What Dubai's brokers earn: published totals and the sums per broker

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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Dubai publishes the total commission its brokers earned. The Dubai Land Department counts it, and the Government of Dubai Media Office releases it with the number of deals, brokers and offices behind it. Those totals are the only official figures on broker earnings read for this guide.

They are a starting point and no more. A total says nothing about how the money is spread between brokers, what rate was charged on any deal, or how much of a fee stays with the brokerage. This guide sets out the published numbers by period, shows where two official releases do not fit together, works out the averages that follow from them, and then turns to what the press has reported about the rates developers pay on off-plan sales. It describes the position as read in October 2026, for the Emirate of Dubai only. The rules on how a fee is agreed, earned and lost are a separate subject and are not repeated here.

Arithmetic on Dubai Land Department figures for 2025 published by the Government of Dubai Media Office on 9 March 2026. Averages, not typical earnings.

What is published, and by whom

Two releases carry the recent figures. Both were issued by the Government of Dubai Media Office and both attribute their numbers to the Dubai Land Department.

The first is dated 27 July 2025 and covers the first half of 2025. The second is dated 9 March 2026 and covers the whole of 2025. Each gives a total value of brokerage commissions, a number of transactions carried out by brokers, a count of registered brokers and of brokerage offices, the number of new brokers who joined in the period, and a separate set of figures for women brokers. Gulf Business reported the half-year figures on 28 July 2025 with the same numbers. Both releases were opened again on 10 October 2026 for this guide, and each carries the figures given below.

Neither release defines its terms. They do not say whether "commissions" covers sales only or leases as well, whether it includes what developers pay brokers on off-plan sales, or how a transaction handled by two brokerages is counted. They give no split by type of deal and no distribution: nothing on how many brokers closed no deal at all, or how much of the total went to the largest firms. Every calculation below inherits those limits.

The totals for 2025

For the full year, the Media Office release of 9 March 2026 puts brokerage commissions at AED 13.59 billion, up 31 per cent on 2024. Brokers carried out 96,440 transactions, a rise the release gives as 54 per cent without naming the comparison year; it is read here as a rise on 2024. At the end of 2025 the register held 32,294 brokers and 9,785 brokerage offices. During the year 13,083 new brokers joined, 38 per cent more than in 2024.

For the first half of 2025, the release of 27 July 2025 gives commissions "exceeding" AED 3.23 billion on 42,181 transactions, against AED 1.62 billion in the first half of 2024, a rise it states as 99 per cent. It counts 29,577 registered brokers, 6,714 of them new in the half, and 1,223 registered brokerage offices. The table sets the three periods side by side as the releases give them.

Two earlier-year figures can be derived, and both are arithmetic, not published numbers. A total of AED 13.59 billion that is 31 per cent higher than the year before implies about AED 10.37 billion for 2024. A count of 96,440 transactions that is 54 per cent higher implies about 62,600 brokered transactions in 2024. In the same way, 13,083 new brokers at 38 per cent growth implies about 9,480 new brokers in 2024.

Two releases that do not fit together

Read side by side, the half-year and full-year figures raise questions the releases do not answer.

Start with commissions. If the first half of 2025 produced a little over AED 3.23 billion and the full year AED 13.59 billion, the second half would have produced about AED 10.36 billion, more than three times the first. Transactions do not move the same way: 42,181 in the first half leaves 54,259 for the second, a rise of 29 per cent. So the first half holds 43.7 per cent of the year's brokered transactions and 23.8 per cent of its commissions.

The same gap appears for 2024. The implied full-year total of about AED 10.37 billion sits against a published first half of AED 1.62 billion, which would leave about AED 8.75 billion for the second half of that year.

The office counts differ more sharply still: 1,223 registered brokerage offices in the July 2025 release and 9,785 in the March 2026 release, eight times as many, between a count given as of the first half of 2025 and a release covering the full year. Both figures are shown here as published; neither release explains the other. The July release also lists 2,426 registered real estate services offices, a separate category.

The effect is clearest in the average commission per brokered transaction. Each bar below is one total divided by one count from the releases, or by a figure implied from them.

One reading stays inside a single release. Within the full-year release alone, transactions grew faster than commissions, so the average commission per brokered transaction fell between 2024 and 2025, from about AED 165,700 to about AED 140,900. The release does not say why. A shift towards smaller deals, towards lower rates or towards leases would each have that effect, and nothing published allows a choice between them.

The arithmetic per broker and per office

Dividing the 2025 total by the register gives averages per broker and per office. The division is shown once, with its limits.

AED 13.59 billion divided by 32,294 registered brokers is about AED 420,800 per broker for the year, or about AED 35,100 a month. Divided by 9,785 offices, it is about AED 1.39 million per office. The same register carried out 96,440 transactions, which is 2.99 per broker over twelve months and about 9.9 per office. There were 3.3 registered brokers for each office.

Four cautions apply to every one of those numbers.

