Dubai landlord guide

A Dubai apartment earns a gross 6–8% a year, and that number tells you less than it seems to. Listings quote gross yield. Your account receives net: what’s left after the service charge, the management fee, and vacancy. The gap between the two is usually several percentage points.

This guide works through that gap first, then covers the whole letting process from abroad: tenant screening, Ejari, DEWA, cheques, RERA’s rent rules, eviction notice, management, and the exit.

The short version

• A Dubai apartment earns a gross 6–8% a year; the market average is around 6.9%. Net is lower once service charges, management, and vacancy come out.
• Every tenancy contract must be registered in Ejari, at minimum AED 215 + 5% VAT.
• RERA caps rent increases in tiers: 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20% maximum.
• Changes to terms need 90 days’ written notice before expiry; eviction takes 12 months’ notice served through a notary.
• Dubai has no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on residential property.

What does a Dubai rental actually earn?

Gross 6–8% a year, with the market average around 6.9%. Gross yield is the annual rent divided by the purchase price. Net yield is lower, because the owner’s costs come out of the rent. Keep the two strictly apart, because listings work with gross, without exception.

Here’s a round-number example. You buy a 70 m² apartment in Business Bay for AED 1,000,000 and rent it for AED 70,000 a year. That’s a 7% gross yield, the top of the area’s 6.5–7.0% range.

The deductions look like this:

Item	AED/year
Annual rent (gross)	70,000
Service charge, 70 m² × AED 200/m²	-14,000
Management fee, 5% of rent	-3,500
Vacancy, roughly two weeks a year	-2,800
Maintenance reserve	-2,000
Net rental income	47,700

So 7% gross became 4.8% net. That’s the realistic starting point, and in Dubai it stays yours without deduction: there’s no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on residential property. Your home-country tax position depends on your personal circumstances, which we go through together with our clients’ accountants.

Vacancy eats net yield faster than anything else. In our example, one empty month costs roughly AED 5,800, while a 5% rent increase brings AED 3,500 over a full year. If a good tenant wants to renew at around market rent, keeping them often beats winning the increase and losing weeks to turnover. Run that math before every renewal.

Yields vary widely by area: 6.5–7.5% in JVC, 7.0–7.8% in Dubai South, 4.5–5.5% on Palm Jumeirah, all gross. The full yield and entry-price comparison is in our Dubai area guide.

“Gross yield is the listing’s number; net is yours. We model net for every client, because wealth is built from net. Gross builds brochures.” (Christopher Rozvany, co-founder)

Long-term or short-term: which letting model fits you?

A long-term annual lease gives you predictable income with little effort. Short-term holiday letting can earn more in the best locations, in exchange for constant work, higher costs, and a separate license. For an owner starting from abroad, long-term is the better default in most cases.

Factor	Long-term lease	Short-term (holiday) letting
Income profile	Fixed annual rent, agreed upfront	Nightly rates, swings with the season
Occupancy	12 months, one tenant	Booking-dependent, with empty nights
Effort	A few decisions a year	Constant: guest turnover, cleaning, pricing
Utilities and service charge	Utilities on the tenant; service charge on you	Every cost on you
Furnishing	Can be let unfurnished	Full furniture and equipment required
Regulation	Ejari registration	DET holiday home license
Management fee	A smaller share of rent (5% in our example)	Typically 15–25% of revenue
Best suited to	Investors who want stable monthly income	Apartments in prime, high-tourism locations

Short-term works where demand holds all year: Downtown, Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah. For an apartment in JVC or Dubai South, the higher long-term yield band plus low effort usually beats the holiday model. When the numbers make it a close call, we run both models on your specific apartment so you see them side by side.

You can also switch models later. Plenty of owners start long-term and move to holiday letting once they know the building and its demand. Direction matters: going short-term takes full furnishing and a license, while the way back is easier, since a furnished apartment lets well on the long-term market too.

How does letting work when you don’t live in Dubai?

The whole process runs remotely: a local manager handles tenant search, the contract, Ejari registration, and the DEWA transfer, while you make the decisions. In order, it looks like this.

