Becoming a registered broker in Dubai: course, exam, card, renewal

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Kooky

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

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A person who wants to sell or let property for a living in Dubai does not start with a listing. The Dubai Land Department states on its practice card service page that no one may practise a licensed real estate activity until they have registered and obtained the card for that activity. The card is personal, it is issued through the department's licensing system, and it is tied to a brokerage office. Behind it sit a training course, an exam, a police certificate and a set of fees.

This guide follows the route of one individual, from the classroom to the first renewal. It covers who counts as a broker under the department's own definitions, the eligibility conditions as published, the certified course at the Dubai Real Estate Institute, the exam, the card application, what the first year and the following years cost, how a card is changed or cancelled, and what a card holder may not do without an office licence. Every rule here is a rule of the Emirate of Dubai. The pages were read on 10 October 2026, none of them carries a visible date, and where they are silent or disagree, the guide says so.

Course: Dubai Real Estate Institute course list. Exam and card: Dubai Land Department practice card service page. All read on 10 October 2026.

What "broker" means in Dubai

The Dubai Land Department, in the licensing section of its published questions and answers, defines a broker in two layers. A broker holds a commercial licence for real estate brokerage and is registered in the brokers registry. And a broker needs a broker card from the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, known as RERA, the department's regulatory arm.

The first layer describes a business; the second describes a person. For an individual starting out, that distinction settles most questions. The licence belongs to an office. The card belongs to the person, and the department's answers say that its validity is tied to the validity of the licence. An individual is therefore registered as a broker of a particular licensed office, and stays registered only while that office's licence is valid.

The same answers list four things a broker needs in order to work in the field: a brokerage licence, registration in the brokers registry, a certificate of office registration, and a brokerage card. Three of the four are held at the level of the office. Only the last is in the individual's own name.

The department also states that there are two types of broker, those for selling properties and those for leasing properties. The pages read for this guide do not say whether the individual's card itself is marked for sales or for leasing, or whether a person may hold both. That point is left open.

Who is eligible, as the department puts it

Eligibility is the part of the route where the published answers need the most careful reading, because two sets of conditions sit side by side.

The first set concerns the licence. The department's answers say that applicants for a broker licence must be Emirati or citizens of a Gulf Cooperation Council country, and over 18. They must have completed a non-university real estate diploma or a university real estate qualification course, and they need a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police. An expatriate manager's residency must be on the same licence. Yet the same section also says that any person may obtain a broker licence if they meet the required conditions, and that an expatriate may own a brokerage licence if there is a citizen services agent. The two statements are both on the page, and the page does not reconcile them. This guide does not resolve the conflict either.

The second set concerns a broker added to an existing office, which is the usual case for an individual. Here the department lists six items:

1. a passed qualification course;
2. a valid good conduct certificate;
3. a photo;
4. residency on the same licence;
5. a card fee of AED 520;
6. copies of the passport and of the residency.

Three points follow from that list. There is no citizenship condition for an employed broker. There is no stated minimum period of residence: the department's answers say that for non-citizens there is no specific required period of residence in the country. And the residency must be on the same licence as the office the broker joins.

The answers give one exception to that last point. A non-citizen's wife may apply while under her husband's sponsorship, if the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation approves and she provides the required documents. The page does not describe any other case in which a broker's residency sits outside the office's licence.

On education, the diploma or qualification course is stated for licence applicants. For a broker added to an office, the only educational item listed is the qualification course itself. No school or university level is named for that case on the pages read.

Emirati citizens, finally, have a card of their own, the national broker card, issued and renewed at AED 500 like the standard card. They also have a dedicated entry channel. The department's Dubai Real Estate Broker Programme page says the service is only for UAE nationals who do not hold a broker licence.

The registration form on that page has five steps and includes the upload of a CV, in a file of no more than 2MB. The applicant chooses between two paths: obtaining a national broker licence, or joining a real estate company as a broker.

On the day the page was read, it said that registration for the second phase was closed.

The certified course at the Dubai Real Estate Institute

The qualification course is run by the Dubai Real Estate Institute. Its course list names the entry course for the profession as Certified Training for Real Estate Brokers, at AED 3,000 for 20 hours.

The same course is listed in two other languages, and the hours differ. The Chinese version costs AED 3,000 and is listed at 21 hours, described on the page as a four-day course. The Russian version costs AED 3,000 and is listed at 12 hours. The list does not explain why the hours vary from one language to another, so the three figures are given here as published.

