Property Management in Dubai
Your Dubai property, run properly whether you live here or not
We handle your property end to end: tenant sourcing, Ejari registration, rent collection, maintenance and compliance, managed from our office in Business Bay. One manager on your file, one statement each month, and every cost agreed in writing before it is spent.
Landlords lose money in Dubai for boringly predictable reasons — a unit priced wrong and left empty for six weeks, an Ejari cancelled out of sequence, a maintenance invoice marked up 30%, a renewal notice served eleven days too late. Our job is to make sure none of those happen to you.
Licensed
RERA ORN · Registered with the Dubai Land Department
Based in
Office 1929, Tamani Art’s Offices Tower, Business Bay
Reporting
Monthly owner statement, quarterly performance review
Response
Maintenance acknowledged within 48 hours, 7 days a week
We manage
Long-term residential · Holiday homes · Commercial · Portfolios
Four figures every Dubai landlord should know
Typical full-management fee, charged on annual rent. Ask any firm quoting outside that band to justify it.
Minimum written notice to change rent or contract terms at renewal.
Notarised notice required to evict for sale or personal use not 30 days, and not verbal.
Customary security deposit, unfurnished and furnished, held against damage and unpaid bills.
Six jobs, and we do all of them
Most owners discover the gaps in a management contract at the worst possible moment. Here is the full scope, so there is nothing to discover later.
Tenant sourcing and screening
Professional photography, floor plan and syndication to Property Finder, Bayut and Dubizzle. Every applicant is screened on employment, income, visa status and previous landlord reference before we bring you a name.
Tenancy contract and Ejari
We draft the contract, register it on Ejari through the Dubai Land Department, and cancel the outgoing tenant's registration first — the most common self-management error, and one that can delay a new tenancy by weeks.
Rent collection and cheques
Cheques banked on schedule, transfers reconciled, arrears chased the day they occur. If a cheque bounces you get a call the same day along with your formal notice options — not a line item on next quarter's statement.
Maintenance and vendors
A vetted contractor list at agreed rates with no markup on invoices. Anything above your pre-agreed threshold needs written approval first. You see the original supplier invoice, every time.
Compliance and rent index
Renewal notices served on time, increases calculated against the RERA Smart Rental Index rather than guessed at, and Rental Dispute Centre filings prepared and represented when a case cannot be settled.
Reporting you can audit
A monthly statement showing rent received, costs paid, supplier invoices attached and the balance remitted. Quarterly we review the asset: achieved rent against market, service charge trend, and whether holding still beats selling.
Who pays for what
Dubai’s tenancy costs are governed as much by convention as by statute, which is exactly why they get argued about. This is the standard division — and every line of it should be written into the contract before anyone signs.
Worth knowing: anything a management company calls “standard” but leaves out of your signed agreement is a cost you will end up disputing later. Ask for it in writing. Ask us too.
Three ways to work with us
Fees are quoted before you sign and fixed for the term. Nothing is charged while the property sits vacant.
Tenant Find
You keep day-to-day control; we handle the letting and the paperwork, then hand over.
One-off. Market norm is the equivalent of one month’s rent.
- Rental appraisal from DLD and index data
- Photography, floor plan, portal listing
- Accompanied viewings
- Tenant screening and reference checks
- Tenancy contract and Ejari registration
- Handover inventory and meter readings
Most landlords choose this
Full Management
Everything in Tenant Find, plus the whole year. Built for owners who do not want a 2am air-conditioning call.
Of annual rent. Nothing charged during vacancy.
- Everything in Tenant Find
- Rent collection, cheque banking, arrears chasing
- 24/7 tenant point of contact
- Vetted contractors, no invoice markup
- Renewal negotiation and RERA index calculation
- Monthly statement, quarterly asset review
- Rental Dispute Centre filing and representation
Holiday Home Management
Short-let operation for owners chasing higher gross returns — and willing to accept the higher operating intensity.
Of net booking revenue. Requires a DET holiday home permit.
- DET permit application and renewal
- Airbnb, Booking.com and direct channel listing
- Dynamic pricing and occupancy management
- Guest vetting, check-in and support
- Housekeeping, linen and consumables
- Tourism Dirham handling and reporting
From first call to first rent
No stage happens without your sign-off, and no invoice arrives that you have not already seen coming.
Appraisal and strategy
We inspect the unit, pull recent lease and sale comparables for your building, and tell you the rent it will actually achieve — plus whether long-term, short-let or sale gives you the better outcome this year.
Paperwork and authority
Title deed, passport copies, and a notarised Power of Attorney if you are not in the UAE. We tell you exactly which documents you need before you start chasing them.
Prepare and market
Snagging or make-good works if needed, professional photography and floor plan, then live across the portals with a permit number on every advert.
Let and register
Screening, negotiation, contract, Ejari registration, deposit collection, inventory report and meter readings — with a dated handover record both parties sign.
Manage and report
Rent collected, maintenance handled, statements issued monthly. Ninety days before expiry we open the renewal conversation with the index calculation already done.
The regulations that decide what you can actually do
Most landlord disputes in Dubai come from four misunderstandings. Here they are, before they cost you a tenancy.
