Your real estate agent in Dubai

What a real estate agent does in Dubai

In Dubai, a real estate agent is a regulated professional. The agent connects buyers, sellers and developers, presents properties, negotiates, prepares the official paperwork and follows the transaction until it is registered at the Dubai Land Department. An agent never collects the price of the property: the money follows channels set by law.

In practice, this is what I do for a buyer:

• Listen to your project: rental income, a family home, a Golden Visa, passing assets on, and the real budget with every fee included.
• Find the right properties, off-plan or ready, and set aside those that do not fit, even when they are fashionable.
• Compare with the real market: the sales registered with the DLD in the same building or the same community.
• Organise viewings, as a narrated video call or in person.
• Negotiate and reserve, then read the contract with you before anything is signed.
• Follow the registration with the DLD, the instalments, the handover and, if you wish, the letting.

Off-plan or ready: two different jobs

On an off-plan purchase, the agent helps you choose the project, the unit and the payment plan, then checks that the project is registered with RERA and has the escrow account required by Law No. 8 of 2007. The sale is then recorded in Oqood, the DLD's interim register.

On a ready property, the work is about the seller's title deed, the service charge position, any mortgage still running, then the RERA memorandum of understanding and the transfer at a DLD-approved trustee office. I describe both routes in buying off-plan in Dubai and buying a resale property.

What an agent costs the buyer

It is a fair question, and the answer fits in two lines. On an off-plan purchase, the agency commission is paid by the developer: you pay the developer's price, with nothing added. On a resale, it is usually 2% of the price.

In every case, the amounts are written down before you commit. The other costs are those of the government and the parties involved: 4% of the price for the Dubai Land Department, fixed administrative fees and the trustee office's fee. The full list is in Dubai property buying costs.

How to check a Dubai real estate agent in five minutes

Do it with me as with anyone else. These checks are public and free:

• The agent's name in the list of RERA-licensed brokers
• Their card number with the RERA card verification service (mine: BRN 83239)
• Their brokerage in the list of licensed brokerage companies (Cevitas Real Estate: ORN 49294)
• The permit of each listing with the licence and permit verification service

And one simple rule: never pay for a property into an agent's personal account. The deeper checks, project and developer included, are on my page as a licensed Moroccan broker and in how to check a developer in Dubai.

A short selection, not a catalogue

I do not send you fifty listings. I present three or four properties I can stand behind, each with its documents, its total cost and a clear exit logic: who would rent it, who would buy it from you later, and at what kind of price according to registered sales. If none of them fits, I tell you so, and we wait for the right one.

Before any shortlist, I ask what the property must do for you in five or ten years. A studio near a metro line and a family villa in a quieter community answer different goals; the right choice depends on yours, not on what is selling fastest this month. My overview of Dubai neighbourhoods by investment goal shows how I think about it.

Working with me from abroad

Most of my clients do not live in Dubai. Viewings take place by video, documents are exchanged online and an off-plan contract is usually signed electronically. A ready property can be transferred by a representative holding a power of attorney. Many buyers only come for the handover. The full mechanics are in buying in Dubai remotely.

I work in French, Darija, Arabic and English. Official documents remain in English and Arabic; I explain them in your language before every signature. If you are Moroccan, in Morocco or abroad, read real estate agent in Dubai for Moroccans and MREs; if you prefer to work in French, see my French-speaking support in Dubai.

Where to start

The simplest start is a free 30-minute call: you describe your situation, I tell you what is possible, in what order and what it really costs. For the full picture of the market, read investing in Dubai real estate, and for what I offer step by step, see my services.