Renting out your Dubai property: the lease, the rent, the notice, holiday lets and tax

A Dubai lease is governed by Law No. (26) of 2007, as amended by Law No. (33) of 2008. The amendment matters more than its size suggests: it replaced eleven articles of the 2007 law, among them registration, renewal, the grounds for ending a lease and the notice for doing so. The Dubai Legislation Portal still serves only the 2007 text, so the replaced articles below are quoted from the Land Department’s Tenancy Guide, which reprints the 2008 law in full.

Two rules from the 2007 text frame everything else. A valid lease “may not be unilaterally terminated during its term by the Landlord or the Tenant” (Article 7). And it outlives a change of owner: “Transferring the ownership of Real Property to a new owner does not affect the Tenant’s right to continue to occupy the Real Property by virtue of the Lease Contract entered into with the previous owner, provided that such Lease Contract has a fixed term” (Article 28). Nor does it end with a death: “The Lease Contract does not expire upon the death of the Landlord or the Tenant” (Article 27). A buyer of a unit let on a fixed-term lease takes the tenant with it.

Article 4, as replaced in 2008, reads: “All Tenancy Contracts or any amendments to such Tenancy Contracts related to Real Property which are subject to the provisions of this Law will be registered with RERA.” The Tenancy Guide describes Ejari as “an online program developed by RERA for recording tenancy contracts for all types of property in the Emirate of Dubai” and calls registration through it mandatory.

The Land Department’s Register / Renew Tenancy Contract page sets the cost. Through the Dubai REST app or its website it is AED 100 to register the contract, AED 10 each in knowledge and innovation fees and a service partner fee of AED 55 plus AED 2.75 in VAT: AED 177.75 in all. At a real estate services trustee centre the service partner fee is AED 95 plus VAT and the page gives the total as AED 220. At a centre, the applicant must be the tenant or a legal representative with an official power of attorney, and the landlord must be the owner or such a representative; registration through the app requires both tenant and landlord to be individuals. For registration through the Land Department’s system, the page asks that a company be licensed for one of the property management activities, and that an individual owner be the owner of the property and manage it himself.

At renewal either side may propose new terms or a new rent, “whether increasing or decreasing it”, and “Should the Landlord and Tenant fail to reach an agreement, then the Tribunal may determine the fair Rent” (Article 13, as replaced); the Rental Disputes Center, below, now has exclusive jurisdiction over rental disputes. Whoever wants the change must say so in time: “that party must notify the other party of same no less than ninety (90) days prior to the date on which the Tenancy Contract expires”, unless the parties agreed otherwise (Article 14, as replaced).

How much the rent may rise is set by Decree No. (43) of 2013, which applies to every landlord in the emirate, the DIFC and other free zones included. The cap depends on how far the current rent sits below “the average rental value of similar units”, which Article 3 ties to the rent index approved by RERA. The Land Department publishes that index as an online rental index calculator, and the Tenancy Guide says the index “serves as a reference in the event of a dispute between landlords and tenants in determining the rates of increase in rental values.”

During the lease, Article 25(1) as replaced allows eviction “only in the following cases”, the first being a failure to pay the rent within thirty days of a notice to pay. At the end of it, Article 25(2) as replaced lets the landlord seek eviction “only in any of the following cases”: to demolish and reconstruct the property, or add construction that prevents the tenant using it, with the permits in hand; where it needs restoration or comprehensive maintenance that cannot be done with the tenant in it, as a Dubai Municipality report confirms; where the owner wants it for his own use or a first-degree relative’s and proves he has no other suitable property; and “where the owner of the Real Property wishes to sell the leased Real Property.”

The notice is long and formal: “the Landlord must notify the Tenant of the eviction reasons twelve (12) months prior to the date set for eviction, provided that this notice is given through a Notary Public or registered post.” An owner who takes the property back for his own use may not let it to someone else “before the lapse of at least two (2) years from the date of possession of the Real Property by the Landlord in case of residential Real Property”, or three years for other property, unless the Tribunal sets a shorter period (Article 26, as replaced). If you are buying to let and may want to sell with vacant possession, those twelve months belong in the plan from the first lease.

Unless the contract says otherwise, the landlord is responsible during the lease for maintenance works and for repairing any defect or damage that may affect the tenant’s intended use (Article 16), and the tenant must “maintain the Real Property in such a manner as an ordinary person would maintain his own property” (Article 19). Unless the lease says otherwise, the tenant pays the government fees for using the property (Article 22). Article 20 lets the landlord take a security deposit to cover maintenance at the end of the lease, to be refunded in full or in what remains of it; the law sets no amount.