Rent increases: the index decides, not the landlord
Permitted increases are calculated against the RERA Smart Rental Index by how far your current rent sits below the market average for comparable units. If the gap is small, no increase is permitted at all; the allowance rises in steps as the gap widens. We run the calculation and show you the output before we serve anything.
Notice: 90 days to change terms, 12 months to evict
Any change to rent or contract terms at renewal needs at least 90 days' written notice before the expiry date. Ending a tenancy so you can sell or move in requires 12 months' notice served through a notary public or by registered mail. Miss the window and the contract renews on existing terms.
Registration: no Ejari, no protection
An unregistered tenancy leaves you without a route to the Rental Dispute Centre and blocks your tenant from DEWA connection and visa processing. Registration also has to be sequenced correctly — the outgoing contract cancelled before the incoming one is filed.
Non-payment: a bounced cheque is a strong position
Dubai gives landlords a genuinely effective enforcement path on rent default — but only if the paperwork is right: a registered tenancy, a properly served notice, and a documented arrears trail. We build that file from day one so it exists before you need it.
General guidance, not legal advice. Rules are periodically amended — we confirm the current position with the Dubai Land Department for your specific tenancy.
You do not need to be in Dubai to own well in Dubai
A large share of Dubai’s landlords live somewhere else — Karachi, Lahore, London, Mumbai, Moscow, Riyadh. Remote ownership works, but only when someone with a licence and a physical office is accountable on the ground.
- Notarised Power of Attorney arranged and attested from your home country
- Rent remitted to your overseas account on an agreed schedule
- Video walkthroughs at every inspection and at handover
- Cheques banked and reconciled without you flying in
- Service charge invoices verified against the Mollak statement before payment
- Calls in English, Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, on your time zone
- Annual performance pack for your own tax or accounting reporting
Communities we manage in
We manage where we transact, because a manager who does not know your building cannot tell you whether a AED 9,000 quote is fair.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does property management cost in Dubai?
Full management typically runs between 5% and 8% of annual rent, with some firms offering a fixed annual package instead. On lower-rent units a fixed fee usually beats a percentage; on higher-rent units there is real room to negotiate the percentage down. Tenant-find-only is normally charged as a one-off, commonly around one month’s rent — watch that figure closely, because on a mid-market unit it can exceed the entire annual management fee.
What is actually included in the management fee?
Ours covers marketing and photography, tenant screening, the tenancy contract, Ejari registration, rent collection and arrears chasing, maintenance coordination, acting as the tenant’s point of contact, renewal negotiation, and monthly owner statements. Contractor work is invoiced at cost with the original supplier invoice attached. Ask any firm to confirm in writing whether renewals, inspections and Ejari handling sit inside the fee or outside it — that is where the variation usually hides.
Do I need to be in the UAE to rent out my property?
No. Overseas owners can appoint a licensed manager under a notarised Power of Attorney, attested in your country of residence and legalised for use in the UAE. We tell you exactly what to prepare and coordinate the attestation. Rent is then remitted to your nominated account on an agreed schedule.
How much can I increase the rent at renewal?
That is set by the RERA Smart Rental Index, not by you or your tenant. The permitted increase depends on how far your current rent sits below the market average for comparable units — no increase where the gap is small, rising in bands as the gap widens. You also need to serve written notice at least 90 days before the renewal date. We run the calculation, produce the output and serve the notice on time.
What happens if my tenant stops paying?
You get told the same day, not at the end of the month. We serve formal notice, document the arrears trail and, where it cannot be resolved, prepare and file the case at the Rental Dispute Centre and represent you through it. Enforcement in Dubai is genuinely effective for landlords — provided the tenancy is registered on Ejari and the notice was served correctly.
Who pays for maintenance and repairs?
Convention puts structural and major items — air conditioning, water heaters, plumbing, appliances supplied with the unit — with the landlord, and minor wear-and-tear repairs below a threshold written into the contract with the tenant. That threshold is commonly set between AED 500 and AED 1,000 per incident. We set your approval limit at onboarding; anything above it needs your written sign-off before work starts.
Can you manage a short-term or holiday home?
Yes, subject to a Department of Economy and Tourism holiday home permit for the unit and the building allowing short lets. Gross returns are usually higher than a long lease, but so are operating costs, and occupancy is seasonal. We will model both against your actual unit before you commit to either.
How quickly can you find a tenant?
In deep-demand areas such as Dubai Marina, Business Bay and Downtown, a correctly priced unit usually lets within one to two weeks. In newer or lower-density areas, allow three to four. If a property is not attracting viewings within ten days the price is wrong — and we will tell you so rather than let it sit.
Are you licensed?
Makan Finder Real Estate L.L.C. is licensed by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism and registered with RERA under the Dubai Land Department, ORN [[00000]]. Each of our managers holds an individual Broker Registration Number, which you can verify on the Dubai REST app before you sign anything.
Find out what your property should be earning
Send us the building and unit type. You will get a rental appraisal built from recent comparables in your own tower, an honest view on achievable rent, and a fee quote — with no obligation and no follow-up campaign.
Makan Finder Real Estate L.L.C.
Office No. 1929, Tamani Art’s Offices Tower
Business Bay, Dubai, United Arab Emirates