Renting out your Dubai property from abroad: a tenant or a holiday home

We are a Dubai brokerage (RERA ORN 62268). We earn a commission when you buy, and when a client takes a mortgage through a mortgage company we work with, that company pays us a small referral commission once the loan is issued. From how you let, we earn nothing: we do not let or manage property, and we recommend no manager or operator. Every rule on this page comes from the law or the official body that sets or publishes it: Dubai’s and the UAE’s laws, the Land Department, the Department of Economy and Tourism, the Rental Disputes Centre, DEWA, the Central Bank and the UAE’s tax authority. Market figures carry the name of whoever published them; the list of sources gives each date. We read them all on 12 October 2026. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

The short version

• Two ways to let, two sets of rules. A tenant on a lease registered in the Land Department’s Ejari system; or guests for nights, weeks or months, in a holiday home that holds a permit from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). From abroad, the practical way is a licensed company: a property manager for a lease, a holiday home operator for guests.
• A lease binds you for its term. Neither side can end it alone. The rent can change only at renewal, after at least 90 days’ notice, and only within the limits of Dubai’s rent decree. At the end of a lease you can take the flat back only to sell it, to live in it yourself or house a first-degree relative if you own no other suitable home, or to demolish or renovate it, with 12 months’ notice through a notary public or by registered post.
• A holiday home needs a licence, a permit for the unit, and someone in Dubai. DET’s published process asks an individual owner for an Emirates ID to register, so an owner abroad without one should plan on a licensed operator. Every guest must be checked in on DET’s system within three hours of arriving.
• You pay the service charge either way. On a lease, the tenant pays electricity, water and the 5% municipality housing fee. In a holiday home, the bills are not the guests’ to pay: you pay them, with the furniture, the insurance and the operator’s commission, 15% to 25% of bookings by Property Finder’s account.
• 2026 changed the numbers. After the war involving Iran began in late February, holiday homes lost much of their business, and in May Dubai announced an exemption from their permit and licence fees. Rents on new leases have fallen since February, while renewals held.
• On our example, a holiday home needs guests to pay about AED 154,000 a year. A one-bedroom flat in Business Bay let for AED 100,000 a year leaves its owner about AED 71,000 after costs. Let through an operator as a holiday home, its guests would have to pay about AED 154,000 a year for their nights to leave the same. In the year to September 2026, the average Dubai listing took less. These are our sums, on the assumptions shown below.
• Tax. In the UAE, an individual’s rent from a lease is outside corporate tax. A holiday home under a permit in your own name counts as a licensed business, taxed only once your business turnover in the UAE passes AED 1 million a year. If a licensed operator holds the permit, it depends on the facts: ask a tax adviser. At home, your country may tax the rent: see the guide for your country below.

Two ways to let, side by side

A long let

The lease and Ejari

One contract, registered. Leases in Dubai use the Land Department’s unified tenancy contract; extra terms go in an addendum signed by both sides, and a term that conflicts with the law does not count. Every lease, and every change to it, must be registered, in Ejari: AED 177.75 online, AED 220 at a trustee centre. In the unified contract it is the landlord who undertakes to register it; a tenant can start the registration, but the landlord must approve it. A lease of less than a year can be registered too. Once the lease is registered, DEWA opens the tenant’s electricity and water account, and the tenant pays DEWA’s deposit, AED 2,000 for a flat.

From abroad. An owner who does not live in the UAE can register as a user of the Ejari system with a passport, in place of an Emirates ID. The Land Department says an owner abroad can approve through its Dubai REST app, if the contact details it holds are up to date, or appoint a representative of a management company to sign for them. A power of attorney signed abroad must be certified by a notary, by your country’s foreign ministry, by the UAE embassy there and finally by the UAE’s foreign ministry, and then translated into Arabic: see Power of attorney and Attestation. Name in it what it covers (signing leases, Ejari, DEWA, the tenant’s deposit, the Rental Disputes Centre, DET), give it an end date, and say who receives the money: see If you own a property and live abroad.

