Dubai Land Department's digital tools: who uses each and what it costs

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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 property in Dubai is advertised, viewed, rented and sold inside a set of systems run by one public body. The Dubai Land Department, with its regulatory arm the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), issues the permit behind an advertisement, the code printed on it, the card the broker carries, the index a landlord consults before a renewal, and the app in which an owner or tenant handles most of the paperwork. The names come up in every conversation between a broker and a client, and they are easy to blur: Dubai REST, Trakheesi, Madmoun, the Smart Rental Index, the broker card.

This guide takes them one at a time, from the department's service pages as they stood on 10 October 2026 and from the releases the department and the Dubai Media Office published when the tools were introduced. For each it sets out what the tool does, who may use it, the steps the page lists and the fees the page states. Where a page is silent, on a validity period or a penalty for instance, the guide says so instead of filling the gap. It does not cover the sale of a property or the licensing of a brokerage firm, which are separate procedures.

Dubai Land Department service pages read on 10 October 2026, and the department's release of 24 April 2025.

Two front doors: a website for the trade, an app for everyone

The five tools sit behind two entrances, and knowing which is which removes most of the confusion.

Trakheesi is the department's permit system, reached through its website. The service pages for advertising permits and for professional practice cards both give "DLD website (Trakheesi)" as their channel, and both list the applicant's residency status as "Company". It is, in other words, the working system of the trade: a brokerage logs in to it to get a permit for an advertisement or a card for a member of staff. Madmoun, the service that produces the QR code on an advertisement, is described by the department as an electronic service inside Trakheesi.

Dubai REST is the department's app. Its page calls it "the smart real estate platform for real estate services" and lists its users as owners, tenants, brokers, developers, valuers, investors and other participants in the market. The page says it is published in Arabic and English, on the Android and Apple app stores, and that payments inside it go through the Noqodi portal. The page does not say how a user signs in.

The table sums up where each tool lives and who it is for.

What Dubai REST holds for owners, tenants and investors

The department's page for Dubai REST reads as a list of things that once needed a counter. It groups them by the kind of person holding the phone.

For an owner, the centre of the app is what the page calls a real estate wallet. It shows the properties registered to the owner together with their current prices, their rental returns and their service charges. From the wallet the owner can ask for a map to be issued, for a "To Whom It May Concern" letter, for a mortgage bid or for a property evaluation, and can apply for a valuation certificate. Service charges can be paid in the app.

For an owner and a tenant alike, the app manages the lease. The page lists three operations, registration, renewal and cancellation, and says they are open to "both property owners and tenants". The same two groups can submit a rental dispute case in the app and follow its progress there.

For a buyer of off-plan property, the app gives what the page calls real-time project information. Four items are named: the percentage of completion, actual photographs of the project, the number of the project's escrow account, and the payments that are due on the investment. A project can be marked as a favourite so that its details are followed.

The page states no fee for the app itself and gives no amounts for the requests made through it.

The directories and indexes inside the app

A second group of functions on the Dubai REST page is aimed at anyone in the market, whether or not they own anything. These are the reference tools, and they matter to a buyer or tenant who wants to check the people and firms on the other side of a deal.

The page says the app gives details on real estate brokers and their performance levels, and data on real estate offices and their classifications. It adds information on valuation companies, management companies, consultancy companies and certified developers. The page does not explain how a performance level or an office classification is worked out, and it describes no transaction tools reserved for brokers: on this page the broker appears as someone who can be looked up, alongside the firm that employs them.

Three indexes are listed. There is a rental index and a sale index, both available for different periods. There is also a service charges index for properties, tied to the payment function mentioned above.

The page also places one check in the app that a buyer may meet early. The department's separate page for title deed verification says the service lets a customer verify the validity of a certificate of title or title deed issued by the department. It is open to all, the processing time is given as "Immediate", and the channels are the department's website and the Dubai REST app. The procedure has two steps: log in to the website or the app and select the service, then view the information that appears. The page states no fee and does not list which details of the deed must be entered.

Trakheesi advertising permits: types, documents and fees

No property promotion in the department's catalogue is left outside the permit. Its "Real Estate Ad Permit" page says the service covers 14 types of activity: advertisements in newspapers, by SMS, outdoors, on vehicles, in print and in electronic form, billboards, promotional campaigns, open house events, classified advertisements, the organising of real estate exhibitions, project launch events, real estate promotion platforms and real estate seminars.

What must be uploaded depends on the type. For advertisements, billboards and promotional campaigns the page asks for a copy of the advertisement form. An exhibition needs a tenancy contract for the venue covering the period of the event and a list of the real estate companies taking part. A project launch ceremony needs a tenancy contract for the site or a no-objection letter from the hotel. A promotion platform needs a design showing its size and a tenancy contract for its site. A seminar needs a letter confirming the hotel room booking and an explanation of the topics.

