Off-plan property fees in Dubai: the costs on top of the price

The price of an off-plan home is not the total you pay. You also pay Dubai Land Department (DLD) fees at the start, registration fees at handover, utility deposits, service charges every year and, if you borrow, mortgage costs. This guide lists each cost in AED with its official source, then adds them up for an AED 1,000,000 apartment. Fees are as the official pages stated them on 5 November 2026.

This is general information, not financial advice.

The full list

Cost	Amount	Who pays, and when
DLD fee	4% of the price	Off-plan: the developer usually passes all 4% to you, paid at booking. Ready resale: the DLD lists 2% seller, 2% buyer, but buyers usually pay all 4%
Knowledge and innovation fees	AED 10 + AED 10	You, with each registration
Oqood registration (developer fee)	AED 1,000 listed by the DLD	Charged to the developer, often passed to you. Some developers add their own admin fee
Title deed at handover	AED 250 + AED 250 map + AED 20	You, at handover
Developer NOC (resale only)	Set by the developer	Usually the seller
Broker commission	Usually none from the developer; often 2% + VAT on resale	Resale: usually the buyer
Trustee office fee (resale)	AED 4,000 + VAT from AED 500,000; AED 2,000 + VAT below	Resale transfers
Mortgage registration	0.25% of the loan + AED 250 + AED 20	You, if you borrow
Bank arrangement fee	Up to about 1% of the loan + VAT	You, if you borrow
Bank valuation	About AED 2,500 to 3,500 + VAT	You, if you borrow
DEWA security deposit	AED 2,000 apartment, AED 4,000 villa, refundable	You, when you connect
Ejari (if you rent it out)	About AED 220	Usually the tenant
Service charges	Rate per sq ft per year	You, every year from handover
Chiller (district cooling)	Varies by provider and building	You, if your building uses it
Home insurance	From about AED 1,000 a year	Your choice; banks often require property cover

The details and sources for each are below.

At booking: the DLD fee and Oqood

The DLD fee is 4% of the price. The DLD's page for registering an off-plan sale lists it as 2% for the seller and 2% for the buyer, plus AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees, and an AED 1,000 fee for the developer's registration on the Oqood portal (DLD). In practice, developers ask the buyer to pay the full 4%. All 991 projects on our site list a 4% DLD fee for you to pay.

Developers often charge an "Oqood fee" or "admin fee" on top. The amounts quoted by brokers and portals range widely, and we have not found an official schedule for them. Dubai law says developers may charge only the administrative costs the DLD approves (Law No. 13 of 2008, Article 7, Dubai Legal Portal). Ask for every admin fee in writing before you book.

You pay the DLD fee when the sale is registered, which the DLD says must happen within 90 days of signing the sale agreement. See buying off-plan step by step.

"DLD waiver" offers

Some developers advertise that they will pay all or part of the 4% for you. That saves real money: AED 40,000 on an AED 1,000,000 home. Check three things. The waiver should be written into the sale agreement. The price should be the same as without the offer. And if you sell before handover, the next buyer pays their own 4%, so the waiver does not carry over.

At handover

When the building is finished, the developer registers it and the DLD issues the title deed. The DLD lists AED 250 for the title deed, AED 250 for the unit map, and AED 10 + AED 10 knowledge and innovation fees, when the registration fee was already paid (DLD). That is AED 520.

You also pay:

• The first service charges. Many developers ask for them at handover, sometimes for a full year in advance.
• The DEWA deposit. DEWA lists a refundable security deposit of AED 2,000 for an apartment and AED 4,000 for a villa, plus a small activation fee (DEWA). DEWA's pages give the activation fee as AED 130 in an older FAQ and AED 155 more recently. Owners get the deposit back when they sell.
• Chiller fees, if your building uses district cooling from a company such as Empower or Emicool. You pay a deposit or connection fee, then a capacity charge and a usage charge. The amounts depend on the building, so ask the developer which provider it uses and for the fees.

If you use a mortgage

Most off-plan buyers who borrow do it at handover. The costs:

• Mortgage registration: 0.25% of the loan, plus AED 250 for the title deed and AED 20 in knowledge and innovation fees (DLD). The same page also lists a service partner fee of AED 4,000 + VAT, or AED 5,000 + VAT for a mortgage on an off-plan (Oqood) unit. Many brokers quote a much lower fixed amount, often "AED 290". Ask your bank for the exact line.
• Arrangement fee: banks usually charge up to about 1% of the loan, plus VAT. We could not find a Central Bank cap on this fee. The Central Bank caps the early settlement fee at 1% of the outstanding loan or AED 10,000, whichever is less (CBUAE Rulebook).
• Valuation: about AED 2,500 to 3,500 plus VAT (Bayut, updated 20 October 2026).
• Life insurance, which most banks require.