A manager. Managing other people’s property is a licensed activity in Dubai, and a management company registers its contract with you at the Land Department, free of charge: ask to see that registration. The common fee is 5% to 8% of the year’s rent, Property Finder writes. Allsopp & Allsopp, a Dubai brokerage, publishes 7% with a minimum of AED 7,000, or 9% with a minimum of AED 9,000, plus VAT. Ask whether the fee is on the rent agreed or the rent collected, up to what amount the manager may order repairs without asking you, and what it charges to find a tenant and to renew a lease. The agent who finds the tenant is usually paid by the tenant: 5% of a year’s rent, at least AED 5,000, plus VAT, Property Finder writes. The Land Department says only that the commission is what was agreed, or else what is customary.

Rent, deposit and payment

For a new lease, the rent is what you agree. The Land Department’s Smart Rental Index, launched in January 2025, rates each building by its construction, finishes, location and services. For a new lease it “is indicative and is not mandatory”. You can look up the average rent for an area and a size in the Land Department’s Rental Index service, on its website or in the Dubai REST app; see also Smart Rental Index.

The deposit. The law lets a landlord take a security deposit and requires its refund when the lease ends; if repairs cost more than the deposit, the tenant pays the rest. It sets no amount. In practice it is 5% of the year’s rent for an unfurnished flat and 10% for a furnished one, Property Finder writes. The deposit covers only damage you can show: have a condition report with dated photos made at the start of each lease, signed by the tenant. Cleaning and repainting after a tenant leaves are usually the owner’s cost, as a matter of custom, the Rental Disputes Centre says.

Payment. The law leaves the way of paying to the lease. One to four post-dated cheques a year are common, Property Finder writes. A cheque has to be paid into a UAE bank account: see Do you need a UAE bank account?. If a manager collects the rent, agree in the contract how often it pays you, into which account and in which currency, who pays the transfer costs, and who holds the tenant’s deposit. The dirham is pegged to the US dollar, so in euros or pounds your rent moves with the dollar: see the currency section of the guide for buyers from Germany or from the UK.

Who pays what

• The service charge: you, unless the lease says otherwise; and if a tenant who agreed to pay it does not, you still owe it.
• Electricity, water, cooling and gas: the tenant, unless agreed otherwise in writing. Who pays for air conditioning depends on the contract, the Land Department says.
• The municipality’s housing fee, 5% of the year’s rent, added to the DEWA bill: the tenant.
• Maintenance and repairs that affect the tenant’s use of the flat: you, unless agreed otherwise; the tenant must take the care of an ordinary person.
• Government fees for using the property: the tenant, unless the lease says otherwise.

Raising the rent

Only at renewal, and only with notice. Either side that wants to change the rent or another term must tell the other at least 90 days before the lease ends; if they cannot agree, the Rental Disputes Centre can set a fair rent. The rule works both ways: at renewal the tenant can ask for a lower rent, with the same notice. If nobody objects, the lease renews on the same terms, for the same period or for a year, whichever is shorter.

Within the decree’s limits. Dubai’s rent decree caps the increase by how far the rent is below the average for similar units in the Land Department’s index:

When landlord and tenant disagree at renewal, the index is binding.

Getting the flat back

During the lease, neither side can end it alone, unless both agree. You can ask for an eviction only on the grounds the law lists: among them, rent still unpaid 30 days after you served a notice; subletting without your written consent; illegal use; serious damage; or another breach of the lease not put right within 30 days of a notice. The notice goes through a notary public or by registered post.

If the tenant wants to leave early, the law gives no right to that either. Unless the lease provides for it, ending it early is a matter for agreement, the Land Department says. Put it in the addendum: how much notice the tenant gives, and what the tenant pays.

At the end of the lease, only four grounds count. You want to sell. You, or a first-degree relative, will live there, and you own no other suitable property. The building is to be demolished. Or it needs renovation that cannot be done with the tenant in it. For the last two, you need the permits or a Dubai Municipality report. You must give at least 12 months’ notice before the date the tenant is to leave, through a notary public or by registered post. To take it back to sell, the Land Department asks you to show that the sale is real. If you take it back to live in yourself or for a relative, you may not let it to anyone else for two years.

A sale does not end a lease that has a fixed term: the buyer takes the flat with the tenant in it. The new owner may not raise the deposit, and must give the tenant a statement of it. Agree in the sale contract, Form F, how the rent the tenant has already paid, and the deposit, pass to the buyer. What that means for a buyer: If the property is let.

