Renting Property in Dubai: Step by Step

This guide covers all residential tenancies in Dubai, furnished or unfurnished, signing new or renewing. It applies to standard fixed-term leases registered via Ejari; short-stay/hotel-style bookings run under different rules.

Reviewed against Dubai Land Department (DLD) and RERA public guidance current as of September 2026.

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Before you sign

Sort these out before you commit to a unit — several of them affect what you'll actually pay.

What's the security deposit, and how is it protected?

Dubai's tenancy law (RERA's governing statute) doesn't set a fixed percentage for the deposit — it only requires the landlord to refund it, or the remainder of it, once the tenancy ends. In practice, 5% of annual rent for an unfurnished unit and 10% for a furnished one is the figure recognised as the market norm by RERA and consistently applied in Rental Dispute Centre rulings, so a landlord asking for meaningfully more than that would likely lose that argument if challenged. Since this unit is furnished, expect the 10% figure, and make sure a proper inventory list is attached to your contract before you sign — that same list is what a landlord checks the unit against when you move out, so it's what protects you against being blamed for damage or missing items that were never actually there.Since this unit is unfurnished, expect the 5% figure — if you're asked for meaningfully more, that's worth questioning directly. The law doesn't set a fixed refund deadline either, but landlords are commonly expected to return it within a reasonable time (often cited as around 30 days) after the tenancy ends, deducting only for damage beyond normal wear and tear, not anything already itemised as pre-existing. If a landlord sits on it well past that, the Rental Dispute Centre is where you'd raise it — filing costs 3.5% of the amount you're claiming, minimum AED 500 — for a deposit/money claim like this the cap is AED 15,000 (it's higher for eviction or rent-level disputes) — with half refunded if the case settles at conciliation rather than going to a full hearing.

I don't have an Emirates ID yet — can I still sign and register?

Yes. A valid UAE entry permit or residence visa page can be used in place of an Emirates ID for signing the tenancy contract and, in many cases, for Ejari registration — you don't need to wait until your Emirates ID is issued. Keep in mind GDRFA/ICP visa services commonly ask for a registered Ejari certificate as proof of address when processing residence visas, so there's a genuine two-way dependency here: you need the visa page to register Ejari, and you'll likely need Ejari to finish your visa process. Ask your agent or landlord exactly what they'll accept before you commit to a specific unit — and if you're renewing rather than signing fresh, the same substitution applies to re-registering Ejari if your Emirates ID still hasn't come through.

Is there anything landlords or agents definitely can't do?

A few bad practices worth knowing before you're in the room: holding onto your passport as a condition of renting is widely reported as improper and something you shouldn't accept — if anyone connected to the deal asks to keep it, decline and offer a copy instead. Charging a fee just to view a unit isn't legitimate. And an agent collecting commission from both you and the landlord on the same deal without disclosing it to both sides is exactly the kind of practice RERA has targeted — ask directly who's paying the agent, and how much, before you commit.

Who's responsible for maintenance and repairs?

Under Law No. 26 of 2007, Article 16, the landlord is responsible for maintenance and repairs by default, unless the tenancy contract says otherwise. In practice, most contracts split responsibility by a cost threshold — commonly AED 500, sometimes AED 1,000 in newer contracts — where anything below that line becomes the tenant's problem. What's actually written in your specific contract can differ meaningfully from the legal default, so it's worth a proper read before you sign, not once something breaks.

What if I need to leave before the contract ends?

Neither side can unilaterally break a signed tenancy contract mid-term — you need the landlord's agreement, or a genuine legal ground (like the property becoming unsafe or the landlord seriously breaching the contract). There's no fixed legal penalty for a tenant-initiated early exit; it's negotiated, with 1–3 months' rent as the commonly-cited market range (2 months is the figure you'll see most often). Some contracts include their own early-termination clause with its own notice period and fee, which then takes priority over ad-hoc negotiation — check for one before you sign, since it's far easier to agree terms upfront than after you already need to leave.

Can I sublet, or take in a roommate?

