Property transfers in Dubai are executed at authorised Real Estate Registration Trustee offices — private service centres licensed by the Dubai Land Department to verify documents, witness the transaction, collect fees, and issue the new title deed. The trustee office charges a processing fee for this service, separate from the DLD’s own government fees.
The fee is tiered on property value with a single threshold at AED 500,000. For a property valued at AED 500,000 or above it is AED 4,000 plus AED 200 VAT — AED 4,200 in total. Below AED 500,000 it is AED 2,000 plus AED 100 VAT — AED 2,100 in total. Unlike DLD government fees, which are VAT-exempt, the trustee fee is a private service charge and carries 5% VAT. Published figures sometimes quote the fee excluding VAT; the amounts payable on the day are AED 4,200 and AED 2,100 respectively.
Both parties — or their attorneys under a registered Power of Attorney — attend the appointment. The registrar checks the documents (passports or Emirates IDs, the signed MOU, the developer’s No Objection Certificate, and the seller’s title deed), confirms the payment cheques, executes the transfer in the DLD system, and issues the title deed in the buyer’s name. For financed purchases, the bank’s mortgage is registered in the same sitting where possible; when the mortgage is registered on the same day as the sale, the registrar’s fees on the mortgage component are exempted.
The trustee fee applies to secondary-market transfers processed through trustee centres. Off-plan purchases registered through the developer under the Oqood system do not incur it — one of the cost differences set out on the off-plan and Oqood fees page.