Older buildings. Under a 2026 law on building quality and safety, an owner must obtain a safety certificate once a building is 20 years old. If the inspection report requires works first, the occupants must leave within three months of its approval, and may come back afterwards at the same rent; in a building that does not comply, the registration of leases can be suspended.

If the tenant does not pay

The Rental Disputes Centre (RDC) decides disputes between landlords and tenants. A claim costs 3.5% of the year’s rent, at least AED 500 and at most AED 20,000, plus small fees; carrying out an eviction costs a further 1% of the year’s rent, at most AED 5,000. For unpaid rent alone, you can ask the RDC for a writ of payment instead of bringing a full claim. It too needs a notice through a notary public or by registered post first, and it costs 3.5% of the sum claimed, at least AED 500 and at most AED 15,000.

Since 2 January 2022, a cheque returned for lack of funds is no longer a crime in itself: the holder can take it straight to the execution judge, and the RDC has a service for rent cheques that bounce. From abroad, you will need a representative with a power of attorney registered at the RDC: a claim asks for an Emirates ID, and every document must be in Arabic or legally translated into it.

A holiday home

Who may run one

A licence for the activity, a permit for each unit. Anyone who lets holiday homes regularly needs a licence from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), formerly the DTCM; an individual can hold one, and every unit needs its own permit. DET’s guide has two routes: operators, which are licensed companies, and individual owners, who may hold up to eight permits at a time. A parent, child or spouse may register the unit, in the owner’s name.

If you live abroad. Dubai’s 2020 bylaw accepts the owner’s passport or Emirates ID for a permit, but DET’s published step for an individual owner to register in its system names only a “Copy of Emirates ID of individual property owner”. Without an Emirates ID, plan on a licensed operator. It registers with its own trade licence and applies for the permit with your title deed, a copy of your passport and your authorisation on DET’s form. Ask DET whether it now registers owners by passport before you plan to run it yourself.

If you hold a UAE residence visa, a Golden Visa through the property for example, you have an Emirates ID and can register with DET yourself: see Getting a Golden Visa through Dubai property. Either way, someone has to receive each guest, check their documents and record them in DET’s system within three hours; in practice, that means someone in Dubai.

What the unit needs

• The right kind of unit. A title deed for residential use; not a hotel room or hotel apartment; and a sale and purchase agreement that does not explicitly rule out holiday-home use. A hotel apartment is let through the hotel’s operator instead: see How a guarantee actually works.
• Bought off-plan? You can let it only once it is handed over, and DET asks for a copy of the title deed, which may wait for your last instalment: see After handover: the keys before the title deed.
• A DEWA bill for the unit, in the owner’s or the licensee’s name.
• Insurance: a comprehensive policy from an insurer licensed in Dubai, covering damage guests suffer, valid for the whole licence.
• A smart lock approved by SIRA, Dubai’s security regulator, and the unit’s DET QR code under the DEWA plaque at the door.
• A class, standard or deluxe, set against DET’s checklist after an inspection, and safety equipment in both: fire extinguisher, fire blanket, first aid kit, and emergency numbers in Arabic and English, around the clock.

The building. The bylaw obliges developers, the owners of jointly owned buildings and management firms to “enable Licensees to conduct the Activity”, and DET tells building management to let licensees and their guests in; it may view guests’ passports at check-in. If building management and the operator disagree, DET says the guest “must be admitted to the Unit without delay” and the dispute settled later. A sale and purchase agreement that forbids holiday homes rules the unit out: read yours before you buy.

Running it

• Every guest checked in and out on DET’s Holiday Homes 2.0 system within three hours of entering, and guest records kept for at least three years.
• DET allows at most two adults and two children under 14 per master bedroom or studio, and two adults and one child per further bedroom.
• The whole unit, not rooms or bed spaces. Under a law of March 2026, a unit may be used for shared housing only with a permit of its own.
• The permit number in every advert, in print and online.
• A permit for a year. It does not renew itself: the renewal opens 30 days before it expires, and a permit not renewed in that window lapses.
• Stays of any length: the decree lets holiday homes take guests “on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis”, and DET’s guest check-in document is valid for up to three months, and can be renewed.

