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Before you engage anyone
1. Trusting an unlicensed intermediary
Real estate brokerage in Dubai is licensed. A brokerage holds an office registration number (ORN) issued by RERA and a trade licence from the Department of Economy and Tourism; an individual agent holds a broker registration number (BRN). Both can be verified independently through the Dubai REST application and the Dubai Land Department's public channels.
The people who cause buyers real harm are usually not licensed brokers behaving badly. They are individuals with no registration at all: someone introduced socially, a contact on a messaging group, a self-described consultant working from a personal phone. Under Dubai's rules, an unlicensed person cannot lawfully broker a property transaction or take a commission for it, which also means the buyer has no regulator to complain to when something goes wrong.
Ask for the ORN and the BRN before any viewing. Verify them yourself rather than accepting a screenshot. A legitimate broker expects to be asked.
2. Not checking the Trakheesi permit
Every property advertisement in Dubai must carry a permit number issued through the Dubai Land Department's Trakheesi system, and legitimate listings display it alongside a QR code. The permit ties the advertisement to a specific property, a specific licensed brokerage and a specific authorisation from the owner or the developer.
A missing or invalid permit means one of three things, none of them good: the advertiser is not licensed, the owner has not authorised the sale, or the listing is not real. Fabricated listings of attractive properties at attractive prices are the standard opening move in Dubai property fraud, and the permit is the single quickest filter against them.
Check the number, scan the code, and confirm that the property described matches the one you are being shown. For off-plan, the project itself must also be authorised for advertising.
Where the money goes
3. Paying a deposit into a personal account
This is the most damaging single error and the easiest to avoid. Deposits in a resale transaction are held by the registered brokerage in a client account, or by a conveyancer or escrow agent, against a signed contract. In an off-plan purchase, payments go to the project's escrow account, held in the project's name at a bank approved for the purpose.
Funds should never be transferred to an individual's personal account, to a company account that is not the developer or the appointed escrow agent, to a cryptocurrency wallet, or to an account in a country unconnected to the transaction. Requests to change bank details at the last minute, particularly by email, should be treated as fraudulent until verified by telephone on a number you have independently obtained.
If an intermediary is uncomfortable putting the receiving account and its purpose in writing, that is the answer.
4. Buying off-plan without checking escrow and project status
Dubai's off-plan protections are good, but they only work if the project is inside them. Before committing, establish that the project is registered with RERA, that it has a designated escrow account, that the developer is registered, and what the independently reported construction progress is. All of this is checkable; none of it should rest on a sales presentation.
Read the sale and purchase agreement for the payment schedule and whether instalments are tied to construction milestones rather than to dates, and for what happens if handover is late. Confirm that the purchase will be registered at the Dubai Land Department under the off-plan registration system. Our guide to off-plan versus ready property in Dubai covers the structural differences, and Dubai Islands illustrates what buying into a district still under construction actually involves.
The numbers people leave out
5. Ignoring service charges
Service charges are the permanent cost of owning Dubai property, and they vary enormously: between communities, between buildings in the same community, and between phases of the same development. They are levied per square foot of the unit, approved through the regulator's system, and collected by the owners' association or the management company.
Buyers routinely check the purchase price to the dirham and accept the service charge as a rounded figure from a listing. Ask for the current approved rate, the charge history over recent years, what the budget actually covers, and whether the community has significant shared assets with high running costs, a lagoon, a marina, extensive landscaping, district cooling. Ask also whether a sinking fund exists and is funded, because major works on an ageing building have to be paid for by somebody.
6. Underestimating transfer costs
The transaction costs of a Dubai purchase are modest by international standards but they are not nil, and they are payable in cash at transfer rather than financed. The principal registration items are well established.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Dubai Land Department transfer fee | 4% of the purchase price, plus an administrative fee of AED 580 |
| Registration trustee fee | AED 4,000 plus VAT for transactions above the trustee's lower threshold |
| Mortgage registration, where a loan is used | 0.25% of the loan amount plus AED 290 |
To these add brokerage commission, conveyancing if you appoint a conveyancer, the developer's no-objection certificate fee, any service charge apportionment, and, on a mortgage, valuation and bank arrangement fees. Buyers financing the purchase should budget the fees separately from the deposit, because lenders do not advance against them. The full breakdown is in Dubai property purchase costs.
7. Assuming rental returns
Yield figures circulate freely in Dubai marketing and are frequently presented as characteristics of a building rather than as outcomes of a particular unit in a particular year. A quoted gross yield tells you nothing about service charges, management fees, void periods, maintenance, the cost of furnishing a short-let unit, or the regulatory requirements for holiday rentals.