The table shows how the institute divides the trade. Residential and general brokerage, commercial brokerage, mortgage brokerage and timeshare brokerage each have a certified course of their own at the same price. A person employed by a developer to sell its own projects has a shorter course, the Certified Training for Developer's Sales Consultants, at half the fee for six hours. Staff who are not brokers have a separate track too: the Special Training for Real Estate Administration costs AED 1,900 for 12 hours, and the list says applicants should hold an admin visa sponsored by a real estate company.

The department's training page adds some practical detail about how courses are taken. It lists delivery in English among the features of its training, and says payment is made through Noqodi. A participant receives a certificate of completion. The page also answers a question that matters to a newcomer: a person can apply for training even if their visa is not under the company.

The exam is a separate step

Finishing the course is not the same as passing the test. The department's training page says that no exam follows the training itself, but that exams are held separately for some categories, and it names brokers as one of them.

The practice card service page gives the price: the broker exam costs AED 700, plus a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10. The sum of the three published lines is AED 720.

The same page names three groups who are exempt:

• 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 second exemption rewards something specific. It is not five years in the profession but five consecutive years in the same office. A broker who has worked for longer than that across two or three offices is not described by the wording.

What the pages do not say is as important as what they do. The training page lists "multiple attempts" among the features of the department's training, without saying how many, at what interval or at what cost. Neither that page nor the institute's course list states the pass mark, the number of questions, the length of the test or the languages in which it can be sat. Those points are open, and anyone preparing for the test would need them from the institute directly.

Applying for the card on Trakheesi

Once the course is done, the exam passed and the police certificate in hand, the card is requested on Trakheesi, the Dubai Land Department's online licensing system. The service is called Issuance of a real estate professional practice card. It covers 13 activities, among them the real estate broker card, the national broker card, the real estate projects marketing card and the mortgage broker card.

The page lists Trakheesi as the only channel for a first card and gives a service time of five minutes. The page does not say whether the office or the broker files the request.

Two conditions are stated on the page. The applicant must hold a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police, and must have passed what the page calls the annual test to practise the mediation profession. A note adds that the card's validity is linked to the validity of the trade licence.

The department's questions and answers give a second time frame, of one to two days for a licence to be issued when the documents are complete. The two figures describe different things: five minutes is the card service once every condition is met, and the days are for the licence.

What the first year costs

The published amounts can be added up for one person. This is a worked example, built on these assumptions: the English-language certified course; one exam sitting, with no exemption; one real estate broker card; the ERES fee that the card page lists for brokers at AED 50 plus VAT, shown here before VAT; nothing counted for the police certificate, the residency or any charge an office may make, because none of those is published on the pages read.

• Certified Training for Real Estate Brokers: AED 3,000.
• Broker exam, AED 700 plus two fees of AED 10: AED 720.
• Broker card, AED 500 plus two fees of AED 10: AED 520.
• ERES fee: AED 50, before VAT.

The total is AED 4,290 before VAT on the last line. The course is by far the largest part, at about 70 per cent of that total (3,000 divided by 4,290).

The card figure deserves one remark. The service page lists the card at AED 500 and, further down, a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10 as general lines. The department's questions and answers give the card fee as AED 520. The two agree if the two AED 10 fees are charged on each card, and the example uses AED 520 for that reason.

The page does not explain what ERES stands for. It is counted in the example because it is published in the broker's fee list, not because its purpose is known.

Renewing every year

A card is renewed with the licence it depends on. The renewal service is also on Trakheesi, and unlike the first issue it is available in the Dubai REST mobile application as well. It runs in four steps: log in and select the service; fill in the details, attach the documents and submit, at which point the page says approval is automatic; pay online; print the card. The stated service time is again five minutes.

The documents are a copy of the Emirates ID and a copy of a valid passport. The fee for a real estate broker or a national broker is AED 500, with the knowledge fee of AED 10 and the innovation fee of AED 10; the questions and answers give the renewal fee as AED 520, the same sum.

The condition that takes time is education. The department's answers say that renewal requires a certificate of continuing education. The institute's course list calls it the Continuous Education Program for Brokers and says it is required for all certified brokers operating in Dubai in order to renew their licence. It comes in two versions, one for brokers with less than five years' experience and one for those with five years or more. Both cost AED 700 and both run six hours. A Chinese-language version for brokers with less than five years is listed at AED 700 for 10 hours.

