How a Fully Digital Property Sale Works in Dubai Through Dubai Now

In this article

Written by

Kooky

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

About Kooky and Shaka →

A home in Dubai changes hands when the Dubai Land Department records the new owner. The department's standard route runs through the office of a Real Estate Registration Trustee, where an employee checks the parties' identity documents and the developer's clearance and enters the transaction. Next to it, the department's service catalogue lists a second route for one kind of sale, in which nobody visits a counter at all: the agreement is generated, signed and paid for on a phone, and the title deed arrives as an electronic document.

This guide reads the department's own service pages, as they stood in early October 2026, to explain how that route works. It covers who may use it and for which properties, the four steps the department lists, the role of the escrow account, the fees line by line with two worked examples, and how the same sale looks at a trustee centre. It then turns to the two things that sit around the sale itself: the electronic title deed and how its validity is checked, and Dubai REST, the department's own app, which handles most of what an owner or tenant does before and after a transfer.

Dubai Land Department service page "Buy or sell property via Dubai Now", read on 9 October 2026.

Two apps with two different jobs

The names are easy to confuse, so it helps to separate them first. The digital sale is a Dubai Land Department service delivered through Dubai Now, and the department's page gives Dubai Now as its only channel. The page describes it as a digital service available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for buying and selling real estate, open to property owners and investors under the department's terms.

Dubai REST is something else. The department describes it as a smart real estate platform used by owners, tenants, brokers, developers, valuers, investors and other participants in the market. It is where an owner sees a wallet of the properties registered in their name, where a tenancy contract is registered, where an off-plan buyer follows a project and where a title deed can be verified. The Dubai REST page does not present itself as the place where the digital sale described here is completed.

The two apps do meet in places. Some department services can be reached through either one, the ownership certificate and the property valuation among them. And the classic, in-person sale leans on Dubai REST for one document, the developer's electronic no-objection certificate, which comes up again below.

Who can use the digital sale, and for which homes

The conditions on the department's page are narrow, and they decide everything else. They concern the people first and the property second.

On the people: the page lists the service for individuals who hold a UAE ID, and gives the residency status as citizens and residents. The single item under required documents is authentication through UAE PASS. No passport copy, no paper title deed and no printed form appear on the list. The consequence is that both parties need a UAE ID and a working UAE PASS login. A buyer living abroad without a UAE ID is not within the eligibility the page describes.

On the property, the page sets three conditions:

• it must be free of restrictions and mortgages;
• it must be in a freehold area;
• it must be a subdivided unit, and the page gives apartments, offices and townhouses as the examples.

Each condition removes a category of sale. A home with a registered mortgage is outside the service, whether the debt is the seller's existing loan or a restriction recorded against the unit. The department lists "Registering the Sale of a Mortgaged Property" as a separate service related to sale registration. Land and property outside freehold areas are outside it too. So is anything that is not a subdivided unit: the page's examples do not include a plot of land or a whole building.

Companies are a separate matter. The Dubai Now page speaks of individuals. The page for sale registration at a trustee centre carries one service term of its own: a company must be registered with the department, by submitting a company registration request. The department also lists distinct services for a sale by heirs, a sale of company shares, lease-to-own registration and the registration of usufruct or musataha rights. None of those is described as available through the Dubai Now sale.

The four steps of a Dubai Now sale

The department sets the procedure out in four steps. They are short on the page; what each one implies is worth spelling out.

1. Create a sale request. The request generates the Sale and Purchase Agreement, usually shortened to SPA. The agreement is therefore produced by the system from the request rather than drafted separately and brought to an office.
2. Sign the agreement. The page's cancellation terms refer to signing the contract with Digital ID. The signature is electronic and tied to the identity each party logged in with.
3. Transfer the purchase amount and the service fees into the escrow account. The price and the fees travel together, into an escrow account approved by the department.
4. View the title deed and the receipt. The page lists the documents issued as an electronic title deed, an electronic map and the fee balances.

The processing time on the page is "instant". That describes the service's own handling once a step is completed. It is not a promise about how quickly two people agree a price, read an agreement or arrange funds. The 24-hour availability means the steps can be taken outside office hours, which the counter route cannot offer.

What the four steps leave out is as informative as what they include. There is no step for presenting identity documents, because UAE PASS authentication replaces it. There is no step for collecting a printed deed, because the deed is electronic. And there is no step where an employee enters the transaction, which is the heart of the counter route.

Escrow is the only way to pay

The page is plain on payment. The sale amount and the service fees must go through an escrow account, and under payment method it lists one entry: an escrow account approved by the Dubai Land Department.

For a buyer, this means the purchase money is not handed to the seller directly inside this service. It is paid into the approved account together with the fees. For a seller, it means the price arrives through that account and not by a cheque passed across a desk. The counter route works differently: the sale registration page lists ePay, Dubai Pay, the Noqodi wallet and a manager's cheque as its payment methods, and those are listed as ways of paying the service's fees.

