Landlord Guide

A unit's advertised gross rental yield (annual rent ÷ purchase price) ignores service charges, which vary significantly by building and can meaningfully change what you actually keep. Before committing to a buy-to-let purchase, we pull the building's service charge rate and run the net number, not just the headline gross figure agents tend to quote.

Every residential tenancy in Dubai must be registered with Ejari, the RERA-run tenancy registration system — it's required to open DEWA accounts, renew visas tied to the tenancy, and to enforce the contract in the Rental Dispute Settlement Centre if a dispute ever arises. An unregistered tenancy is a real administrative headache for both landlord and tenant, so we treat Ejari registration as a non-negotiable step at move-in, not paperwork to get to later.

Dubai uses the RERA rental index to control how much you can raise rent at renewal, benchmarked against comparable units in the same area. If the current rent already sits within 10% of the market average, no increase is permitted at all that term. The further below market the current rent sits, the larger an increase is allowed, on a sliding scale up to a maximum 20% increase where the rent is more than 40% under market. Any increase requires at least 90 days' written notice before the lease renews — sending it late, or verbally, generally means it doesn't apply this term.

If you want to sell, move in yourself, or carry out major renovation, you can't simply decline to renew — Dubai law requires at least 12 months' advance written notice before the lease expiry, delivered through a notary public or registered mail/courier with confirmed delivery. A text message, email or verbal notice alone doesn't meet the legal standard, and getting this wrong can cost you a full extra lease term you didn't want.

As a general default (always check your specific tenancy contract, since parties can agree otherwise), structural issues and major system failures — air conditioning, plumbing, electrical — are the landlord's responsibility, while day-to-day upkeep and minor repairs sit with the tenant. Building-wide service charges (covering shared facilities, structure and common-area maintenance) are the owner's cost regardless of whether the unit is occupied by a tenant.

Letting a unit on a nightly or short-stay basis is treated differently from a standard annual tenancy and requires a separate holiday-home permit from Dubai's tourism authority, plus the building's owners' association generally needs to permit short-let use in the first place — not every building does. If short-term letting is part of your plan for a property, it's worth confirming both of those before you buy, not after.