Fees and fines

The Tourism Dirham is collected from guests and paid to DET by the 15th of the following month. DET’s guide charges it for every bedroom of the unit for each night, however many guests stay. Paying it late costs 10% of what is unpaid, at least AED 1,000.

Letting holiday homes without a licence is fined AED 5,000, letting one without DET’s approval AED 2,000; a repeat within a year doubles the fine, up to AED 100,000.

An operator

Operators publish their commission: Frank Porter 17% for full management, GuestReady from 18%, plus a one-off onboarding fee; 15% to 25% of bookings is the range Property Finder gives. Furnishing is extra: GuestReady’s packages start at AED 33,000 for a one-bedroom flat, with what it calls the mandatory DTCM items; a DET-approved smart lock (AED 1,296) and large appliances (AED 8,900) cost extra. During the permit, you may use the flat only as agreed with the operator; cancelling a permit costs AED 70. Before you sign, get in writing:

• who holds the permit;
• who invoices the guests and accounts for VAT;
• who pays the Tourism Dirham to DET;
• who holds the DEWA account;
• when you may use the flat yourself;
• what it costs to leave.

What 2026 changed

Holiday homes. The war involving Iran, which began on 28 February 2026 (see Is Dubai property in a bubble?), cut hotel and holiday home stays sharply. Dubai’s hotels were 36% occupied in March; in August they were at 66%, 89% of the level a year earlier, DET’s figures show. In the second quarter, revenue per available room (RevPAR) in Dubai’s holiday homes fell 46.5% on the year, according to the short-term rental index of First Class Property Management, an operator. Its index showed 47.7% occupancy at an average of AED 373 a night in that quarter, and a typical stay of six nights, up from five a year earlier. In early September, AirDNA, a data provider, saw booked nights across the UAE for the third quarter about 13% behind 2025, with fewer listings and higher nightly rates.

Relief. On 30 March Dubai approved letting hotels postpone paying over the Tourism Dirham, the fee guests pay per night, for three months from 1 April. On 2 April it said the measures cover “all hospitality establishments, including hotels, hotel apartments, and holiday homes”. On 21 May it announced an “exemption from permit and licence fees for holiday homes”. It also announced an exemption from collecting “the Tourism Dirham and the sales fees on hotel rooms and restaurants”, without saying whether that covers holiday homes. The measures run for three to 12 months, “with the timeline for each initiative to be announced by the respective government entity”. We found no notice from DET of the dates. Ask DET, or your operator, what you pay today.

Long lets. Rents on new leases have eased since February, while renewals held. Khaleej Times, reporting new studies by UBP and CBRE, put rents on new contracts 4.8% below their February peak, and renewals 3.1% higher. fäm Properties, from Land Department data, found new leases in the same building and unit type 15.3% cheaper than in January, and renewals only about 1% lower. So a tenant who renews now pays more than a new tenant in a similar flat would.

One flat, both ways

The flat. A one-bedroom flat of 750 sq ft in Business Bay. As a long let, AED 100,000 a year: Bayut’s average asking rent for a mid-tier one-bedroom flat there was AED 104,000 in the first half of 2026, and new leases have eased since. The service charge at AED 15 per sq ft: Driven Properties gives AED 14.75 as an indicative 2026 rate for Business Bay; your building’s approved rate is in the Land Department’s Service Charge Index. A manager at 7%, at least AED 7,000, plus VAT. An operator at 17% plus VAT, after Airbnb’s share: 15.5% for most hosts. Furniture at AED 33,000 and a smart lock at AED 1,296, written off over five years.

What the guests must pay a night. About AED 154,000 a year is AED 843 a night at 50% occupancy, AED 702 at 60% and AED 602 at 70%, before VAT, the Tourism Dirham and any cleaning fee.

The lease side moves it too. If the tenant renews and the flat is never empty, the guests must pay about AED 166,000. If you pay a month’s rent to find each new tenant, about AED 142,000. If the flat lets for AED 90,000, with a month empty, about AED 141,000. At an operator’s commission of 25% instead of 17%, about AED 171,000.

