How a Dubai Brokerage Is Licensed: Cards, Ad Permits, Cold Calls

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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 counted 9,785 registered brokerage offices and 32,294 registered brokers in 2025, according to the Government of Dubai Media Office. That is about 3.3 brokers per office, so the typical firm is small, and for a small firm the paperwork is a real part of the job. A brokerage in the emirate does not simply open its doors. It holds a licence for a named activity, it is registered with the property regulator, each of its brokers carries a personal card, each of its adverts carries a permit, and the way it approaches property owners is restricted.

This guide follows that chain in order: who regulates the trade, how the licence is obtained and what it costs each year, how a broker card is issued, what the exam asks, how advertising permits work, and what the rules on cold calling say. It closes with two duties that sit outside the Dubai Land Department: anti-money-laundering reporting and corporate tax. Every rule described here is a rule of the Emirate of Dubai, or of the United Arab Emirates where that is said. Where the published pages are silent, the guide says so.

Offices and brokers: Government of Dubai Media Office, 9 March 2026. Activities: Dubai Land Department licensing service page.

Who regulates a Dubai brokerage

Three bodies appear in the life of a brokerage, and each does a different job.

The Department of Economy and Tourism, known as DET, receives the application for the trade licence. The Dubai Land Department, or DLD, says on its licensing service page that the licence application is submitted through DET. The Real Estate Regulatory Agency, RERA, is the regulatory arm of the DLD. It issued the Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide, whose second edition is dated November 2024, and it is the body that announced the cold-calling fine described later in this guide.

The link between them is Trakheesi, the DLD's online licensing system. According to the practice guide, Trakheesi handles licences, permits, professional practice cards, office registration certificates, and violations or warnings. A brokerage therefore meets the same system at every stage: when the office is registered, when a broker is added, when an advert is prepared and when something goes wrong.

The practice guide names the founding text of the profession as By-law No. (85) of 2006 regulating the Real Estate Brokers Register in the Emirate of Dubai, issued on 30 May 2006. The official copy of that by-law could not be opened for this guide. Its articles are described below from an English text reproduced by a legal publisher, and they are flagged each time for that reason.

The licence: 21 activities and three stages

The DLD's licensing service page lists 21 real estate activities that can be licensed. Brokerage is not one activity but several: real estate sales and purchase brokerage, real estate leasing brokerage and mortgage brokerage are each listed separately. The same list holds real estate consultancy and mortgage consultancy, valuation services, property inspection, land surveying, the organising of public real estate auctions and of exhibitions, development, the three kinds of trustee (registration, services and promotion), and two forms of leasing and management, one for a firm's own property and one for third parties.

The point matters in practice. A firm is licensed for the activities named on its licence, and several of them carry their own conditions and their own fee. A brokerage that also wants to manage tenanted buildings for clients is adding a different activity with a far heavier entry condition, as the next sections show.

The general conditions on the service page set out a fixed order of three stages.

The DLD offers two channels for its own part of the process, Trakheesi and the Invest in Dubai platform, and gives a processing time of one working day. On Trakheesi the applicant logs in, selects the service, enters the information and uploads the documents; an employee reviews and approves the request; the applicant then logs in again to pay. Payment is by credit card, E-Dirham or Noqodi wallet.

That one working day is the DLD's own service time. The page says nothing about how long DET takes to issue the trade licence itself, and nothing about DET's charges or about what an office must look like. Those points were not verified for this guide and are left open.

What the DLD charges each year

The fees on the licensing service page are annual, and they depend on the activity. Each line carries an added knowledge and innovation fee of AED 20.

One caution applies to every brokerage reading that table. The page names four groups of activities and then a fifth line, "other activities", at AED 5,000. It does not list which activities fall under "other", and brokerage is not named in any of the four groups. Sales, leasing and mortgage brokerage therefore appear to fall under the AED 5,000 line by default, but the page does not say so in words. AED 5,020 a year is therefore the likely DLD fee for a brokerage activity, not a published certainty.