Brokers carry one further condition. For most permit types, the page says, a broker must provide a copy of the marketing contract with the owner of the property. The page names the types concerned: newspaper, SMS, outdoor, vehicle, printed, online, billboard, promotional, open house, classified, promotion platform and seminar permits.

The fees on the page are short to state. A project launch event permit costs AED 5,000. Every other permit costs AED 1,000. A knowledge and innovation fee of AED 20 is added to the permit fee. Payment is by credit card, E-Dirham or Noqodi wallet, the stated processing time is one working day, and the document issued is an electronic permit certificate. The page lists the Roads and Transport Authority, Dubai Municipality and the Department of Economy and Tourism as partners to the service. It does not say how long a permit stays valid.

Exhibitions follow stricter terms, all set out on the same page. A preliminary booking request for the date comes first, with a preliminary booking fee of AED 10,200 that is not refundable and is deducted from the final permit fee. A participation fee of AED 1,020 is charged for each exhibitor and paid by the organising company with a single cheque. All documents are due at least one month before the exhibition, and exhibitions from the same country must be 30 days apart. Nothing may be sold on the stand: the page allows preliminary reservations only. For property in Dubai, an off-plan project that is not registered with the department's Escrow Account Department may not be shown at all.

Madmoun: the QR code behind every advertisement

The permit is a record held by the regulator. Madmoun is what makes that record visible to the person reading the advertisement.

The department introduced it in a release dated 18 April 2023. Acting through RERA, it announced by circular an electronic service, reached through the Trakheesi system, that issues a QR code for any real estate advertisement permit. The requirement took effect on 24 April 2023: from that date, the release said, all real estate companies had to show the code on their advertisements, in print and in audiovisual form. The release warned that failing to comply could result in violations. It did not give the amount of any fine, and it quoted Marwan bin Ghalita as chief executive of RERA at the time.

The release also describes what a scan returns. The customer can confirm that the advertisement is authentic and valid and that RERA approved it. The code links to the department's website, which shows the details of the advertisement: the company advertising, the condition and specifications of the property, and whether the property has already been sold or rented. On the trade side, companies activate the code through Trakheesi. Neither release states a separate charge for the code; the fees on the permit page are the only ones the department's pages give for an advertisement.

Two years later the department restated the rule in wider terms. Its release of 24 April 2025 says all real estate companies must display a QR code on every real estate advertisement, "whether visual or written", and that Madmoun issues one code for every advertisement permit.

A Trakheesi permit is a line in the regulator's records. The Madmoun code is what puts that line in the hands of the person reading the advertisement.

How listings are monitored once they are online

The code can be checked by a person. Since 2024 the department has also checked advertisements by machine.

Its release of 24 April 2025 reports on what it calls the AI-powered Real Estate Advertising Governance Platform, launched during the GITEX 2024 technology exhibition. The platform monitors advertisements on three property portals named in the release: Property Finder, Dubizzle and Bayut. Since its launch, the release says, it had monitored more than 279,000 real estate advertisements, and 29 per cent of the monitored listings had been automatically modified using artificial intelligence. On those two figures, the automatically modified listings come to roughly 81,000 (279,000 multiplied by 0.29 gives 80,910).

The release names Ali Abdullah Al Ali, director of the Real Estate Control Department at RERA. It does not describe what kind of modification is made to a listing, how a broker is told of it, or whether a modification counts as a violation, and it sets out no penalties.

The Smart Rental Index and what it decides at renewal

The fourth tool has nothing to do with advertising. It governs a moment every landlord and tenant reaches once a year: the renewal of the lease.

The Dubai Media Office reported on 2 January 2025 that the department had launched the Smart Rental Index 2025 at a press conference at its headquarters. According to that release it covers all residential areas of Dubai, including key areas, special development zones and free zones, and the department plans to add commercial and industrial indexes later. Majid Al Marri, chief executive of the department's Real Estate Registration Sector, said the index relies on artificial intelligence and on a system that classifies buildings. Khalid Al Shaibani, director of the Rental Affairs Department, gave a presentation on the index.

The release lists the criteria on which each building is rated: its technical and structural characteristics, the quality of its finishes and maintenance, its location and spatial value, and the services and facilities available, with maintenance, cleanliness and parking management given as instances. A second release, published by the department on 16 February 2025, says the increase that applies to a lease is calculated from three things: the rental contract values in the same building, the average rental values in the area, and the classification of the building.

The scale of permitted increases itself comes from a decree of 2013, which the Media Office release cites. As that release puts it, the allowable increase depends on the gap between the current rent and the average market rent. Where the rent is less than 10 per cent below the average, the increase is nil, and the scale rises to a maximum of 20 per cent. The release does not print every band in between.

The February release then explains how the index and the notice period work together. Three cases are set out.