Treat any projected return as a claim to be tested, not a fact. Ask what the specific unit has actually achieved, what the comparable rents in the building are now rather than at launch, and what the net position is after every recurring cost. Guaranteed return schemes deserve particular scrutiny: a guarantee is only as good as the entity giving it, and the cost of it is usually already inside the price you are paying.
The paperwork at the end of the deal
8. Skipping the NOC and outstanding charges
A resale in Dubai cannot complete without a no-objection certificate from the developer or the master community. The NOC confirms that the seller has cleared service charges, utility balances and any other obligations attached to the property, and that the developer does not object to the transfer.
Buyers sometimes treat this as an administrative formality handled by the agent. It is the point at which undisclosed arrears surface: unpaid service charges going back years, chilled water balances, fines for unapproved alterations, or works carried out without developer consent that now have to be regularised or reversed. These are the seller's obligations, but if they are discovered late they become the buyer's delay and, in a poorly drafted contract, sometimes the buyer's cost.
Raise the NOC early. Ask what the seller expects it to show. Confirm who pays the fee and who bears the cost if arrears are found. Make the contract conditional on a clean certificate. The same applies to any registered tenancy: check Ejari status and the notice position before assuming vacant possession, and see the glossary for the terms.
Buying at a distance
9. Buying sight-unseen without proper due diligence
Buying a Dubai property from abroad is entirely normal and can be done properly. What causes losses is buying remotely while also skipping the checks that physical presence would otherwise have forced.
A remote purchase done properly involves an independent inspection or survey, a live video viewing conducted by someone acting for you rather than for the seller, documented verification of the title deed and the seller's identity, a power of attorney that is correctly notarised, legalised and translated for acceptance at the Dubai Land Department, and payments made only to verified accounts. A remote purchase done badly involves a brochure, a WhatsApp conversation and a transfer.
The specific things a screen will not show you are the ones that matter most: what is behind and opposite the property, what is planned on the adjoining plot, road and flight noise, the actual walk to the amenities, the condition of the building's common areas, and how the light falls at the time of day you would be there. If you cannot travel, send someone who can. Our guide to buying Dubai property remotely sets out the full sequence.
Thinking past the purchase
10. Having no exit plan
Most buyers plan the purchase in detail and the sale not at all. Yet the characteristics that make a property easy or hard to sell are visible on the day you buy it, and they are largely fixed thereafter.
Before committing, ask who the next buyer is. A conventional layout in a community with steady transaction volume has a deep market. A highly personalised house, an unusual unit type, a floor plan compromised by a previous owner's alterations, or a property in a district that has not yet built a secondary market has a shallow one. Neither is wrong, but the second should be bought with a longer horizon and, usually, at a price that reflects it.
The other components of an exit plan are practical. Understand the notice and NOC requirements for selling, particularly if the property will be tenanted. Keep the documentation: approvals, drawings, warranties, maintenance records and service charge receipts. Buyers at the upper end scrutinise all of it, and a complete file shortens a negotiation. If you hold through a company or with a mortgage, understand the release and transfer mechanics before you need them.
Owners planning a sale at the prime end will find selling a luxury home in Dubai relevant, and anyone buying for residency should read Golden Visa through property so that a future sale does not create an unintended visa problem.
A short checklist, and how we work
Condensed to a single page, the ten mistakes become ten questions.
| # | Ask | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | What is your ORN and BRN, and may I verify them myself? | Buying as a foreigner |
| 2 | What is the Trakheesi permit number on this listing? | Glossary |
| 3 | Which account receives my deposit, and in whose name is it held? | Buying as a foreigner |
| 4 | Is the project RERA-registered, and what is the escrow account? | Off-plan vs ready |
| 5 | What is the approved service charge rate, and what does it cover? | Dubai Hills Estate |
| 6 | What is the full cash requirement at transfer, item by item? | Purchase costs |
| 7 | What has this specific unit actually achieved, net of all costs? | Dubai Islands |
| 8 | What will the NOC show, and who bears the cost of arrears? | Glossary |
| 9 | Who is inspecting this on my behalf, and is my POA acceptable to the DLD? | Buying remotely |
| 10 | Who is the next buyer for this property, and what will they ask? | Selling a luxury home |
Bonum Realty is a RERA-licensed brokerage, ORN 34799, DED licence 1168323, at the 5th Floor, Rasis Business Centre Building, Al Barsha 1, Dubai. We work mainly in the prime villa market, including Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Bay Island, Emirates Hills, District One and Jumeirah Golf Estates. You are welcome to verify our registration before speaking to us. Enquiries: info@bonumrealty.com or enquiry form. A current listing is Villa Amalfi on Jumeirah Bay Island.