How Dubai property auctions are licensed, supervised and paid for

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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 auction in Dubai is not a private event between a seller and a room of bidders. The company that runs it holds a licence for that one activity, each property put up for sale passes through a permit at the Dubai Land Department, the Department supervises the sale for a fee, and the result is registered through the same system before a title deed is issued to the new owner. Around that public frame sits a second layer: the terms and conditions of the auction company itself, which set the deposit, the deadlines and the penalties a bidder accepts when registering.

The two layers are easy to confuse, and they do not have the same weight. This guide separates them. It covers the licence, the permit and its documents, the two routes by which a home is ordered to auction under Dubai law, the fees the Land Department lists for the seller and the purchaser, and then what one auction company's published terms add on the bidder's side. Every amount is given as it appeared on the source in early October 2026, and the points the sources leave unexplained are set out at the end.

Dubai Land Department service pages for real estate licensing, the auction permit and the registration of a property sold in an auction, as shown in early October 2026.

Who may organise a property auction in Dubai

The Dubai Land Department's real estate licensing service lists 21 activities for which a licence can be requested. One of them is "organizing public real estate auctions". It stands in the list as an activity of its own, next to sales and purchase brokerage, leasing brokerage, valuation services and the others: a brokerage licence and an auction licence are two different lines on that page.

The path to the licence has two stages, according to the same page. The application is first submitted through the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism, which the Land Department names as its partner for the service. The applicant then logs in to Trakheesi, the Land Department's licensing system, selects the service, fills in the information and uploads the documents; an employee reviews and approves the request, and the applicant pays. The page also lists the Invest in Dubai platform as a channel. The service time given is one working day.

The fee depends on the activity. The Land Department sets out specific annual amounts for a handful of activities, such as real estate development or the registration trustee, and a rate for "other activities" of AED 5,000 a year, to which a knowledge and innovation fee of AED 20 is added. Organising public auctions is not among the activities given a specific amount, so on the page's own list it appears to fall under that general rate, which would make AED 5,020 a year in all. The page does not print an amount against the auction activity itself.

The page adds one more step after approval. The licence holder applies for a Real Estate Activity Practice Card, except for five activities the page exempts: development, exhibition organisation, buying and selling land and properties, representative offices, and private property leasing and management. Auction organising is not one of the five.

What the service page does not give is a public list of the companies that hold the auction activity. None was found on the Land Department pages read for this guide, a gap that matters later for anyone trying to check who is authorised.

The permit that comes before each sale

A licence allows a company to organise auctions in general. A second service governs each property. The Land Department calls it the permit to sell property in public auction for companies, and describes it as the request for the Department to supervise the properties declared for auction by companies authorised to organise public auctions or electronic auctions.

The permit is free, according to the service page, is processed within two business days, and is requested on the Land Department website only. The procedure is short: the company creates an account or logs in, selects the service, fills in the details, attaches the documents, and receives a notice that the transaction is complete.

The documents are the substance of the check. The page lists six:

• an application letter, which comes from an official entity, from Dubai Courts or from Minors Affairs where one of them is behind the sale, and is otherwise a personal application;
• a property valuation certificate valid for six months and issued for the auction;
• an electronic copy of the title deed;
• the land map;
• the UAE identity card of every owner, or a valid passport for a non-resident foreigner;
• a copy of any power of attorney given by the owners.

Read together, the list says a good deal about what an auction in Dubai is. The application letter shows who is expected behind a sale: a public entity, a court acting in an enforcement, the body that looks after the property of minors, and besides them an owner who simply chooses to sell this way. The valuation certificate fixes a recent figure for the property before any bidding starts, and its six-month life means an old valuation cannot be reused. The identity of every owner, not of one representative, is required, which is why the power of attorney has its own line.

For a bidder, the practical meaning is that a property announced for auction by an authorised company should already have been through this file at the Land Department. The permit page does not describe what the Department does at the sale itself beyond the word supervision; the fee for that supervision appears on another page, covered below.

How a mortgaged home reaches the auction room

Many auction sales are not chosen by the owner. Dubai Law No. (14) of 2008 concerning mortgages, published on the Dubai Legislation Portal, sets the sequence a lender must follow before a mortgaged property is sold, and it ends in a public auction under the Land Department's procedures.

The law covers lenders of a defined kind: its Article 4 requires the mortgagee to be a bank, or a financing company or institution, licensed and registered with the UAE Central Bank. Article 11 closes the shortcut a lender might otherwise write into a contract. A clause that transfers ownership of the property to the mortgagee if the debt is not paid by a set date, or that allows a sale without the legal procedure, is void; the mortgage itself stays valid. The property can change hands on default only through the steps that follow.

The postponement deserves a closer look, because it is the debtor's one statutory pause. Under Article 27, the debtor or the real surety (a person who has put up a property as security for someone else's debt) asks the execution judge for it. The judge may grant it once, for no more than 60 days, and only if satisfied of one of two things: that the debtor can repay within that period, or that the sale may cause the debtor gross damage. Article 29 leaves another door open throughout: the debtor or the surety may repay the secured debt and everything attached to it before maturity. Until the property is foreclosed and sold, Article 12 lets the mortgagor go on managing it and collecting its income.

