a year in service charges.

Worked example 2: Abu Dhabi villa at AED 8.7M

An off plan villa on Hudayriyat Island.

The AED 87,000 swing between those two outcomes is why “who pays the registration fee” is the question to ask before you reserve, not after. On a developer direct purchase it is negotiable often enough to be worth raising.

Note how much cheaper Abu Dhabi is proportionally. The same AED 8.7 million spent in Dubai would carry AED 348,000 in registration fees at 4 percent, against AED 87,000 to AED 174,000 in Abu Dhabi. On large purchases that difference is material and it rarely features in anyone’s comparison.

What you do not pay

For buyers coming from the UK, Europe, India or North America, this is usually the part that surprises them.

No annual property tax. The UAE does not levy a recurring tax on property ownership. There is no council tax, no IPTU, no property tax of any kind. Service charges are a maintenance cost paid to the building, not a tax paid to a government.

No capital gains tax. Individuals do not pay UAE capital gains tax on the sale of a property.

No inheritance tax in the UAE, though succession of UAE property is governed by UAE law and non Muslim owners are strongly advised to register a will covering their UAE assets, through the DIFC Wills Service or the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, to ensure their assets pass as intended.

No stamp duty. The registration fee is the equivalent charge and it is a one off.

One important caveat. None of the above says anything about your own country. Your country of residence may tax UAE rental income or a gain on sale regardless of what the UAE charges, and some countries tax worldwide income for their citizens wherever they live. That is a question for a tax adviser in your own jurisdiction, and it is the one cost on this page I cannot calculate for you.

The four costing mistakes I see most

Budgeting for the deposit and forgetting the registration fee. On a Dubai purchase the 4 percent falls due at registration, within weeks of reserving, not at handover in 2030. On AED 6 million that is AED 240,000 you need available almost immediately.

Calculating yield on gross rent. Gross rent minus service charges minus management fees minus vacancy is the number that matters. On a high service charge building the gap between gross and net yield is wide enough to change whether a purchase makes sense.

Assuming the brochure price includes the DLD fee. Sometimes it does, as a launch incentive. Usually it does not. Ask, and get the answer in writing.

Comparing Dubai and Abu Dhabi on price alone. The registration fee difference between 4 percent and 2 percent, and the possibility of paying only 1 percent in Abu Dhabi, is worth hundreds of thousands of dirhams on a large purchase. Factor it in before you decide which emirate.