Not without the landlord's written consent — Article 24 of Law No. 26 of 2007 requires it, and subletting without consent is itself a valid ground for eviction under Article 25. If you think you might want to share the unit or bring in another occupant later, it's worth raising with the landlord and getting it agreed in writing at signing, rather than assuming a verbal understanding will hold up later.

Signing a new tenancy

Here's what actually happens, and roughly how long each part tends to take — padded generously, since delays are more common than a perfectly smooth run.

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View & make an offer

Varies — market dependent

1 Find a unit and negotiate

Once you've agreed terms verbally, you may be asked for a reservation or holding deposit — often around 5% of the annual rent, but this varies by agent/landlord — to take the unit off the market while the contract is prepared. This is separate from the security deposit you'll pay later at signing (the 10% figure, since this unit is furnishedthe 5% figure, since this unit is unfurnished — a different deposit, for a different purpose) — ask explicitly whether the reservation amount will be credited against your security deposit and first rent payment, or is additional money on top. Read exactly what happens to this deposit if you back out before signing too: RERA doesn't set a universal rule on refundability here — it's contract-specific, and often structured as non-refundable in that case, which is worth knowing upfront, not discovering afterward.

You'll need

A reservation/holding deposit, if requested — confirm the amount and refund terms in writing before paying

Get it reviewed

Allow 1–3 days at this stage

Recommended before you sign the tenancy contract

Before you sign, get an independent, plain-English read on the maintenance clause, the renewal notice terms, and the deposit conditions. A year-long commitment is easy to sign quickly under pressure to secure the unit — this is the point where a fast, independent check is worth the most.

Get a Realcheck review →

Sign the Unified Tenancy Contract

Same day

2 Sign the Unified Tenancy Contract

For standard residential leases, landlords use RERA's Unified Tenancy Contract template and must register the lease via Ejari. Before signing, check the maintenance clause and threshold, the renewal notice period, and the security deposit amount against what's actually being asked of you.

You'll need

Passport and Emirates ID
Passport and visa page (Emirates ID not required at this stage)
Proof of income or an employment letter, if the landlord/agent asks for one
If you're adding other occupiers (spouse, children, roommates), the landlord/agent may ask for their passport/visa copies too

Pay the deposit & rent

Same day

3 Pay the deposit and rent

Rent is typically paid via post-dated cheques (commonly 1–4 cheques per year) or increasingly by bank transfer, plus the refundable security deposit. If an agent is involved, the commission is usually a separate cheque again, payable to the agent's company, not bundled with what you're paying the landlord. If you're paying by cheque, make sure the funds are actually there on the date it clears — since 2022, and still the current rule today, a bounced rent cheque in the UAE is mainly a civil enforcement matter (the landlord can pursue direct court enforcement, asset freezes, and travel bans), with criminal liability now reserved for bad-faith cases like a closed or frozen account, so it's still a real problem, just not an automatic criminal one.

You'll need

A UAE bank account for post-dated cheques, if that's how the landlord wants to be paid
The security deposit and first rent payment
A separate cheque for agent commission, if one was used

Register Ejari

Same day to a few days

4 Register Ejari — this is mandatory, not optional

Ejari is RERA's official tenancy registration system, and registration is mandatory for every residential and commercial lease under Law No. 26 of 2007, as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008. Without it, you can't activate DEWA utilities, apply for a residence visa tied to the property, or access the Rental Dispute Centre if something goes wrong.

Who's responsible: the landlord is responsible for ensuring Ejari is registered, though RERA rules allow this to be delegated to the agent, a property manager, or the tenant. Confirm at signing who's actually doing it — this is a common source of move-in delays. If it stalls and nobody else acts, you can initiate registration yourself through the Dubai REST app, but it still needs the landlord's approval and title deed details to complete — they get a notification to approve digitally, and the request auto-cancels if they don't respond within 5 days (the same auto-cancel window DLD applies elsewhere in the Ejari system). If they're refusing outright, that's when you'd escalate to the Rental Dispute Centre.