What happens to the money is settled by Article 30. Creditors are paid from the sale price in order of rank. If the price does not cover the debt, the shortfall may be claimed from the debtor: the auction ends the mortgage over the property, not necessarily the debt. Matters the law does not cover fall, under Article 31, to the federal Civil Code and Civil Procedures Code.

For the auctioneer, this law explains the origin of a share of the catalogue and the reason an application letter from Dubai Courts is on the permit list. For a bidder, it explains why a court and an execution judge appear in the terms of sale of a property sold by a private company.

Unpaid service charges, the second route

A mortgage is not the only debt that can send a unit to auction. Dubai Law No. (6) of 2019 concerning ownership of jointly owned real property, also on the Dubai Legislation Portal, deals with the service charges owed by owners in buildings and communities with common parts.

Its Article 32 gives the sequence. The owner in arrears receives a notice in a form approved by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency. If the charges are still unpaid 30 days after that notice, the claim becomes enforceable by the execution judge at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, who may order the unit sold by public auction.

Two features set this route apart from the mortgage route. The judge sits at the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre, not in the general execution court. And the creditor is not a bank: the debt is the charge that pays for the upkeep of the building the unit belongs to. The outcome for the trade is the same, a unit ordered to public auction, and the same question follows for the buyer about who pays the charges from then on. The auction terms examined below answer it for their own sales.

What the Land Department charges on an auction sale

The Land Department's fees for an auction are public, and they are split between the two sides. The page for the registration of a property sold in an auction lists them line by line, with the party who pays.

The supervision fee has a legal basis that can be read separately. Dubai Executive Council Resolution No. (30) of 2013, which approves the fees of the Land Department, lists in its schedule the supervision of a public auction sale at 1 per cent of the auction value with a ceiling of AED 30,000 (item 21), an electronic public auction at AED 10,000 (item 23) and the licensing of an auction held outside the Department at AED 10,000 (item 24). The service page and the resolution agree on the first two amounts.

A worked example shows how the lines add up. Assume an apartment sold at a public auction for AED 2,000,000, with a unit map, and one knowledge fee and one innovation fee on each side. The seller's supervision fee is 1 per cent of AED 2,000,000, which is AED 20,000 and under the cap. The seller's registration fee is 2 per cent, AED 40,000. With AED 20 of knowledge and innovation fees, the seller's lines come to AED 60,020. The purchaser pays 2 per cent, AED 40,000, then AED 250 for the title deed, AED 250 for the unit map and AED 20 of knowledge and innovation fees: AED 40,520. These are illustrative figures built from the listed rates, not the cost of any real sale.

The cap changes the picture for larger sales. One per cent reaches AED 30,000 at a sale value of AED 3,000,000, so above that price the supervision fee stops growing. In a second worked example, a villa sold at public auction for AED 5,000,000 carries a supervision fee of AED 30,000, where 1 per cent uncapped would have been AED 50,000. The flat AED 10,000 for an electronic auction equals 1 per cent at a sale value of AED 1,000,000: on the listed rates, the percentage is the lower of the two below that price and the flat amount is the lower above it.

The page also says how the money moves. Department fees are paid through the licensed auction company, by depositing a fee cheque into the Land Department's account. The parties do not each settle at a counter; the company that ran the sale is the channel.

What one auction company asks of a bidder

Everything above comes from the Land Department or from Dubai legislation. What follows comes from a different kind of document: the terms and conditions published by Emirates Auction, a company that runs real estate auctions, including sales ordered by courts. These are that company's own terms. They bind the people who register with it; they are not a regulator's rules, and another auction company's terms may differ.

Registration comes first. The terms limit membership to individuals over 21 years old, with one active account per member. A person who bids for someone else must, when the offer is accepted, present a power of attorney certified by the notary public.

Then the deposit. For real estate, the terms set the security deposit at 20 per cent of the auction start price, and give their own example: AED 200,000 on a start price of AED 1,000,000. It is paid by bank transfer or deposit, or by manager's cheque. The base is the start price, not the price the bidder hopes to pay, so the deposit is known before the bidding opens.

The general terms describe bidding and sale as final and irrevocable. The real estate terms say that court-ordered properties are sold "as is", and that the sale does not take in movable items, the name or the commercial licence. They add that the bidder has examined the property personally and has not relied on a valuation by the company or by the competent court. In practice the valuation certificate filed for the permit serves the file at the Land Department; under these terms the bidder's own inspection and estimate are the bidder's responsibility.

On price, the terms state that the bidder pays fees and charges of 3 per cent of the sale value plus AED 15,000, and that this covers the ownership transfer fees and the company's commission. A worked example: on an assumed sale value of AED 1,500,000, 3 per cent is AED 45,000, and with AED 15,000 the charge is AED 60,000. The general terms add that VAT at 5 per cent applies "where relevant" to the final auction price and to fees, and make the seller responsible for it; the real estate section itself does not mention VAT.

Who may not bid, and the ten-day window

Two clauses of the same terms reach beyond the usual mechanics of an auction, and both concern court-ordered sales.