For a broker, the practical point is one of preparation. The page says nothing about brokers, commission or how an agent's fee is handled, and nothing here should be read as describing it. What the page does establish is that a client who expects to pay by manager's cheque at a counter is describing the trustee route and not this one.

The page stops short of several details. It does not name the bank or entity that operates the escrow account. It does not say how long funds take to move out of it once the transfer is recorded. Those are matters the page leaves to the service itself.

Cancelling, and the seven-day clock

Two terms on the page deal with a sale that does not go ahead.

The first is a right to withdraw. Either party may cancel before signing the contract with Digital ID, and the page states that the other party's approval is not needed. Until the signature, then, a sale request binds neither side within the service: the seller can pull the request, and so can the buyer.

The second is a time limit. The procedure is cancelled automatically, before the signing step, if it runs for more than 7 days. A request that is created and then left unsigned does not stay open indefinitely; it lapses and has to be created again.

Read together, the two terms show where the weight of the process sits. Everything before the signature is easy to undo and expires by itself. The page does not describe a way to cancel after signing, and it does not describe what happens to money already in the escrow account if a sale stops at that stage, nor how long a refund would take. Parties who need those answers before they sign will not find them on the service page.

What the sale costs, line by line

The fee list on the Dubai Now page has three parts.

The first is the registration fee: 2% of the transaction value for the seller and 2% for the buyer. The page words it that way, one line per party. The two lines together are the sale registration fee that item 1 of the schedule to Dubai Executive Council Resolution No. (30) of 2013, as published on the Dubai Legislation Portal, sets at 4% of the value of the sale contract; Article 3 of that resolution says the fee is shared equally by the seller and the purchaser unless they agree otherwise. The examples below assume that equal split.

The second is a set of fixed lines: AED 250 for the issue of the title deed, AED 250 for a villa or apartment map, an innovation fee of AED 30 and a knowledge fee of AED 30. Together they come to AED 560.

The third is the partner fee, charged for Emirates Real Estate Solutions, which the page names as the partner. It is AED 1,000 when the transaction value is AED 500,000 or more and AED 500 when it is lower, and VAT is added to it. The page does not say which party pays the fixed lines or the partner fee.

Take a worked example. The figures are illustrative: an apartment in a freehold area, with no mortgage, sold for AED 1,200,000 between two residents. The registration fee is 2% of AED 1,200,000, which is AED 24,000, on each side, or AED 48,000 in all. The fixed lines add AED 560. Because the price is above AED 500,000, the partner fee is AED 1,000. The total is AED 49,560, before the VAT charged on the partner fee.

A second worked example, equally illustrative, sits under the threshold: a studio sold for AED 450,000. The registration fee is AED 9,000 on each side, AED 18,000 in all. The fixed lines are the same AED 560 and the partner fee falls to AED 500. The total is AED 19,060, again before VAT on the partner fee.

The department's pages read for this guide do not state the VAT rate as such, so the examples stop short of it. One of them does show the tax at work: the tenancy registration page lists AED 2.75 of VAT on a partner fee of AED 55.

The same sale at a trustee centre

The department's "Property Sale Registration" page describes the counter route. It is the service for registering a sale, in full or in part, between a seller and a buyer or their legally authorised representatives, and it covers land, property or a completed unit. Its channel is the Real Estate Registration Trustees Centre, and its residency status is "all".

The page sets out a five-stage procedure.

Two documents are listed for individuals. The first is the Emirates ID of both seller and buyer, used to verify identity only, with no copies taken; a valid passport is accepted in its place for foreigners who are not resident. The second is an electronic no-objection certificate from the developer, for freehold areas, obtained through the Dubai REST app. The Dubai Now page lists no such certificate among its requirements, and it does not explain how the developer's clearance is dealt with in the digital route.

The service time is given as 25 minutes, and the documents issued are the same in kind: an electronic title deed and an electronic map. The fees differ in their fixed lines and, above all, in the partner fee.

The map lines need a word. The Dubai Now page has one: AED 250 for a villa or apartment map. The trustee page has three: AED 225 for a unified map under Dubai Municipality, AED 100 for a map of land not under Dubai Municipality, and AED 250 for villas and apartments. Which applies depends on the property.

Return to the AED 1,200,000 apartment of the worked example, and assume the AED 250 villas and apartments line applies at the counter. The registration fee is the same AED 48,000. The fixed lines are AED 250 for the title deed, AED 250 for the map and AED 10 each for the knowledge and innovation fees, AED 520 in all. The partner fee is AED 4,000. The total is AED 52,520 before VAT on the partner fee, against AED 49,560 through Dubai Now. The gap of AED 2,960 is the partner fee, AED 3,000 lower in the app, less the AED 40 by which the app's knowledge and innovation fees are higher. For the AED 450,000 studio the counter total is AED 18,000 plus AED 520 plus AED 2,000, or AED 20,520, against AED 19,060: a gap of AED 1,460.

