In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Dubai Land Department and the University of Dubai are building a full education route into the emirate's property trade, the Government of Dubai Media Office announced on Wednesday 7 October 2026. At its centre is a Bachelor of Business Administration in Real Estate Management, which the release describes as a first-of-its-kind programme, with shorter courses in brokerage, valuation and PropTech arranged around it.
The announcement came six days after the department published its account of three days spent talking to Emirati students and graduates at the Ru'ya Careers UAE fair. Read together, the two statements show the land department working on the same question from both ends: how people arrive in a trade that registered more than 13,000 new brokers last year, and what they know when they get there.
For anyone already working in a brokerage office, the more interesting part is not the degree itself. It is the promise, set out in the release, that professional experience and earlier learning will be recognised, so that a working broker could move from a short certificate towards an academic qualification without starting again from nothing.
What the two bodies announced
According to the Media Office, the land department and the university, represented by its Dubai Business School, are putting together what the release calls an integrated education and professional framework to prepare talent for Dubai's real estate sector. The framework has an academic core and a set of professional courses around it.
The core is the bachelor's degree. The release lists seven subject areas for it: real estate finance and investment; valuation and appraisal; real estate law and regulation; urban planning and sustainable development; property and facilities management; real estate marketing and sales; and digital transformation and PropTech.
Related readSingapore opens its first three-year renewal for property agentsThat list is broader than a sales course. Only one of the seven areas, marketing and sales, describes what most people picture when they think of a broker's day. The other six cover the work that sits behind a transaction or follows it: how a property is valued, how it is financed, which rules apply, how a district is planned, how a building is run once it is occupied, and which digital tools the trade now relies on.
The Media Office adds that the degree will lean on applied projects, field-based learning, industry engagement and emerging technologies. In other words, the two bodies describe a programme taught partly outside the lecture hall, with the trade itself engaged.
The courses around the degree
The degree is one level of several. The release also names a Real Estate Diploma, professional certificates and micro-credentials, and executive education and specialised programmes. Brokerage is named among the specialisms, next to valuation, property and facilities management, customer experience and PropTech.
| Level | What the release says about it |
|---|---|
| Bachelor's degree | BBA in Real Estate Management, seven subject areas, described as a first of its kind. |
| Diploma | A Real Estate Diploma, named without further detail. |
| Short credentials | Professional certificates and micro-credentials. |
| Executive and specialised | Programmes in brokerage, valuation, property and facilities management, customer experience and PropTech. |
Source: Government of Dubai Media Office, 7 October 2026.
What ties the levels together is the last element the Media Office describes: recognition of prior learning and of professional experience, so that people can progress between the professional and the academic levels. The release gives no detail on how that recognition will be measured, and it does not say how much of a degree a certificate or a number of years in an office might count for.
Even stated in general terms, it is the part of the plan aimed at people who are already in the trade. A school leaver can enrol on a degree. A broker with several years of deals behind them needs a way to have that experience counted, and the framework says that route is intended to exist.
Related readHow to become and stay a registered property agent in SingaporeHow brokers qualify today
None of this replaces the way a broker gets permission to work. That remains a matter for the land department's own licensing services, and the announcement does not mention any change to them.
The department's service page for the real estate activity practice card sets out the present conditions. Nobody may practise until they are registered and hold the card. An applicant needs a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police and must pass the annual test for the profession. The card's validity is tied to the trade licence.
The same page lists the costs. A standard card, including the broker card, is AED 500. The broker exam is AED 700, plus a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10, which makes AED 720 for the exam. The application is made online through the Trakheesi system and the card is issued in electronic form.
The page also lists several card types, among them real estate broker, national broker, mortgage broker, real estate consultant and evaluator. And it names three groups exempt from the broker exam: individuals over 55, brokers with five consecutive years in the same office, and holders of a start-up licence.
Set beside that, the new framework answers a different question. The practice card establishes that a person is allowed to work. The degree, the diploma and the certificates are about how much that person has studied, and the release presents them as education rather than as a licensing requirement.
The release gives no start date, fees or student numbers
The Media Office statement of 7 October names no intake date for the degree, no tuition fees and no number of places. It names no officials either, and it does not say that any course will become a condition of holding a practice card.
A trade that grew fast in 2025
The department's own figures give the announcement its backdrop. In a release dated 9 March 2026, the Media Office reported land department data showing 32,294 registered brokers at the end of 2025, working through 9,785 registered brokerage offices. Of those brokers, 13,083 were new in 2025. Set against the year-end register, that is about 40.5 per cent, or roughly four in every ten, on the assumption that all of the year's entrants were still registered at its close.
Related readSouth Australia real estate registration: who needs which oneThe work grew with the headcount. The same release counts 96,440 transactions carried out by brokers in 2025 and brokerage commissions of AED 13.59 billion. It also reports separately on women in the trade: 11,371 women working in brokerage, 28,909 transactions and commissions of AED 2.98 billion. The transaction, commission and new-broker figures all rose on 2024, and by very different amounts.
Source: Dubai Land Department data for 2025, reported by the Government of Dubai Media Office on 9 March 2026.
The number of transactions handled by brokers grew faster than the commissions they earned, and the number of people entering the trade grew faster than commissions too. A register that takes in so many newcomers in one year is one where a large share of the people meeting buyers and sellers are still learning the job. A structured route from a first certificate to a degree is one way of responding to that, although the release itself does not draw the link.
The careers push that came first
The education announcement followed a careers push aimed at Emirati students and graduates. On 1 October the land department published its account of taking part in the 25th edition of Ru'ya Careers UAE, held from 28 to 30 September 2026 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
According to that statement, the department exhibited inside the Dubai Government pavilion, which was overseen by the Dubai Government Human Resources Department and brought together 34 government entities. Its staff gave Emirati young people and graduates an overview of the real estate sector, including the department's work on data, innovation, technology and artificial intelligence, and explained the career pathways on offer and the skills they call for.
Related readTexas sales agent licence: hours, exam, fees and the first renewalThe department described its presence as part of its commitment to advancing Emiratisation and to attracting national talent. Its statement gave no recruitment figures from the fair and did not mention any broker programme by name.
- 14 SeptemberThe land department reports more than 2,100 real estate jobs created for Emiratis since 2023.
- 1 OctoberThe department reports on presenting property careers to Emirati graduates at Ru'ya Careers UAE.
- 7 OctoberThe Media Office announces the degree and the courses planned around it.
Where Emirati brokers fit in
The first of those statements gives the careers stand its context. On 14 September the land department said that the Real Estate Empowerment Programme had created more than 2,100 jobs for Emiratis in the real estate sector between 2023 and 2026, the first initiatives having been launched in 2023. It named four partners in the programme: the Emirati Human Resources Development Council in Dubai, the land department itself, the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, and Nafis.
Brokerage has schemes of its own. The Media Office's March release on the brokerage sector names two schemes: the Dubai Real Estate Brokers Programme, for Emirati brokers, and the Real Estate Brokers Incubator Programme, run with Dubai Silicon Oasis and academic partners.
Gulf News reported, in an article last updated on 12 May 2026, that the department had opened a second phase of the incubator for a further 25 UAE nationals setting up their own brokerage firms. The newspaper described a six-month programme, with registration open until 25 May 2026 and Dubai Silicon Oasis, New Economy Academy and Rochester Institute of Technology Dubai as partners.
So the university agreement is not the department's first step into classrooms. The incubator already involved academic partners, on a small scale and for a defined group: citizens founding firms. What the October announcement adds is breadth. The framework is described as preparing talent for the sector as a whole, the release does not limit it to UAE nationals, and it reaches from short courses up to a full degree.
What the announcement leaves open
The release places the framework under three policy programmes: the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, the Dubai Real Estate Sector Strategy 2033 and We the UAE 2031. In the same statement the land department calls the development of human capital a key pillar in sustaining the sector's growth. Those references explain why the project exists. They do not say when it begins.
Several practical points are therefore still to come. The statement does not say when the first students will be admitted, what the degree or the shorter courses will cost, or how many places there will be. It does not explain how prior learning and experience will be assessed, which matters most to brokers who would join part-way up. And it does not say whether any of the brokerage programmes will carry weight with the licensing side of the department, for instance alongside the annual test.
For brokerage offices, the questions that follow are concrete ones: whether a certificate from the framework will become something employers look for when they hire, and whether working brokers will be able to study while they keep trading. The two bodies have described the structure. The timetable, the prices and the entry rules are what the trade will be watching for next.
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.
