Setup guide
How to start a real estate brokerage in the UAE
Real estate brokerage in Dubai is a mainland activity requiring RERA registration for the firm and an individual broker card for every agent. A free zone company generally cannot broker Dubai property, whatever the licence appears to permit.
What it costs
The cost drivers for this trade.
Dubai recorded over 270,000 transactions worth AED 917bn in 2025, up 20%. By year end there were 32,294 registered brokers and 2,285 brokerage offices, with commissions of AED 13.59bn — up 31%, on broker-executed transactions up 54%.
Figures on this page
Dubai recorded over 270,000 real estate transactions worth AED 917bn in 2025, up 20% year on year. By the end of 2025 there were 32,294 registered brokers and 2,285 brokerage offices; brokerage commissions reached AED 13.59bn, up 31%.
Dubai Land Department, 2025
How the business makes money here
Commission on completed transactions, which means income is lumpy and agents are usually commission-only. The firm's economics are agent productivity against desk cost. Property management is the recurring-revenue counterweight most brokerages eventually add.
What it costs to start
Published "from" prices compare licence fees and ignore everything that actually moves the total. These are the variables that decide what a real estate business pays in year one.
- Mainland licence and tenancy
- Brokerage needs a mainland licence and therefore premises with a registered Ejari.
- RERA registration
- For the brokerage, renewed annually and separate from the trade licence.
- Broker cards
- Per individual agent, involving training and an examination. Agents lapse these more often than firms lapse the licence.
- Trust account
- Where client money is handled, the arrangements are prescribed rather than optional.
We quote a single all-in figure with every government fee itemised beside our own, before you commit. Ranges published anywhere — including here — are indicative.
Why here
Regional advantages
Extraordinary transaction volume
270,000 transactions and AED 917bn in a single year, with commissions growing faster than volume.
Continuous new supply
More than 100,000 units due through 2027 creates a permanent pipeline of first sales and lettings.
Low capital requirement
A licence, RERA registration and desks. The barrier is regulatory rather than financial.
And the other side
Regional disadvantages
32,294 brokers is a crowded market
Registered brokers grew 38% in a year. Competition for the same listings is intense.
Individual RERA cards are a recurring obligation
Every agent needs their own, renewed annually, and lapses expose the firm.
Mainland only, with premises
Brokerage requires a mainland licence and Ejari — a free zone company generally cannot broker Dubai property.
Approvals
Beyond the trade licence.
- Brokerage
- RERA registration for the firm and a broker card for every individual agent. Both are required, and the agent card involves training and an examination.
- Property management
- Separate RERA registration from brokerage.
- Developers
- Escrow account requirements and project registration before any off-plan sale.
The sequence
How the setup runs.
Confirm the activity and the licence category
Map what you actually do onto the authority's activity schedule and identify any external approval it triggers, before a name is reserved or a fee is paid.
Choose the jurisdiction
Free zone or mainland, decided by who receives your invoices — then narrowed by visa quota, premises need and cost.
Reserve the trade name and obtain initial approval
Three candidate names checked against the register and the naming rules, then initial approval confirming no objection to you owning this business.
Prepare and notarise the incorporation documents
Memorandum of association, shareholder resolutions, attestations where required, and a power of attorney if you are not in the country.
Take the licence, establishment card and immigration file
The company now exists, can contract and can sponsor residence visas.
Complete residence, banking and registrations
Medical and Emirates ID, corporate bank account, corporate tax registration and any VAT, ESR or UBO obligation the structure carries.
Shortlist
Where to license it.
Four worth looking at for this activity, and why each one is on the list. All 6 are in the finder.
Questions
Generally no. Brokerage is a mainland activity requiring RERA registration through the Dubai Land Department. Free zone companies can hold property in some cases, but broking it for others is different.
An individual registration every practising agent must hold, in addition to the brokerage's own RERA registration. It involves training and an examination and renews annually.
Yes. A mainland licence requires physical premises with a registered Ejari tenancy, and the premises decision drives both the cost and the visa quota.
One question
Who will be paying your invoices?
Advisory to overseas investors can work from a free zone. Brokerage cannot — RERA registration and a mainland licence are required to broker Dubai property, whatever a free zone licence appears to permit.
Compare the two routesOr just ask usThen it is mainland with RERA registration, plus an individual broker card for every agent. Both renew annually and agents lapse theirs more often than firms lapse the licence.
Compare the two routesOr just ask usAdvisory and brokerage are different licences even when the same person does both. Splitting them properly is cheaper than explaining the overlap to a regulator.
Answer five questions insteadOr just ask us