First, the divisor is the register at the end of the year. The release counts 13,083 new brokers in 2025, who were not there to earn for twelve months, so the average per broker who worked the whole year would be higher, by an amount that cannot be computed from the releases.

Second, an average is not a typical case. If a minority of brokers closes most of the deals, the broker in the middle of the range earns well under the average. The releases give no median and no distribution.

Third, the figure is a total of commissions, not income. The releases do not describe it as net of the brokerage's share, of a broker's or an office's costs, or of any part of a fee passed back to a client, a practice the press has reported and that is described further on.

Fourth, a deal may involve more than one broker. The releases do not say how a commission shared between a seller's and a buyer's broker is counted, or whether one sale then appears as one transaction or two.

The half-year release gives a second view. A little over AED 3.23 billion across 29,577 registered brokers is about AED 109,200 per broker for six months, and 42,181 transactions is 1.43 per broker. Doubling a half-year figure to compare it with the annual one is not done here, for the reason set out in the previous section.

New entrants and the register

The register grew between the two releases, and the published counts allow one more piece of arithmetic.

Between the two releases, the number of registered brokers rose from 29,577 to 32,294, a net gain of 2,717. Over the same months, new entrants numbered 6,369: the 13,083 who joined in the year less the 6,714 who joined in the first half. The difference between the two, 6,369 less 2,717, is about 3,650. That number is this guide's arithmetic and nothing more. It would correspond to brokers leaving the register in the second half of 2025 only if the two releases count registered and new brokers on the same basis, and the previous section shows that they do not reconcile on commissions or on offices. The releases publish no figure for departures, lapsed cards or cancelled registrations.

It matters for anyone reading the per-broker average. Entrants in 2025 equal about 40 per cent of the year-end register (13,083 of 32,294), so a large part of the divisor is made up of brokers in their first year. The March 2026 release also names two programmes aimed at Emirati brokers: the Dubai Real Estate Brokers Programme, which aims to raise their share of the profession, and a Real Estate Brokers Incubator Programme run by the Land Department with Dubai Silicon Oasis and academic partners. It reports a notable increase in Emirati brokers without giving a number.

Women brokers in the figures

Women are the only group for which the releases give separate commission figures.

According to the March 2026 release, 11,371 of the 32,294 registered brokers were women. They carried out 28,909 transactions, up 49 per cent, and earned AED 2.98 billion in commissions, up 83 per cent; the release does not name the comparison year for those two rates, read here as 2024. By division, that is about AED 262,100 per woman broker and 2.54 transactions each. The remaining 20,923 brokers account for the remaining AED 10.61 billion and 67,531 transactions, or about AED 507,100 and 3.23 transactions each. Per transaction, the averages are about AED 103,100 and about AED 157,100.

The growth rates point one way: women's commissions rose 83 per cent while the total rose 31 per cent, and their transactions rose 49 per cent against 54 per cent overall, so the average commission on a transaction handled by a woman broker rose while the overall average fell. The implied figures for 2024 are about AED 1.63 billion in commissions and about 19,400 transactions.

Here too the half-year release sits awkwardly beside the annual one. It attributes nearly AED 1.43 billion of commissions to women brokers in the first half of 2025, which is 44.3 per cent of that half's total of AED 3.23 billion. The full-year release gives women 21.9 per cent of the year's commissions. Their share of transactions is steadier: 31.8 per cent in the first half and 30.0 per cent over the year. No explanation is published, and none is offered here.

Off-plan and secondary: no official split

One question follows from the totals: how much of the commission pool comes from off-plan sales and how much from the secondary market. Neither Media Office release answers it. The commission totals are published as a single figure, with no division between off-plan and ready property, or between sales and leases.

What exists is press reporting on the share of sales, not of commissions. Gulf News wrote in an article last updated on 30 October 2023 that off-plan made up "well over 70 per cent" of Dubai property market volumes month on month. In an article last updated on 12 June 2024 it put off-plan at 65 to 80 per cent of residential deals in any given month, and on 2 July 2024 at 70 to 80 per cent of residential sales. Those are the newspaper's descriptions of sales activity in 2023 and 2024. They are not a breakdown of the 2025 commission total, and since the press reports different rates for the two segments, a share of deals cannot simply be read across as a share of commissions.

What developers pay on off-plan sales

Developers do not, in the sources read, publish the commission rates they offer brokers. The figures in circulation come from press interviews with brokers and with a small number of developers, and they are reports of market practice at the date of each article.

Gulf News reported on 30 October 2023 that off-plan commissions, earlier around 4 to 7 per cent, had reached 10 to 12 per cent at private developers and up to 15 per cent on bulk deals. It described bigger private developers offering 10 to 11 per cent on their newest launches and smaller ones, with one or two projects under way, about 10 per cent. Azizi Developments told the newspaper it paid its channel partners 4 to 7 per cent, and its executive director for sales and marketing, Nima Khojasteh, was quoted as saying: "we see no need to increase these percentages further." Emaar and Nakheel were described as keeping to standard single-digit commissions. The article also describes a two-tier arrangement: a standard commission of 5 per cent on any sale, with extra incentives for bulk sales above AED 10 million. Which developers that description applies to could not be settled from the article as read.