The page also does not say whether a firm holding two activities pays two fees. The amounts above are per line as published.

A separate schedule of RERA fees and fines exists. Executive Council Resolution No. (25) of 2009, approving them, is listed in the DLD's compilation of Dubai real estate legislation. Its text was not opened for this guide, so no amount from it is given here.

Free zones, branches and activity conditions

Several conditions on the licensing page apply to particular kinds of firm.

Free zone companies. A firm licensed in a free zone must obtain a no-objection certificate, the NOC, from its licensing authority. The document the DLD itself issues at the end of the licensing service is described on the page as an NOC for free zone licences only. For a mainland applicant the licence comes from DET, and the DLD's part is the registration.

Leasing and management for third parties. This activity requires a bank guarantee of AED 5 million. A branch must trade under the same name as the parent licence and must have at least 20 administrative employees. Those two conditions are stated on the page for this activity; the page does not state them for brokerage.

Private leasing and management. A firm holding this activity must show the ownership deed of the property, held by the licence holder or a partner. Management is limited to the properties of the licence holder and of second-degree relatives, which the page ties to Local Order No. 2 of 2003. It is a licence for managing one's own holdings, not a way to manage for clients.

Trustees and service centres. Registration, services and promotion trustees, and real estate service centres, need a signed agreement between the DLD and the licence holder.

Development. The developer must own the land, in the name of the licence holder or a partner, and marketing the project needs a permit from Trakheesi.

Brokerages also meet developers from the other side. Dubai's Law No. (8) of 2007 on escrow accounts for real estate development, issued on 6 May 2007, provides in its Article 16 that a developer who deals with an unregistered broker risks imprisonment, a fine of at least AED 100,000, or both. Registration is thus a condition of doing off-plan business at all: a developer has its own legal reason to check a broker's status before signing. The practice guide adds that off-plan marketing requires a marketing contract between the developer and the brokerage, and that the broker should confirm the project is registered and that buyers pay only into its escrow account.

The broker card, step by step

A licence authorises the firm. It does not authorise the people. The DLD's practice card service page states that no one may practise a licensed activity until they have registered and obtained the card for that activity.

There are 13 card types. Those a brokerage meets most often are the real estate broker card, the national broker card, the real estate projects marketing card and the mortgage broker card. The list also covers consultants and mortgage consultants, registrars, real estate management, evaluators and trainee evaluators.

Five licensed activities need no practice card at all, according to the licensing page: development, organising exhibitions, buying and selling land and properties, representative offices, and private property leasing and management. Brokerage is not among them.

The card is issued online through Trakheesi in five steps.

The DLD gives the service a processing time of five minutes, which describes the issue of the card once the conditions are already met. The conditions are where the time goes. The applicant must hold a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police and must have passed the broker test. The card's validity is tied to the validity of the trade licence, so a card does not outlive the licence of the office it belongs to. The page does not describe what happens when a broker moves to another office.

Evaluators follow stricter rules. They must show a certificate of experience in valuation, at least two years for citizens and five years for expatriates. An expatriate evaluator's residency must be on the same licence, and a trainee must train for one year at an office approved by RERA.

The by-law of 2006, in the English text consulted, asks in its Article 6 for a fuller file at the level of the office: the trade licence, membership of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, passports, the title deed or tenancy contract of the office, good-conduct certificates, training certificates and proof of a passed brokerage test. The DLD's current service page lists fewer documents. The two were not reconciled against the official by-law text, and the service page is the more recent statement of what is uploaded today.

What a card costs, and the exam

Most cards cost AED 500, according to the service page. The real estate evaluator card is the exception at AED 5,000. For a broker the page adds two further lines: the broker exam at AED 700, plus a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10, which makes AED 720; and a fee of AED 50 plus VAT for ERES, the name the page gives without further explanation.