Against what the market showed. AirDNA’s average Dubai listing, of any size, took about USD 37,200 in the twelve months to September 2026, about AED 136,600, before the host’s costs, and including cleaning and other fees guests paid. In the second quarter of 2026, First Class’s index showed AED 373 a night at 47.7% occupancy, about AED 65,000 a year at that pace; the same quarter a year earlier, before the war, works out at about AED 121,000 by our calculation from the index’s published fall. The second quarter is quieter than the winter even in a normal year. Still, on these figures the average Dubai holiday home took less than our flat would need, in 2026 and in that quarter before the war. A well-run one in a busy area can do better in a strong winter. A lease kept paying through the war, and leaves you less to watch from abroad.

Tax in the UAE, and at home

A lease. For an individual, rent from property you hold privately is real estate investment income, which corporate tax leaves out, as long as you neither let it through a licence nor need one to let it. Ejari is an administrative record, not a licence.

A holiday home. The UAE’s tax authority treats a DET permit in your own name as a licence: letting holiday homes under it is a business, and an individual’s business activities are taxed only once their total turnover passes AED 1 million in a calendar year. The authority’s guide gives no example of an operator holding the permit. It says only that income received through an intermediary, such as an agent or a property management company, “can qualify” for the investment exclusion, “depending on the exact facts and circumstances”.

VAT. Letting a home is exempt when the lease runs for more than six months or the tenant holds an Emirates ID, but a “serviced apartment or the like” does not count as a home. Short stays by guests without an Emirates ID point to VAT at 5%. Someone who does not live in the UAE must register for VAT, with no threshold, when no one else in the UAE has to pay the tax on those supplies. Whether that is you or your operator depends on your contract: get it in writing, and ask a tax adviser.

At home, your country may tax the rent, or in the Netherlands the property itself: see the guides for buyers from Germany, from the UK, from Ireland, from the Netherlands and as a US citizen. Every cost of letting, with who pays it: Letting it out.

Switching, empty months and short stays

From a tenant to a holiday home, you wait for the lease to end, and the tenant may not have to leave: wanting to let the flat to guests is not one of the four grounds for taking it back. If the tenant stays and nobody objects, the lease renews. The tenant can always agree to leave: a lease can end at any time by mutual consent. Taking the flat back to live in yourself and then letting it to guests counts as letting it to others: the law bars that for two years, and the tenant can claim compensation.

From a holiday home to a tenant, cancel the permit and register a lease in Ejari.

Short stays. Longer stays grew in 2026. Across the market the typical stay was still about six nights, but at First Class, an operator, stays of 29 nights or more made up nearly 70% of the nights booked in its own portfolio. Letting furnished flats to visitors again and again is DET’s licensed activity, whatever the length of stay; before you rely on short leases in Ejari instead of a permit, ask DET. Stays of six months or less, to guests without an Emirates ID, point to VAT at 5%; a lease of more than six months is exempt.

When the flat stands empty, the tenant’s DEWA account ends with the lease. To keep the power and the air conditioning on, open an account in your own name: an owner pays a deposit of AED 2,000, which DEWA refunds only when the flat is sold.

Using the flat yourself. With a tenant, not before the lease ends, then only with 12 months’ notice, and only if you own no other suitable property. With an operator, when your contract allows it.

Claims you will meet, checked

• “You don’t need to live in the UAE to get a holiday home permit.” The bylaw accepts a passport, but DET’s published registration for individual owners asks for an Emirates ID; without one, plan on an operator.
• “You cannot evict a tenant to sell.” You can, at the end of the lease, with 12 months’ notice through a notary public or by registered post.
• “After taking a flat back for your own use, you can let it again after a year.” For a home, after two years. The one year is the 2007 text, which a 2008 law replaced.
• “Holiday homes pay VAT only above AED 375,000 a year.” That threshold is for people who live in the UAE. Someone who does not must register with no threshold, when no one else in the UAE has to account for the tax.
• “You have 24 hours to register guests.” DET’s guide says three hours.
• “Holiday homes earn double a long let.” On our example, guests must pay about AED 154,000 a year to leave you what a lease of AED 100,000 leaves; in the second quarter of 2026, holiday homes’ revenue per available room fell by almost half.
• “Rental income in Dubai is tax-free.” From a lease, for an individual, in the UAE; your own country may still tax it.

Before you let: twelve checks

Questions and answers

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