Tenant search and screening

A good tenant is worth more than a high rent. Screening starts before the listing goes up: passport or Emirates ID, proof of income, employer background, previous landlord references. Removing a tenant who can’t pay can take months, so it’s cheaper to be strict at the start than patient at the end.

Contract and Ejari

Ejari is Dubai’s official tenancy contract registry. Every tenancy contract must be registered in it, at a fee of minimum AED 215 + 5% VAT. Without Ejari the contract is useless for official business: no DEWA transfer, and no standing in a rental dispute. In practice the tenant usually arranges and pays for it; with a managed property, the agency coordinates the paperwork.

DEWA transfer

DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) is the state utility provider. The tenant opens the electricity and water account in their own name and pays a deposit: AED 2,000 for an apartment, AED 4,000 for a villa, plus an AED 130 + VAT activation fee. That’s their cost, not yours, and the deposit keeps the risk of unpaid bills on their side too.

Cheques

Rent in Dubai traditionally arrives as post-dated cheques, usually 1 to 4 of them. A single cheque for the full year is the strongest position for you, but it narrows the tenant pool, since fewer people can pay a year upfront. A 2–4 cheque split is the market’s standard compromise: wider reach, slightly more follow-up.

Move-in permit

Most towers and gated communities require a permit from the building management before a tenant can move in. The manager arranges it with the tenant, and without it the movers can’t even drive in. It looks like a minor step, but skip it and the move-in slips by days.

What rules govern rent increases and eviction?

RERA’s tiered cap limits rent increases, changes to terms need 90 days’ notice, and eviction requires 12 months’ formally served notice. Dubai’s rental market is heavily regulated, and the deadlines work against you if you don’t know them.

RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Agency) is Dubai’s real estate regulator. The increase cap depends on how far the current rent sits below the market average in RERA’s rental index:

Current rent vs the RERA index market average	Maximum permitted increase
Up to 10% below	0%
11–20% below	5%
21–30% below	10%
31–40% below	15%
More than 40% below	20%

Two deadlines you can’t afford to miss as a landlord:

• 90 days. That’s how far before expiry you must give written notice of any change to the terms, including a rent increase. Miss it and next year runs on the old terms.
• 12 months. That’s the eviction notice period, served through a notary public or by registered mail. Verbal or email notice counts for nothing.

The 12-month notice is also tied to grounds: it typically holds up when you’re selling the property or moving in yourself. As a landlord, plan your exit at least a year ahead; we come back to this in the exit section.

What does property management actually include, and is it worth it?

The manager finds and screens the tenant, handles the contract and Ejari registration, collects the rent, takes the maintenance calls, and watches the renewal deadlines. In return they charge a share of the rent. If you don’t live in Dubai, someone has to be on the ground; the only question is who.

In practice, management covers:

• tenant search, background checks, the tenancy contract
• Ejari registration and DEWA coordination
• cheque handling, rent collection, chasing late payment
• taking fault reports and organizing repairs
• watching the 90-day and 12-month deadlines, annual renewal
• a yearly statement so you can see what the property earned

When the AC dies in August at 2 a.m. Dubai time, your tenant doesn’t call Budapest. They call the manager. That’s the difference between owning an investment in Dubai and running a second job from 4,000 kilometers away.

Before you pick a manager, ask four things: what exactly the fee covers and what counts as extra, how often you get a statement, who approves a repair and up to what amount, and how fast a fault report gets a response. If you don’t get written answers, the management fee is only the beginning.

At Nour, letting and management sit with the same team that handled your purchase. As we put it on our services page: you collect rent, not problems. One point of contact, fees fixed in writing, and the first maintenance call shows you why it matters.

Who pays for repairs: you or the tenant?

As a baseline, major and structural repairs are yours, smaller wear-and-tear items are the tenant’s, and the exact line gets fixed in the tenancy contract. In Dubai, air conditioning is the most expensive recurring item, so address it explicitly in the contract.

Item	Who pays
Structure, waterproofing, built-in systems	Landlord
Major AC repair and replacement	Landlord
Service charge, building insurance	Landlord
Minor repairs up to a threshold set in the contract	Tenant
Bulbs, filters, daily wear	Tenant
Damage caused by the tenant	Tenant
Utilities: DEWA, internet, district cooling	Tenant

An annual maintenance package (AC servicing, plumbing, small jobs at a fixed fee) prevents most disputes and gives the tenant a better experience: faults get fixed within a day, and that shows up in money at the next renewal. Dávid spent eight years renovating and running buildings, knows what each building type will need, and prices that in before you buy.