On a transfer of this size the 2% lines dominate both totals, and they are identical on the two routes. The difference between the routes lies less in the cost than in who may use each one and for what.

What an electronic title deed is, and how it is checked

Both routes end with an electronic title deed and an electronic map. Neither page lists a printed certificate among the documents issued.

The legal footing is older than either app. Dubai's Law No. 7 of 2006 concerning real property registration, as published on the Dubai Legislation Portal, defines the Property Register in its Article 2 as the department's record, which may be written or electronic. An electronic record is therefore within the law's own definition of the register.

An electronic document invites an obvious question from anyone shown one: is it genuine and still valid? The department answers with a service called "Verify Title Deed". Its page says the service allows customers to verify the validity of the certificate of title, or title deed, issued by the department. The steps are two: log in to the department's website or to the app and select the service, then view the information displayed. The channels are the department's website and the Dubai REST app, the processing time is "immediate", the residency status is "all" and the page lists no fee.

The page does not say which details of the deed the person checking has to enter, nor exactly what the result shows. What it establishes is that a check exists, that it runs against the department's own records, and that it is open to residents and non-residents alike. For a buyer handed a deed by a seller, or a broker handed one by a client, that is the department's stated way of confirming it.

What Dubai REST does for owners

For an owner, the centre of Dubai REST is what the department calls the real estate wallet. According to the Dubai REST page, the wallet shows the current prices of the owner's properties, their rental returns and their service charges. The page also says the wallet supports property sale, purchase, lease and mortgage transactions.

From the app an owner can request four things and make one kind of payment: a map, a "To Whom It May Concern" letter, a mortgage bid and a property valuation, and the payment of service charges.

The letter is the department's certificate of ownership. Its own service page describes it as a statement of property ownership, or a certificate of compliance with property management requirements, and lists it as issued instantly. Through the app or the website no documents are required and the fee is AED 50 per letter plus a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10, AED 70 in all. At a trustee centre the same letter carries a further partner fee of AED 50 plus VAT, and an individual presents an Emirates ID, or a passport if not resident; a company presents its trade licence and an official letter. The page also describes a call-centre channel for two groups: it is free for People of Determination and costs AED 70 for senior citizens.

The certificate is also one of the services that can be reached through Dubai Now. There the page lists three steps.

The page gives no fee for the Dubai Now channel. A valuation follows the same pattern: according to the department's property valuation page, the request is submitted through Dubai Now, paid for, and the certificate is received electronically.

Payments inside Dubai REST run through the Noqodi portal, according to the Dubai REST page. The app is available in Arabic and English, on Android and on Apple devices.

Tenancies and off-plan projects in the same app

Dubai REST is not only for owners who are selling. The department's page lists lease registration, renewal and cancellation for owners and tenants, along with the submission and follow-up of rental dispute cases.

Here the department's fee pages show a price difference between the app and the counter.

On a tenancy registration, the online total is AED 42.25 below the counter figure.

For buyers of off-plan property, the Dubai REST page describes real-time project information: the percentage of completion, actual photographs of the project, the number of the project's escrow account and the payments due on projects the user has invested in. A favourites feature lets a user follow chosen projects. The department's project status page adds two more ways in: WhatsApp, on the department's number 8004488, and a virtual assistant called Malik.

The app also carries reference data for the whole market: rental and sale indexes over different periods, a service charges index, details of brokers and their performance levels, data on real estate offices and their classifications, and information on valuation, management and consultancy companies and certified developers.

Two further digital pieces appear on the department's pages. Registration for its First-Time Home Buyer programme is done through the website or Dubai REST and returns a QR code by email. And the department's services directory lists a "DLD Document Vault"; the supporting documents for an investor's golden visa application can be uploaded to it, according to the application page, and the trustee centres use a digital vault for a sale's documents.

What the service pages leave open

A guide built on service pages inherits their silences, and a reader weighing the digital route should know where they are.

The Dubai Now page gives no launch date for the sale service. It does not name the operator of the escrow account or give the timing of a refund when a sale is cancelled. It does not say who pays the fixed fees or the partner fee. It does not describe a cancellation after signature. The Dubai REST page, for its part, does not itself describe the developer's no-objection certificate that the trustee route says is obtained through the app; that reference appears only on the sale registration page.

None of this changes the outline. A digital sale in Dubai, as the department describes it, is a narrow and precise service: two UAE ID holders, one unmortgaged unit in a freehold area, an agreement generated and signed in an app, money and fees through one approved escrow account, and an electronic deed at the end. Everything outside that outline is registered by other means, and the pages say which.

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 →