Service charges in Dubai: rates per sq ft by area
What service charges cover, who approves them, the median rate per square foot in 20 Land Department districts, and how to check the current figure for your building.
Written by our team
8 min read
Service charges are the yearly fee you pay to run and maintain your building or community. In Dubai they are quoted in dirhams per square foot of your unit, and they start the day you get the keys. On an apartment they can take a tenth or more of the rent. This article explains who sets them, what they cover, what buildings in each area charged in the latest official figures, and why an off-plan buyer cannot know the final amount in advance.
This is general information, not financial or legal advice.
What service charges are
Dubai's law on jointly owned property defines service charges as the yearly charges collected from owners to pay for the management, operation, maintenance and repair of the shared parts of a building or project (Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 2). They usually cover:
- Cleaning, security and concierge
- Maintenance of lifts, pools, gyms, car parks and other shared parts
- Electricity and water for shared areas
- Building insurance
- The management company's fee
- A reserve fund for large repairs and replacing equipment (Article 30)
Your own electricity, water and cooling inside your home are not service charges. You pay those separately.
Who sets them
- The management company prepares a budget each year. It must get quotes from at least three suppliers for each service, and the budget must be audited by an auditor approved by RERA (DLD, approval of service charges, checked 5 November 2026).
- RERA approves the budget. Owners can be charged only after RERA's approval (Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 27). The DLD says management companies should not claim service charges before that approval (DLD FAQ).
- Mollak is the DLD system where budgets are submitted and approved, and where invoices are issued. You pay into the account approved by RERA, which is printed on the invoice.
- The owners committee checks the management company's work and reviews the budget. It is formed once at least 10% of units are registered to their owners (Articles 22 and 24).
Since December 2025, a management company can ask for a fixed budget for three years instead of one. The first approved was the Palm Jumeirah master community (DLD, 10 December 2025).
If you do not pay, the management company has a lien on your unit: you cannot sell it until the charges are paid, and after a 30-day notice a court can order the unit sold at auction to collect them (Article 32).
Master community fees and cooling
You may get more than one bill:
- Building service charges for your tower or your cluster.
- Master community fees. The law calls them usage charges. The master developer collects them for shared facilities of the wider community, such as roads, parks and lakes (Article 26). They may be on a separate invoice or included in your building's bill.
- Cooling. Many towers use district cooling. You then pay the cooling company directly: a fixed yearly capacity charge plus what you use. Empower's capacity charge was AED 750 per refrigeration ton a year, so a unit with a 6-ton load pays AED 4,500 a year before any use (Gulf News, 3 July 2024). In a "chiller-free" building, cooling is part of the service charge instead. Ask which one your building is.
What buildings charged, by area
The DLD publishes the approved rate for each project in its service charge index. We took the latest approved rate for each building in the index, kept rates between AED 2 and AED 80 per sq ft, and grouped them by the Land Department district they are in. Most of the latest rates are for the 2023 budget year.
| Land Department district (covers) | Buildings | Median AED/sq ft a year | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burj Khalifa (Downtown Dubai) | 22 | 23.0 | 16 to 40 |
| Palm Jumeirah (Palm Jumeirah) | 5 | 20.0 | 5 to 21 |
| Al Khairan First (Dubai Creek Harbour) | 12 | 19.9 | 16 to 30 |
| Business Bay (Business Bay) | 36 | 17.5 | 7 to 31 |
| Al Jadaf (Al Jaddaf) | 7 | 17.0 | 11 to 34 |
| Al Merkadh (Meydan, MBR City, Sobha Hartland) | 16 | 17.0 | 6 to 21 |
| Marsa Dubai (Dubai Marina, Dubai Harbour) | 34 | 17.0 | 7 to 38 |
| Al Thanyah Fifth (JLT) | 20 | 15.0 | 11 to 24 |
| Jabal Ali First (Al Furjan) | 21 | 15.0 | 10 to 76 |
| Me'Aisem First (Dubai Production City) | 6 | 15.0 | 11 to 17 |
| Madinat Al Mataar (Dubai South, Emaar South) | 9 | 14.0 | 3 to 19 |
| Al Hebiah Fourth (Dubai Sports City) | 46 | 13.0 | 4 to 20 |
| Wadi Al Safa 5 (Dubai Land Residence Complex) | 8 | 13.0 | 5 to 15 |
| Al Barshaa South Third (Arjan) | 14 | 12.5 | 9 to 20 |
| Nadd Hessa (Dubai Silicon Oasis) | 36 | 12.5 | 9 to 18 |
| Warsan Fourth (International City) | 8 | 12.0 | 9 to 29 |
| Wadi Al Safa 2 (Liwan) | 38 | 11.0 | 2 to 14 |
| Al Yelayiss 2 (Town Square) | 10 | 9.5 | 3 to 23 |
| Madinat Hind 4 (DAMAC Hills 2) | 24 | 4.0 | 3 to 6 |
| Al Hebiah Third (DAMAC Hills) | 20 | 3.0 | 2 to 19 |
How to read it:
- Districts are not marketing names. A Land Department district can cover several communities. "Marsa Dubai" covers Dubai Marina, Dubai Harbour and Bluewaters.