When should you exit, and what are your options?

You have three directions: refinance the property and grow with the released capital, sell and realize the gain, or reposition it into a higher rent band. The timing of an exit is decided by numbers: your net yield, price movement in the area, and the market cycle.

Refinance. If your property has gained value, you can borrow against the higher value and use the released capital to buy again. Banks typically lend non-residents 50–60% of the property value; we calculate the realistic amount for your situation.

Sell. A cash buyer takes 2–4 weeks to title transfer, a financed buyer 6–10 weeks, and the seller’s agency commission is 2% + VAT. If the buyer needs vacant possession, the 12-month notice rule means starting a year early. The full selling process, from pricing to transfer, is in our Dubai property sellers guide.

Reposition. Renovation, furnishing, design: a tired apartment can move into a higher rent band and let faster. That’s Dávid’s home ground; he spent eight years doing exactly this with downtown Budapest apartments before moving to Dubai.

Timing also needs a view of the market. Dubai is liquid: over 168,000 transactions closed in 2025 at AED 425 billion in value, per Dubai Land Department data, but areas don’t move in lockstep. Where yields hold and where price growth is slowing in 2026 is what we track in our 2026 market analysis.

What’s the next step?

If you already own in Dubai, or you’re choosing a property you plan to rent out, sit down with us for a consultation. We’ll model gross and net yield for your specific apartment, long-term and short-term side by side, and the exit scenarios too. You get numbers, in writing, before you decide anything.

Related guides: the Dubai property buyers guide breaks down the full purchase process and true costs, the sellers guide covers the exit, and the area guide maps the yields.

What investors ask us

What rental yield can I expect from a Dubai apartment?

Gross 6–8% a year, with the market average around 6.9%. Net is lower, because service charges, the management fee, and vacancy come out of the rent. We model the net figure for your specific property instead of quoting an average.

What is Ejari, and is registration mandatory?

Ejari is Dubai's official tenancy contract registry. Every tenancy contract must be registered in it, at a fee of minimum AED 215 + 5% VAT. Without Ejari, the contract can't be used for official matters such as DEWA transfer or a rental dispute.

How much can I raise the rent at renewal?

RERA's tiered cap decides. If the current rent is no more than 10% below the market average, no increase is allowed. Above that, the maximum is 5, 10, 15, or 20%, depending on how far the rent has fallen behind the market.

When do I need to notify the tenant if I want to change the terms?

90 days before the contract expires, in writing. This covers rent increases and any other change to the terms. Miss the 90 days and the contract renews for another year on the old terms.

How do I evict a tenant in Dubai?

With 12 months' notice, served through a notary public or by registered mail. There's no shorter route, so plan a sale or your own move-in at least a year ahead.

Do I pay tax on rental income in Dubai?

Dubai has no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on residential property. Your home-country tax position depends on your personal circumstances; we walk through it together with our clients' accountants.

Who pays the service charge and who pays the utilities?

The owner pays the service charge, the tenant pays utilities. The tenant opens the DEWA account in their own name and pays a deposit of AED 2,000 for an apartment or AED 4,000 for a villa, plus an AED 130 + VAT activation fee.

Can I rent out my property without living in Dubai?

Yes. Tenant search, the contract, Ejari registration, and day-to-day management all work in your absence if you have a local manager. At Nour that means one point of contact, the same team that handled your purchase.

Which Dubai areas have the highest rental yields?

The higher gross yield zones are Dubai South at 7.0–7.8%, JVC at 6.5–7.5%, Creek Harbour at 6.5–7.2%, and Business Bay at 6.5–7.0%. Premium locations like Palm Jumeirah sit at 4.5–5.5%, lower yield at a higher entry price.

Should I let long-term or short-term?

For an owner starting from abroad, long-term is usually simpler: an annual contract, predictable income, little admin. Short-term letting can earn more in the best locations, but it comes with more work, higher costs, and a separate license.