A worked example shows how those lines add up for a new office. The assumptions are these: one office licensed for a brokerage activity, charged on the "other activities" line; six brokers, each needing a card, an exam and the AED 50 fee; no exemption from the exam; the DET trade licence, office rent and VAT left out because none of them is published on the DLD pages.

• DLD annual fee: AED 5,000 plus AED 20, or AED 5,020.
• Six broker cards at AED 500: AED 3,000.
• Six exams at AED 720: AED 4,320.
• Six fees of AED 50: AED 300, before VAT.

The total is AED 12,640 before VAT on the last line. It is an illustration built from the published amounts, not a quotation. The page lists a knowledge fee and an innovation fee of AED 10 each on separate lines as well, and it is unclear whether they are also charged on each card; if they are, six cards would add AED 120.

The exam itself has tightened over time. The DLD's list of circulars records one dated 11 November 2014 that raised the pass mark of the brokerage test to 85%. The service page calls it an annual test, although its wording on that point is not clear, and it names three exemptions:

• individuals over 55 years of age;
• brokers with five consecutive years of service in the same real estate office;
• holders of a start-up licence, who are exempt from attending the exam.

The same list of circulars shows how often the card rules have been adjusted. It records Circular 26 of 2015 on the classification of brokerage firms, Circular 1 of 2016 on the renewal of the broker's card, Circular 10 of 2016 on licence requirements and card issuance, and Circular 1 of 2017 on brokers' smart cards. Their texts were not opened; they are named here so a reader knows they exist. The practice guide says brokers should aim for a five-star or golden classification for their office, without listing the criteria.

Renewal and the penalty ladder

Registration is not permanent. In the English text of By-law No. (85) of 2006 consulted for this guide, Article 13 provides that registration is renewed every year, and that the application is made at least 30 days before expiry. For an office this sets a simple calendar: the renewal file is due a month before the anniversary, and the cards follow the licence.

The same text sets out, in Articles 39 to 41, a ladder of penalties for a broker or an office that breaks the rules. It has four rungs:

1. a notice;
2. a warning;
3. suspension, for up to six months;
4. blacklisting.

Registration is cancelled, in that text, when a broker collects three black points or is suspended for more than 12 consecutive months. Trakheesi is where violations and warnings are held, according to the practice guide.

Because these articles were read on a reproduction and not on the official portal, they should be checked against the official text before anyone relies on an article number.

A permit for every advertisement

The practice guide puts the advertising rule in one line: a broker must obtain a permit through Trakheesi for any real estate advertisement or marketing material, and the permit number must appear on the advertisement.

The DLD's Real Estate Ad Permit service covers 14 kinds of activity. Ten are forms of advertising in the ordinary sense: newspaper, SMS, outdoor, vehicle, printed, electronic, billboard and classified advertisements, promotional campaigns and open house events. Four are events or installations: real estate exhibitions, project launch events, promotion platforms and seminars.

For a broker the central condition is the marketing contract. The page requires a copy of the marketing contract with the property owner for 12 of the 14 types, every one except exhibitions and project launch events. In the practice guide's vocabulary this is Contract A, the agreement between a seller and a brokerage to market a property. The consequence is direct: a broker cannot lawfully advertise a home on the strength of a conversation. The owner's signed mandate comes first, the permit second, the advert third.

The procedure mirrors the licence. The applicant logs in to Trakheesi, enters the information and uploads the documents, an employee reviews and approves, payment is made, and the permit is issued as an e-certificate. The stated service time is one working day. The page does not state how long a permit remains valid.

As a worked example, assume an office takes eight permits in a year, each for a different advertisement, and that the AED 20 fee is charged on each. Eight permits at AED 1,020 come to AED 8,160. Whether one permit can cover one property across several media is not stated on the page, so the real number of permits a busy office needs may be higher or lower than its number of listings.