The first is a list of people who may not bid, in person or through someone else: the debtor, the debtor's relatives up to the second degree, judges, members of the Public Prosecution, enforcement officers, secretaries, and the attorneys acting for the debtor. The terms state that a sale made in breach of this is void. The list follows the logic of an enforcement: the person whose property is being sold, and the people who run or assist the procedure, stay out of the bidding.

The second is a window that keeps a result open after the session. Under the terms, within 10 days of the award any eligible person may raise the price, provided the increase is not less than one-tenth of the price. Staying with the worked example of an award at AED 1,500,000, one-tenth is AED 150,000, so the lowest offer that reopens the result is AED 1,650,000. The terms say the person raising the price deposits the full price and the expenses with the court treasury, in cash or by an acceptable cheque, when asked. They then refer to the auction being repeated within seven days and to the judge awarding the property to the highest bidder.

For a successful bidder, the meaning is plain: under these terms the hammer is not the last word in a court-ordered sale for 10 days. For an agent accompanying a client, it is the reason an award letter matters more than the result announced in the room.

The balance, and what a default costs

The same terms set one deadline for the money. The remaining amount must be deposited within a maximum of 10 days; the real estate clause speaks of the full price and the expenses, within 10 days of the sale session.

The last column matters. The real estate section has its own consequence for a bidder who breaks the auction rules: the full security deposit is forfeited, and the bidder may bear the difference between the two prices, meaning the gap if the property is then sold for less. The 30 per cent fine, the AED 5,000 fine and the daily fee stand in the general terms, which apply across the company's auctions and are not written for property alone. How the general fine and the real estate clause combine in a given property sale is not spelled out, and it depends on the case.

The scale is worth seeing once. In the worked example, with a start price of AED 1,000,000 and an award at AED 1,500,000, the deposit at stake is AED 200,000. A fine of 30 per cent of the sale amount, if the general provision were applied to that sale, would be AED 450,000. Ten days of the late-payment administration fee come to AED 1,050. All three figures are illustrations computed from the published terms.

Registration and the title deed

Once the price is paid, the sale returns to the Land Department. Its service for the registration of a property sold in an auction is open to the seller, the purchaser or an authorised company, and runs through the same auction permit system that handled the property before the sale. The condition stated on the page is that the property was sold through an authorised auction company.

The file is the permit file with one addition. The six documents are required again: the application letter, the valuation certificate less than six months old and obtained for the auction, the electronic copy of the title deed, the land map, the identity documents of the owners and any power of attorney. The seventh is the auction award letter, the document that names the successful bidder and the price.

The procedure on the page has four moves: log in, select the service and attach the documents, pay the fees, and receive the outputs online. The Land Department gives a service time of 25 to 30 minutes. The documents issued are the title deed in the new owner's name, the map and the payment receipts. The service is open to all residency statuses, which is consistent with the passport line for non-resident foreign owners in the document list.

The six-month life of the valuation certificate is the deadline to watch across the whole sequence. A sale delayed by a postponement or by a reopened result still has to be registered with a certificate that is in date.

Tenants and service charges after the sale

A property bought at auction may be occupied, and it carries running costs. The company terms deal with both, for their own sales.

On occupation, the terms say the Rental Disputes Center is competent for rent and eviction matters, and that the awarded buyer must notify the tenants by a notice attested by the notary public. They add that claims of this kind are directed at the previous owner, the tenants or the beneficiaries, not at the auction company. The buyer of a tenanted unit therefore takes on a relationship, with its own forum and its own formalities, and not only a building.

On costs, the terms state that the new buyer pays the developer's service fees from the date ownership is registered in the buyer's name. That date is the one produced by the Land Department registration described above, which gives the title deed a second role: it marks the day the charges change hands. What happens to arrears from before that date is not stated in the clauses read here.

Finally, the terms name their own law: the laws of Dubai and the applicable federal law of the United Arab Emirates, with the Dubai courts having jurisdiction over disputes.

What the sources leave open

Three points could not be settled from the pages behind this guide, and a careful reader should treat them as open.

The first is the relationship between the two sets of fees. The Land Department lists a registration fee of 2 per cent for the seller and 2 per cent for the purchaser, 4 per cent of the sale value in all. Emirates Auction's terms charge the bidder 3 per cent plus AED 15,000 and say this covers the ownership transfer fees and the company's commission. Neither page explains how one figure fits inside or beside the other, so the two should not be added together or netted off on assumption. Because the Land Department says its fees are paid through the auction company, the place to ask is the company running the sale.

The second is the court's own procedure. Dubai Courts' pages on auctions could not be read for this guide. The mortgage law and the jointly owned property law give the steps that lead to an order for sale, and the company's terms describe the ten-day window and the list of barred bidders, but the court's account of its own sessions is missing here.

The third is the register. The Land Department licenses the activity and speaks of authorised companies throughout its auction pages, yet no public list of those companies was found on the pages read. Authorisation is a condition of the registration service, so it is a fact about any given sale that the Department's records hold even where no list is published.

The Land Department's pages say what the state charges and checks. The auction company's terms say what a bidder risks. A sale in Dubai rests on both.

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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