United Arab Emirates

Registering Property in

United Arab Emirates

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: AED 10,958,042.16
  • City: Dubai

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
1 Register title at the Customer Service Department

The seller and the buyer must approach the Disposal Section at the Customer Service Department together and execute and submit an application. The sale agreement is also issued at this point. All involved parties must be present at this procedure, though a lawyer is not required to be present. The transfer fee is paid directly at the Lands Department (not at a bank) and proof of payment is required to be submitted along with the other documentation mentioned.

The documentation shall include:
Original Ownership Certificate (to be provided by the seller)
ID cards of concerned parties
The trade license of both companies (to be provided by the each party)
Notarized memorandum of association of both the seller and the buyer (to be provided by each of them)


Agency: Land Department 		1-2 days 2% transfer fee payable to the Dubai Lands Department of the purchase value (1% of the sale value paid by the purchaser; 1% of the value as local charges paid by the seller) + AED 370 (title fee)
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