By 12 June 2024 the same newspaper reported that private developers had moved from an earlier average of 6 to 8 per cent to as much as 10 to 12 per cent, depending on the value of sales achieved, mainly on projects in Arjan, Al Furjan and Jumeirah Village Circle. It said Emaar and government-owned developers had mostly kept a structure of 4 to 5 per cent. Some launches added what the article called lucky draws, with instant commissions and up to 30 grams of gold on top. Adnan Ahmed, chief executive of the brokerage Square Roots Real Estate, told Gulf News: "The higher commissions – and the gold – are incentives to make things happen."

The table gathers those reports and shows what each rate would mean on one assumed price. The price is illustrative and the same in every row.

None of these rates is set by a rule, and none was read in a developer's own filing or published terms. They date from 2023 and 2024. Whether they still describe the market in October 2026 could not be established from the sources read.

Ready homes, rentals and luxury deals

For the secondary market the press gives lower figures, and two of them differ. Gulf News put the commission on ready property at about 4 per cent on average on 30 October 2023, and at 2 to 4 per cent on 2 July 2024. The same 2023 article gave 5 per cent for rental deals, without stating in the passage read what the percentage is applied to. For luxury property, a broker quoted on 2 July 2024 gave 6 to 8 per cent.

The gap between segments explains a remark made to Gulf News in October 2023 by Muhammad Imran Khan of Investment Experts, about off-plan work: "This is far more lucrative than the ready home sales market."

On the worked example above, the difference is plain. A ready home sold for AED 2,000,000 at 2 to 4 per cent produces AED 40,000 to AED 80,000. The same price off-plan at the 10 to 12 per cent reported for private developers in mid-2024 produces AED 200,000 to AED 240,000, between two and a half and six times as much, depending on which ends of the two ranges are compared. That comparison rests on reported rates and one illustrative price, and says nothing about how hard each kind of sale is to win.

When part of the commission goes back to the buyer

A gross commission is not always kept whole. Gulf News reported on 2 July 2024 that brokers on off-plan sales were sharing part of what developers paid them with their buyers. The article gives no fixed percentage. It says the buyer's share could be half of the commission or more, and that on luxury deals the share was settled case by case. It describes buyers asking brokers at the outset whether they would split the commission, and approaching another broker where one declined.

Florine Rusu, a director at the brokerage Market Price Real Estate, told the newspaper: "Since these properties are advertised, buyers are aware of the broker incentives."

A worked example shows the effect on the totals. Assume an off-plan home at AED 2,000,000, a developer commission of 12 per cent and a broker who passes half to the buyer. The commission is AED 240,000, the buyer receives AED 120,000 and the brokerage keeps AED 120,000, the equivalent of 6 per cent. The article does not say how such a payment is documented, and no Dubai Land Department statement on the practice was read for this guide. Nor do the releases say whether the published commission totals are counted before or after amounts passed on in this way.

Gulf News also reported, in October 2023, that the Land Department had tightened its rules on several brokers marketing the same project. The detail of that change was not read on an official page.

From gross commission to a broker's income

Three steps separate the published totals from what an individual broker earns, and the sources read are silent or thin on each.

The first is the share between the brokerage and the individual broker. No release, filing or press article read for this guide states how a commission is divided between the office and the broker who made the sale, and no brokerage's published terms were found. The AED 420,800 per registered broker computed earlier is therefore a figure for commission generated per head, shared in unknown proportions between broker and office.

The second is timing. The Gulf News articles describe off-plan commissions as paid by developers. None of them reports how long developers take to pay, apart from the "instant" commissions attached to promotional draws in June 2024. Reports of late payment by developers, and any measure by the Land Department to deal with it, were looked for and not found in the sources that could be opened. The subject is left open here and is not evidence that delays do or do not occur.

The third is cost. The releases say nothing about what a broker or an office spends to operate, and no figure for those costs was read.

One historical note on money handling comes from Gulf News, in an article last updated on 16 September 2018: under rules of the Real Estate Regulatory Agency then described, a broker marketing a property had to provide a letter stating that they would not receive money on the owner's behalf, and the Land Department was said to be activating escrow accounts for brokers marketing property from outside the United Arab Emirates. That report concerns buyers' funds, not the payment of commission.

What can be said with confidence is narrow. For 2025, the Dubai Land Department counted AED 13.59 billion of commissions on 96,440 brokered transactions, with 32,294 brokers and 9,785 offices on the register at the end of the year. The division is simple. The reading of it is not, because the split by segment, the spread between brokers, the share kept by the firm and the delay before payment are all unpublished.

A total divided by a register gives an average. It does not tell a single broker what the year will bring.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →