The listed price
is not the full bill.
On top of the price sit fees to the Dubai Land Department and the trustee office. Here is how it adds up for a ready apartment, line by line.
"The price plus 4%" and that is it.
A common back of the envelope calculation is: a 4% fee to the Dubai Land Department (DLD), all of it on the buyer.
The rate is indeed 4%, but the law splits it: 2% buyer, 2% seller, unless the parties have explicitly agreed on a different split in the sale contract.
Three line items that are not a percentage.
For a ready apartment, the trustee office handling the transfer charges a fixed fee: above 500,000 AED it is 4,000 AED plus 5% VAT, so 4,200 AED, around 998 EUR at the September 18, 2026 rate.
The title deed and the owner's Property Ownership Card cost a separate 520 AED under the DLD tariff, around 124 EUR at the same rate.
European Central Bank rate as of September 18, 2026: 1 EUR = 4.2087 AED (dirhams). The EUR figures in this article are converted at that rate, for reference.
Two totals, one property.
For a ready apartment priced at 1,000,000 AED, if each side pays its own legal half, the buyer's share is 2.47% of the price: the 2% DLD fee plus the trustee office, title and card, around 5,874 EUR in total.
If the buyer also takes on the half that is legally the seller's, the buyer's share becomes 4.47% of the price: around 10,626 EUR. Which side actually carries each amount is written into the sale contract, not assumed.
DLD 2% + trustee office 4,200 AED + title and card 520 AED, at a rate of 4.2087 AED per EUR.
Two parts, in the total.
Of the buyer's share by law, 2.00 percentage points of the price is the DLD fee itself.
The remaining 0.47 percentage points are the trustee office (4,200 AED) and the title and card (520 AED) combined, worked out against a price of 1,000,000 AED.
In dirhams: 4,200 AED trustee office plus 520 AED title and card.
"No fee for registration."
For a project under construction, registration in the DLD system is due within 90 days of signing the sale contract, with a 2% buyer share by law, the same as for a ready property.
Which side actually carries each of the two halves is read in the contract with the developer itself, not in a promise made verbally before signing.
Who pays what, before you sign?
We check an offer for a project in Dubai line by line: DLD fee, trustee office, title and card, before you sign.
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