Disputes go to the Rental Disputes Center, established by Decree No. (26) of 2013, which says it “has the exclusive jurisdiction to determine all rental disputes that arise between Landlords and Tenants of Real Property situated in the Emirate, including in free zones”, and puts each claim through its conciliation department before a first instance committee hears it.

Short lets are a separate regime. Decree No. (41) of 2013 says “No natural or legal person may conduct the Activity in the Emirate unless that person is licensed to do so by the DTCM”, the name the decree gives Dubai’s tourism authority, the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, and it reaches the DIFC and the other free zones. The licensee can be an individual or a company, so an owner can hold a licence himself or let through an operator who holds one. A licence runs for one year, renewable, and the authority may grant up to four years on request.

Each unit then needs a permit under the decree’s implementing bylaw, Administrative Resolution No. (1) of 2020. The unit must be in an area where the activity is authorised; it may be an apartment in a building designated for holiday homes, an apartment in a residential building, a house or villa in a compound, or an independent villa. The applicant must prove the right to dispose of the unit, and “The sale and purchase agreement of the real property unit must not include any explicit provision that precludes using the real property unit as a Holiday Home.” A permit is valid for one year, renewable, and its fee is charged on approval. Article 17 obliges developers, owners of jointly owned property and management firms to enable licensees to operate under their licences and permits.

The obligations are a hotel’s in miniature. The decree requires an insurance policy for guests, a subscription to the e-Programme for Hotel and Tourism Establishments, a notice board in each unit, electricity and water without extra charge, and letting units “in whole rather than in part as separate rooms or bed spaces”. The bylaw adds a lease contract with each guest, the occupancy cap in the permit, contact numbers answered around the clock, guest records kept for at least three years, and the permit number in every advertisement. Our branded residence guide covers the buildings whose contracts tie owners to a rental programme instead.

The government portal states it in one line: “The UAE does not levy income tax on individuals.” Corporate tax reaches a natural person only for a business with a turnover above AED 1,000,000 in a calendar year, and Cabinet Decision No. (49) of 2023 takes rent out of that test altogether: real estate investment income is not a business “regardless of the amount of Turnover derived from such activities”, and a person with no business “shall not be required to register for Corporate Tax.” The definition carries a condition. Real estate investment covers the sale, leasing, sub-leasing and renting of land or real estate in the UAE “that is not conducted, or does not require to be conducted through a Licence from a Licensing Authority.” The Federal Tax Authority lists real estate investment income among the income streams that are not a business. Whether letting under a holiday home licence counts as letting through a licence for this purpose is a question no official text we read answers.

VAT follows the use of the building. Article 46 of the VAT Decree-Law exempts the “Supply of residential buildings through sale or lease”, apart from the supplies its Article 45 zero-rates, and the Executive Regulation excludes from a residential building any building used as a hotel and “A hotel apartment or serviced apartment or the like.” If you live abroad, your home country may tax the rent: our UK guide and the other country guides set out how.

The rental yield calculator turns a rent and a price into a yield after the costs above, and the rent or buy calculator runs the other side of the question. If you are still choosing the property, the Dubai off-plan hub lists the projects we track, and for a unit bought off plan our snagging and handover checklist covers the day it is handed over, before any tenant moves in.

Everything below was either not on an official page we could read on 2 October 2026 or would need a reading we did not do, so it is not stated above.

• Law No. (33) of 2008 on the Dubai Legislation Portal, which serves only the 2007 text; we quote the 2008 law from the Land Department’s reprint.
• What happens, under the current text, to a lease that was never registered with Ejari. The 2007 law barred disputes on an unregistered lease; the 2008 wording drops that sentence, and we found no official rule that replaces it.
• Whether a newer rental index has changed how the average rent of similar units is set. We could not open an official announcement of one, and the official pages still list Decree No. (43) of 2013.
• The Rental Disputes Center’s filing fees.
• The tourism authority’s own holiday home pages, which refused our requests, so the current licence and permit fees, any Tourism Dirham and any newer conditions are not here.
• Whether a holiday home licence held by an individual brings the rent inside corporate tax, and how VAT applies to holiday home lettings.
• Owners association or building rules on holiday lets beyond the bylaw’s duty to enable licensees.
• Rents, yields and occupancy, which no official page we read states.