Since April 2023 an advert carries a second marker. The DLD's list of circulars records one dated 11 April 2023 on applying the QR code system to real estate advertisements. In a news release of 24 April 2025 on its use of artificial intelligence to monitor advertising, the DLD said that a QR code from Madmoun must appear on all real estate advertisements, whether visual or written. For the brokerage, the code and the permit number are the two things an advert cannot go out without.

Exhibitions, launches and seminars

Events have their own documents. An exhibition organiser supplies the tenancy contract for the site, showing the dates, and the list of participating companies. A project launch needs the site tenancy contract or a no-objection letter from the hotel. A promotion platform needs its design with its size and the site tenancy contract. A seminar needs the hotel's room booking letter and a letter explaining the topics.

Exhibitions are the most tightly framed. According to the service page:

• all documents are submitted at least one month before the exhibition date;
• exhibitions from the same country must be at least 30 days apart;
• no sales take place during the exhibition, only preliminary reservations;
• for Dubai property, off-plan projects that are not registered with the escrow account department cannot be shown.

The fees follow a booking logic. The organiser first pays AED 10,200 to hold the date, an amount the page calls non-refundable and says is deducted from the final permit fee. Each exhibitor then costs AED 1,020. In a worked example with 12 exhibiting companies, the per-exhibitor line comes to AED 12,240, paid by the organiser. The page does not publish the final permit fee from which the booking amount is deducted, so the full cost of an exhibition cannot be computed from it.

Cold calling and the Green List

The rule that most changes a broker's working day concerns the telephone.

The practice guide of November 2024 states that brokers may approach only owners who appear on the Green List, a register of owners' details held in Dubai REST, the DLD's application. It says brokers are not allowed to reach owners who are not on that list, that doing so is a violation, and that operations may be suspended after a complaint or report. The guide also makes Dubai REST mandatory for every broker: it holds broker data, the smart contracts, the Green List and details of off-plan projects.

The numbers a broker calls from are regulated too. The DLD's list of circulars records one dated 11 April 2023 making it mandatory to use the phone numbers registered in the brokers registry.

The 2022 release did not name the office and cited no circular number. It told companies to use official marketing channels and to obtain a permit before marketing, and it told owners and investors that unsolicited promotional calls can be reported in Dubai REST.

The rules have since been restated. The DLD's list of circulars records one dated 27 February 2026 entitled Regulations Governing Communication with Property Owners and the Prohibition of Cold Callings. Its text was not opened for this guide. The penalties given above are therefore those announced in 2022, and whether the 2026 circular keeps, raises or restructures them is an open point. The current rule is the one set out in the circular itself.

The 2022 case shows where liability fell: the fine went to the firm and the suspensions to its brokers.

Money-laundering reports and corporate tax

Two federal duties complete the picture. Both apply across the United Arab Emirates, not only in Dubai.

The first is anti-money-laundering supervision. The Supplemental Guidance for Real Estate Agents and Brokers, dated March 2026, treats brokers as designated non-financial businesses and professions, supervised for this purpose by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism. It requires a real estate activity report to be filed when a transaction involves cash of AED 55,000 or more. The later sections of that guidance were not fully read for this guide, so the detail of the reporting procedure is not described here.

The second is corporate tax. The UAE government's information portal, on a page updated on 30 March 2026, sets the rate at 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it, and a brokerage business falls within the tax's scope. As a worked example, assume a brokerage with taxable income of AED 1,000,000 in a tax period and no relief or exemption. The first AED 375,000 bears no tax. The remaining AED 625,000 is taxed at 9%, which gives AED 56,250. What counts as taxable income, and whether any relief applies, depends on the firm's own accounts.

The licence, the cards and the permits answer to the DLD and RERA; the cash report answers to the ministry; the tax return answers to the federal tax system. A brokerage is in good standing only when all three sets of obligations are met.

One subject is absent from this guide on purpose. None of the primary pages read for it states a commission rate, and the practice guide gives no percentage. What a brokerage earns on a sale or a lease is a matter for its contract with the client, and no figure is offered here.

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.

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