Rent or buy in Dubai: how to actually run the numbers

The comparison people make is monthly rent against a monthly mortgage payment. If the mortgage is lower, buying looks obvious.

It is the wrong comparison, because it ignores the two numbers that actually decide it: what it costs to get in, and what it costs to get out.

The entry cost

Buying in Dubai costs roughly 6.5% to 7% of the purchase price in fees if you pay cash, and 7.5% to 9% if you finance. The 4% Dubai Land Department transfer fee is the part everyone knows. The rest is the trustee fee, agency commission, mortgage registration, valuation, and the developer's NOC.

None of that comes back when you sell. It is spent.

The exit cost

Selling costs you agency commission, customarily 2% plus VAT, and a further NOC fee from the developer. Budget another 2% to 3%.

So a round trip is somewhere near 9% to 12% of the value of the property, before the price has moved at all.

What that means in practice

Say the monthly saving from owning rather than renting is AED 1,300, which is a typical-sounding gap. Round-trip costs on a property at AED 500,000 are somewhere around AED 50,000.

At AED 1,300 a month, recovering the transaction costs alone takes about three years, and that assumes the resale price matches what you paid. It also assumes you have not spent anything on the ongoing costs below.

That is the real break-even, and it is why the monthly comparison misleads.

The ongoing cost people forget

Service charges. Billed per square foot, set per community, and paid whether the property is occupied or not. They vary far more between buildings than buyers expect, and they come out of the monthly saving you calculated. Ask for the current rate and the last two years of statements before you commit, not after.

A tenant does not pay service charges. An owner does. That single line can erase most of a monthly advantage in a building with high charges.

So when does buying win?

The arithmetic favours buying when:

• Your horizon is long. Every year past break-even is a year the entry cost is spread thinner. Under three or four years it rarely works.
• Your situation is stable. Your ability to hold through a slow market is what turns a paper loss into no loss at all. That depends on your job and your visa, not on the property.
• The service charge is low relative to the building's rent.

It favours renting when your plans are uncertain, when you might move emirate or country, or when you would have to stretch to cover the deposit and fees.

One thing this page will not do

Tell you where prices are going. Nobody knows, and anyone confidently telling you otherwise is usually selling something. What you can control is whether the arithmetic works if prices simply stay flat. If it only works on the assumption of growth, that is a bet rather than a calculation, and it is worth being honest with yourself about which one you are making.

Figures here are indicative and from Dubai Land Department published fee schedules, as of February 2026. Confirm current rates before you budget.