How much you can borrow is in payment plans explained.

Every year: service charges

Service charges pay for the building's upkeep, security, cleaning and shared facilities. You pay them per square foot of your unit, every year, from handover. RERA approves the budgets, and you can see the current rate for a building in the Dubai REST app or the DLD's service charge index.

Here are typical rates for apartment buildings, from the DLD service charge index. Most budgets are for 2023, so today's rates may be higher.

Area (DLD district)	Median AED/sq ft/year	Buildings	700 sq ft a year
Downtown Dubai	23.0	22	AED 16,100
Palm Jumeirah	20.0	5	AED 14,000
Dubai Creek Harbour	19.9	12	AED 13,930
Business Bay	17.5	36	AED 12,250
Dubai Marina (with Dubai Harbour, Bluewaters)	17.0	34	AED 11,900
Mohammed Bin Rashid City (with Meydan, Sobha Hartland)	17.0	16	AED 11,900
Jumeirah Lake Towers (with The Heights)	15.0	20	AED 10,500
Al Furjan (with Discovery Gardens)	15.0	21	AED 10,500
Dubai South (with Emaar South, Expo City)	14.0	9	AED 9,800
Arjan	12.5	14	AED 8,750
Dubai Silicon Oasis	12.5	36	AED 8,750

The DLD groups areas into larger land-registry districts, so each row is the district that covers the named area. Villa communities such as DAMAC Hills 2 show low rates (a median of AED 4) because the index often lists only the master-community fee. New buildings can be charged more or less than the median. Read service charges in Dubai for more, and ask the developer for the estimated rate for your building.

Ejari and renting out

If you rent the home out, the tenancy contract must be registered on Ejari. The DLD lists AED 100 for registration, AED 20 in knowledge and innovation fees, and service partner fees, about AED 220 in total through a trustee centre (DLD). The tenant usually pays it. For returns, see rental yields by area.

Worked example: an AED 1,000,000 apartment

An apartment of 700 sq ft, bought off-plan from the developer for AED 1,000,000, paid in cash. Service charges are AED 15 per sq ft. No DLD waiver.

Cost	AED
Price	1,000,000
DLD fee, 4%	40,000
Oqood fees (DLD-listed AED 1,000 developer fee + AED 20, if passed on)	1,020
Title deed, map, knowledge and innovation fees at handover	520
DEWA deposit (refundable)	2,000
DEWA activation	155
First year of service charges (700 × 15)	10,500
Home insurance, first year	1,000
Total cash	1,055,195

That is about 5.5% on top of the price. The one-off fees you cannot get back (DLD, Oqood, title deed, activation) come to AED 41,695, or 4.2%. Service charges and insurance repeat every year.

If you also borrow AED 500,000 at handover (the 50% due on a 10/40/50 plan), add about:

Mortgage cost	AED
Registration, 0.25% + AED 270	1,520
Arrangement fee, 1% + VAT	5,250
Valuation, about AED 3,000 + VAT	3,150
Total	9,920

Add the AED 4,200 service partner fee if your bank's route charges it.

If you bought the same home on resale instead of from the developer, you would usually add 2% + VAT broker commission (AED 21,000) and a trustee office fee of AED 4,000 + VAT (AED 4,200) (DLD).

Before you book

• Ask the developer for every fee in writing, including admin and Oqood fees.
• Ask who pays the 4%, and get any waiver in the sale agreement.
• Ask for the estimated service charge per sq ft, and check similar buildings in Dubai REST.
• If you will borrow, get the bank's fee list before you book.

Compare projects and plans in search, or see off-plan homes under AED 1 million.

Sources

• Dubai Land Department, request to register the initial sale (Oqood), site updated 3 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
• Dubai Land Department, request to complete the initial procedures data (title deed), site updated 3 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
• Dubai Land Department, property sale registration, site updated 3 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
• Dubai Land Department, mortgage registration, site updated 3 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
• Dubai Land Department, register or renew a tenancy contract (Ejari), checked 5 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
• Dubai Legal Portal, Law No. 13 of 2008 on the interim real property register: dlp.dubai.gov.ae
• DEWA, activation of electricity and water (move-in), checked 5 November 2026: dewa.gov.ae
• Central Bank of the UAE, Resolution 96/2019, fee caps for retail banking (Appendix 2 of Regulation 29/2011): rulebook.centralbank.ae
• Bayut, total cost of buying property in Dubai, updated 20 October 2026: bayut.com
• Our analysis of the DLD service charge index (latest budget year per building, mostly 2023, rates between AED 2 and 80 per sq ft), and of the 991 projects published on this site, November 2026