1. The landlord notifies the tenant at least 90 days before the contract expires. The increase applies only if the index confirms that the property is eligible for one.
2. The index shows that the property is eligible, but the landlord did not give 90 days' notice. The increase does not apply.
3. The landlord gave notice in time, and the earlier index supported an increase where the new index does not. The earlier index applies if the contract was renewed before 2025; the new index applies if it is renewed during 2025.

The Media Office release says more than 900,000 rental contracts were registered in Dubai in 2024, about 8 per cent more than in 2023, and speaks of continuous updating of the index's standards to keep pace with the market. Neither release names the screen on which a landlord or tenant looks up a building; the Media Office release refers readers to the department's official channels, and the Dubai REST page, as noted above, lists a rental index among its functions without calling it by this name.

The broker card: an e-card issued through Trakheesi

The last tool is the one a client can ask to see. In the department's vocabulary it is the "real estate professional practice card", and the page for its issue covers 13 activities, not brokerage alone: real estate broker, national broker, real estate projects marketing card, mortgage broker, real estate registrar, private real estate management, real estate management, real estate consultant, mortgage consultant, private real estate sale and purchase card, real estate services registrar, real estate evaluator and trainee evaluator.

The page sets out a plain rule: no one may practise a licensed activity until they have registered and obtained the card for that activity. The applicant must hold a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police and must have passed the annual test to practise the profession. Three groups are exempt from the broker examination according to the page: people over 55, brokers with five consecutive years of service in the same real estate office, and holders of a start-up licence, who are exempt from attending it. The documents listed are a personal photograph and a copy of the Emirates ID. The validity of the card, the page says, is linked to the validity of the trade licence.

Evaluators, the professionals who value property, have terms of their own. The page asks for a certificate of valuation experience of at least two years for citizens and five years for expatriates, requires an expatriate evaluator's residency to be on the same licence, and says a trainee evaluator trains for one year at an office approved by RERA.

The procedure has five steps: create a Trakheesi account or log in and select the service; enter the details, upload the documents and submit; wait for the review, after which acceptance is issued through the system; log in, choose a payment method and pay online; then print the card directly from the system. The stated processing time is five minutes, payment is by credit card, E-dirham or Noqodi, and the document issued is an e-card.

Renewal is lighter. The renewal page says the applicant must again have passed the annual test and adds a condition aimed at the firm: all sales personnel must be registered and their cards issued. The documents are a copy of the Emirates ID and of a valid passport. The page gives the same five-minute processing time, says approval of the application is automatic, and offers two channels, Trakheesi and the Dubai REST app. The renewal fee is the same as the issue fee for each card, with the knowledge fee and the innovation fee added. Neither the issue page nor the renewal page lists a fee for the real estate projects marketing card, although the card appears among the activities each covers.

Worked examples: what the stated fees add up to

The following worked examples use only the fees on the department's pages, with their assumptions stated.

A single advertisement. Assume a brokerage applies for one electronic advertisement permit for one apartment. The permit fee is AED 1,000 and the knowledge and innovation fee is AED 20, so the permit costs AED 1,020. Assume the same brokerage advertises ten properties and takes one permit for each: ten times AED 1,020 is AED 10,200. Whether one permit can cover more than one property or more than one medium is not stated on the page, so the second figure rests on the assumption of one permit per property.

An exhibition. Assume an organiser brings 12 exhibiting companies. The participation fee is AED 1,020 for each exhibitor, so 12 exhibitors come to AED 12,240, paid by the organiser with one cheque. The preliminary booking fee of AED 10,200 is paid earlier and, according to the page, deducted from the final permit fee. The page does not state the amount of that final permit fee for an exhibition, so the organiser's full cost cannot be computed from the page alone.

A renewal round. Assume a brokerage renews the broker cards of eight members of staff. Each renewal is AED 500 plus a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10, or AED 520. Eight renewals come to AED 4,160.

A first card. Assume a new broker who is not exempt from the examination. The issue page lists AED 500 for the card, AED 700 for the examination, AED 10 for the knowledge fee and AED 10 for the innovation fee, which add up to AED 1,220, before the ERES fee of AED 50 plus VAT. The page attaches the two AED 10 fees to the examination line and also lists them on their own; if they are charged on the examination and on the card separately, the total would be AED 20 higher, at AED 1,240. The page does not settle that point.

What the pages leave unsaid

The department's pages are precise on fees and steps and silent on several points a reader may expect.

• Validity of an advertising permit. The permit page gives fees, documents and a processing time, but no period of validity.
• Penalties. The 2023 release says an advertisement without its code could result in violations. Neither it nor the 2025 release gives an amount.
• Where the index is consulted. The releases on the Smart Rental Index describe what it covers and how it is built, and refer to the department's channels without naming a page or a screen.
• Performance levels and classifications. The app shows them for brokers and offices. The page does not say how they are calculated.

Each of these depends on a document other than the pages read here, or on the facts of a particular case, and each can change when the department updates a page.

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 →