- The range matters more than the median. In Al Furjan's district one building was at AED 10 and another at AED 76. Your building's rate is the one that counts.
- The figures are a few years old. Most are 2023 budgets. Costs for staff, insurance and repairs have risen since, so current rates may be higher.
Villas and apartments
Across all 446 projects in our cleaned data, apartment buildings had a median of AED 15 per sq ft (middle half: 12 to 18). Villa-only communities had a median of AED 3.50, and mixed communities AED 4.
Villa rates look low for two reasons. Villa owners maintain their own homes and gardens, and the index often shows only the master community fee for villa communities. On a 3,000 sq ft villa, AED 3.50 is still AED 10,500 a year, and you may pay a separate cluster fee on top.
What a 1-bedroom pays
You pay the rate times your unit's area as registered with the DLD. Ask whether that area includes the balcony. For a 750 sq ft 1-bedroom apartment:
| Rate (AED/sq ft a year) | Yearly service charge | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| 13 (Dubai Sports City district median) | AED 9,750 | AED 813 |
| 17 (Dubai Marina district median) | AED 12,750 | AED 1,063 |
| 23 (Downtown Dubai district median) | AED 17,250 | AED 1,438 |
Add cooling if the building is not chiller-free.
Why off-plan buyers cannot know the final figure
When you buy off-plan, the brochure or the broker may quote an estimate. It is not an approved figure:
- The first real budget comes near handover. Until the building runs, there are no contracts or bills to audit. RERA can approve a temporary budget until the audited one is ready (Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 27).
- Estimates can be low. A developer that is still selling units has no reason to quote high.
- Facilities cost money. A tower with a large pool deck, a cinema room and a 24-hour concierge costs more to run than a plain one.
- The developer pays for unsold units in the meantime (Law No. 6 of 2019, Article 25). The rate per sq ft is the same for everyone.
What you can do: ask the developer for its estimate in writing, then compare it with the approved rates of finished buildings by the same developer in the same area. If the estimate is far below them, plan with the higher figure. Also check in your SPA whether the first year's charges are due at handover.
How to check the current rate
- Open the service charge index on the DLD website or in the Dubai REST app. It is also on the Mollak public pages (Mollak).
- Choose the master project, the project (building), the usage (residential) and the budget year.
- Read the approved rate per sq ft, and multiply it by your unit's area. The DLD says this gives you the total approved fee (DLD FAQ).
- Check more than one year. A rate that has risen each year will likely rise again.
Put it in your yield
Service charges come straight out of your rent. Our rental yields by area are gross: rent divided by price, before service charges. In the Business Bay district, the median 1-bedroom rent was AED 98,000 a year and the median ready 1-bedroom sold for about AED 1.41 million, a gross yield of 7.0%. Take off AED 13,125 of service charges (750 sq ft at AED 17.50) and it falls to about 6.0%, before vacancy, maintenance and agent fees. If you bought off-plan at a higher price per sq ft, your own yield will be lower again.
For the other costs of buying, see the costs on top of the price. To compare areas, read the best areas to buy off-plan or search projects.
Sources
- Law No. 6 of 2019 concerning ownership of jointly owned real property in Dubai, Dubai Legislation Portal, checked 5 November 2026: dlp.dubai.gov.ae
- Dubai Land Department, approval of service and usage charges, checked 5 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
- Dubai Land Department, frequently asked questions, checked 5 November 2026: dubailand.gov.ae
- Dubai Land Department, three-year fixed service fees for Palm Jumeirah master community, 10 December 2025: dubailand.gov.ae
- Mollak public pages, checked 5 November 2026: mollak.dubailand.gov.ae
- Gulf News, district cooling charges in Dubai, updated 3 July 2024: gulfnews.com
- Our analysis of the DLD service charge index (latest budget year per building, mostly 2023; rates between AED 2 and AED 80 per sq ft; districts with at least 5 buildings). These are our own medians, not official DLD statistics.
- Our analysis of Ejari rents and DLD sales, April 2025 to March 2026 (1-bedroom apartments, Business Bay district).