A worked example for a renewal year, on the assumptions that the broker takes the English continuing education course and renews one card: AED 700 plus AED 520 gives AED 1,220. Over five years, with the first year as computed above and four renewal years, the published lines come to AED 4,290 plus four times AED 1,220, which is AED 4,880, for a total of AED 9,170 before VAT on the ERES line. The classroom time over the same five years is 20 hours plus four times six hours, or 44 hours.

That example leaves out one line on purpose. The renewal page says the applicant must have passed the annual test, the same wording as on the issue page. Whether a broker pays the AED 720 exam fee again each year, or whether the continuing education certificate is what satisfies the condition at renewal, is not stated on either page. If the exam fee were due every year, each renewal year would cost AED 1,940 and not AED 1,220. The pages read do not settle it.

The renewal page states no deadline before expiry, no grace period and no late penalty.

Changing details, leaving, cancelling

Two further services complete the life of a card, and both are free.

The amendment service lets a card holder's details be updated in the department's records. It needs no documents, runs in two steps on Trakheesi, is approved automatically and takes five minutes. The page does not say which details can be changed, and it does not mention moving from one office to another.

The cancellation service says more about what happens when a broker leaves. Its one condition is that, for expatriates, the residency permit must be cancelled or the residency profession changed. An expatriate's request must carry a copy of the employment visa cancellation. The request is made on Trakheesi, and a notice that the card has been revoked arrives by email. The stated service time is eight hours.

Put side by side, the cancellation condition and the "same licence" rule describe a change of office for an expatriate broker as two operations: the card at the first office ends when the residency there is cancelled or changed, and a card at the second office requires residency on the second licence. That is a reading of two published conditions, not a procedure the department describes. Whether the exam result and the course certificate carry over to the new card is not stated. The exam exemption for five consecutive years in the same office is the one place where the pages attach a consequence to staying put.

What a card holder may not do alone

The department's answers are direct on the central point: no individual may practise brokerage before applying for a licence from RERA. A card is not that licence. Because a broker's work requires a brokerage licence, registration in the brokers registry and a certificate of office registration as well as the card, a card holder has no published route to trade in their own name without an office behind them. None of the pages read describes a card that stands alone.

The financial consequence is stated as well. According to the answers, a broker may lose the right to commission if they are not licensed by RERA, or if they work for the other party in a way that conflicts with their own client's interests.

Opening one's own office is a different project from holding a card. The conditions for a manager or partner of a brokerage are listed separately: aged 18 or older, a passed qualification course, a good conduct certificate, residency on the same licence, and not being a partner or manager on another brokerage licence. The last condition means one person cannot head two brokerage licences at once. Offices themselves are classified as gold, silver, bronze or general, and a second branch is allowed only when the main office has at least 15 brokers and pays AED 5,000 a year, so growth by branches is closed to a very small firm.

The renewal page carries one more line that concerns everyone in an office: all sales personnel must be registered and their cards issued. Selling under a colleague's card is not a status the pages recognise.

Violations, black points and losing registration

The questions and answers set out what follows a breach. A violation may bring a warning, then a fine if it is repeated, or a fine issued directly. Black points may be applied to the office and to the broker, so an individual's record and the firm's record are both marked.

RERA may cancel a broker's registration for a fundamental violation of the applicable laws. The broker may file a grievance within 15 days of being notified.

A broker also loses the licence, according to the same answers, in three situations that involve no misconduct in a deal:

• the broker permanently leaves the profession;
• the broker does not practise for more than 12 consecutive months without a valid excuse;
• the broker gave false information when applying.

The second of these matters to anyone thinking of a long break. More than 12 consecutive months without practising, with no valid excuse, ends the registration; the pages do not define a valid excuse.

What the published pages leave open

Several parts of the individual route could not be confirmed from the primary pages read for this guide, and they are listed here so that no reader takes silence for a rule.

The code of ethics. No text of a code of ethics for brokers appears on the service pages, the course list or the part of the questions and answers that was read. The duties described above, such as not working against a client's interests, come from the department's answers, not from a code.

Off-plan sales. The institute's list has no course titled for off-plan sales. The card list includes a real estate projects marketing card, but neither the issue page nor the renewal page gives a fee for it, and no page read explains who needs it.

Sales or leasing. The department names two types of broker. How that distinction appears on an individual's card is not stated.

The exam. The pass mark, format, languages and retake rules are not on the pages read, and neither is the answer to whether the exam fee recurs every year.

Changing office. The amendment page does not say what it covers.

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 →