Registration can be done through the Dubai REST app or at a RERA-approved typing/trustee centre. It isn't free either way, but the channel changes the price: online via Dubai REST/DLD it's roughly AED 178 all-in (AED 100 registration + AED 10 knowledge fee + AED 10 innovation fee + a AED 55 service-partner fee, plus 5% VAT on the fee components); at a typing/trustee centre it's closer to AED 220, since an in-person centre charges a higher service-partner fee for the same registration.

You'll need

The signed tenancy contract
Your Emirates ID and passport
Your passport and visa page (Emirates ID not required at this stage)
The landlord's title deed, or a prior Ejari certificate for the unit — your landlord or agent provides this
The property's DEWA premises number — ask your landlord or agent; it's on a prior DEWA bill or the title deed

Get your certificate & move in

Often same day

5 Get your Ejari certificate, connect DEWA, and move in

Once submitted, the certificate is typically issued quickly — often within a day if done online and your documents are in order. With Ejari in hand, you can set up your DEWA (utilities) account and any other services that require proof of tenancy.

You'll need

Your Ejari certificate
Passport/Emirates ID copy for the DEWA application
Passport and visa page for the DEWA application (Emirates ID not required at this stage)
A security deposit for DEWA itself (separate from your tenancy deposit)

Renewing your tenancy

Renewal runs on a much shorter, deadline-driven track — the main risk isn't a complicated process, it's missing the notice window entirely. Durations below are padded generously.

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Check the rent increase calculator

A few minutes

1 Check any proposed increase against the official calculator

Before agreeing to any new rent figure, check it against the official RERA Rental Increase Calculator — it compares your current rent to the average for similar units in your area and tells you the maximum legal increase, if any, based on the banded percentages (0/5/10/15/20%, rising with how far below the area average your current rent sits) set by Decree No. 43 of 2013 (still in force). Whatever your renewal clause says about future increases, the real increase is still capped by law regardless — vague contract wording doesn't override that.

You'll need

The calculator result for your area/unit type, before agreeing to any figure

Get it reviewed

Allow 1–3 days at this stage

Recommended before the 90-day deadline

Before you agree to renewal terms — or decide to give notice instead — get an independent, plain-English read on what's actually changed from your original contract and whether the new figure and terms genuinely hold up. Worth doing early, not in the final days before your notice deadline.

Get a Realcheck review →

The 90-day notice window

90 days before expiry

2 Understand what happens if nobody gives notice

Under Law No. 26 of 2007, Article 14, either party must give at least 90 days' written notice before the contract expires to change the rent or terms, or — on the tenant's side — to simply not renew. This is the legal minimum, not just a convention — check your own contract for the exact wording, since some specify longer. Note this cuts differently by direction: as the tenant, 90 days' notice is all you need to walk away. A landlord who wants you out is held to a stricter standard — they can't just decide not to renew on 90 days' notice alone; see the next step for what's actually required of them.

The automatic-renewal trap: if neither side gives valid notice within that 90-day window, the tenancy automatically renews on the same terms under the law — even if you've already decided to leave but never formally said so. In practice, tenants who vacate and cancel DEWA without giving formal written notice have found the tenancy treated as still active at the Rental Dispute Centre until proper notice is given and keys are handed back. If you intend to leave, give written notice and hand back the keys formally — don't just assume vacating is enough.

You'll need

Written notice sent at least 90 days before expiry, if you want to change terms or not renew — regardless of which direction you're going

If the landlord wants you out

12 months' notice required

3 Know your rights if the landlord wants vacant possession

A landlord can't simply decide not to renew because they'd prefer a different tenant. Under Law No. 26 of 2007, Article 25, valid legal grounds are limited — commonly personal use by the landlord or their immediate family, a genuine sale of the property, or major renovation — and each requires at least 12 months' written notice served through a Notary Public or registered mail, not just a conversation or a text message. If you're asked to leave with less notice than that, or without one of these genuine grounds being stated, that's worth challenging, not just accepting.

"A landlord can't simply decide not to renew because they'd prefer a different tenant."
— per Law No. 26 of 2007, Article 25

You'll need

The actual notarised or registered-mail notice, not a verbal or informal request — confirm it states a valid legal ground

Confirm and re-register

Same day to a few days

4 Confirm the renewed terms and update Ejari

Once you and the landlord agree the renewal terms, get the new figure and any changed clauses confirmed in writing, then renew your Ejari registration to match — an expired Ejari certificate can cause the same DEWA/visa problems as never having registered in the first place. If your Emirates ID still hasn't come through, your visa page substitutes for it here too, the same as at first registration. If your rent has gone up, remember the security deposit is a percentage of annual rent, not a fixed sum — a landlord can reasonably ask you to top it up in line with the new figure, so factor that into your renewal budget alongside the rent increase itself.

You'll need

Written confirmation of the new rent and terms
Your Emirates ID and passport
Your passport and visa page (Emirates ID not required at this stage)
Renewed Ejari registration, matching the new contract dates

Ongoing costs

Beyond the rent itself, a few recurring costs are easy to underestimate when budgeting.

DEWA — your electricity and water bill, billed monthly based on how much you use, plus a separate refundable security deposit to open the account — commonly around AED 2,000 for an apartment and AED 4,000 for a villa as a refundable security deposit; the exact amount can vary by property type and is returned when you close the account and settle final bills.
The "chiller" bill (air conditioning) — many Dubai buildings and communities use district cooling instead of a unit tied to your own electricity meter — a separate monthly bill from a cooling company (Empower, Tabreed, or Emicool are the main ones), not from DEWA. Ask exactly how cooling is billed for your specific unit before you sign, and ask to see a recent bill if it's occupied — it's often the biggest bill spike in summer. Ask for both the fixed capacity charge (per RT) and the variable consumption charge (per RTh) so you can compare units properly.
Internet — a separate monthly bill from du or Etisalat/e&, usually a fixed monthly cost regardless of usage.
Contents insurance — covers your own belongings, not the property itself, which isn't your responsibility to insure as a tenant. Optional, but worth having given you don't own the fixtures you're protected by.

This is general orientation, not legal advice, and not a substitute for advice from a licensed conveyancer or lawyer. The 90-day notice rule, the automatic-renewal provision, the maintenance-responsibility default, and the 12-month vacant-possession notice grounds were checked directly against Law No. 26 of 2007 (as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008) via the Dubai Legislation Portal, Articles 14, 16, and 25. The legal rent-increase cap is checked against Decree No. 43 of 2013 (the RERA rent-increase bands), applied via the official RERA Rental Increase Calculator. Ejari's mandatory-registration requirement is checked against Law No. 26 of 2007/33 of 2008 as stated in the Dubai Land Department's own Tenancy Guide; Ejari document requirements for new arrivals against Dubai Land Department guidance; the Ejari registration fee breakdown is checked directly against the Dubai Land Department's Ejari registration/renewal e-service page (dubailand.gov.ae); the bounced-cheque decriminalisation is checked against Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2020 (in force since 2 January 2022), which removed criminal liability for an insufficient-funds cheque except where the account was closed, emptied, or frozen in bad faith. The security deposit's 5%/10% figures and the ~30-day refund expectation are not fixed statutory rules: Article 20 of Law No. 26 of 2007 requires refund on expiry but sets no percentage or deadline, so these are stated as market convention recognised by RERA and reflected in Rental Dispute Centre practice, not as law. The Rental Dispute Centre's treatment of tenancies where tenants vacate without formal written notice is described in general terms in public guidance and press reporting; specific case citations are not provided here. Other market conventions (reservation deposit percentage, agent commission handling, maintenance-cost threshold, the DEWA security deposit amounts, and the Rental Dispute Centre filing fee) are checked against current broker/practice/service-provider sources rather than regulation, and flagged as such above rather than stated as fixed rules. Fees, notice periods, and requirements can change — verify current figures with RERA, the Dubai Land Department, or the Rental Dispute Centre before relying on anything here. Realcheck reviews the actual documents in your tenancy; it does not replace independent legal advice.