Dubai property, explained › Renting
Ejari
The Dubai Land Department’s registry of tenancy contracts — why every lease is registered, who does it, what it costs, and what you cannot do without the certificate.
Written September 2026 · 7 min read
Ejari is Arabic for "my rent", and it is the Dubai Land Department's registry of tenancy contracts. Every residential and commercial lease in the emirate is registered on it, by law, and the registration produces a certificate with an Ejari number on it. That number is what the rest of Dubai's administration reads. DEWA will not open an account without it; the immigration authority asks for it when you sponsor a family; schools, telecoms and parking permits ask for it; and the Rental Dispute Centre will not hear a case on a contract that was never registered. It is the difference between a private arrangement and a tenancy the city recognises. Registering one costs AED 177.75 through the department's own app and AED 220 at a trustee centre, takes a day, and is conventionally the tenant's to pay.
What does Ejari mean?
The word is Arabic, إيجاري, "my rent", and it named the system when RERA, the regulator inside the department, built it in 2010 to bring every tenancy in the emirate onto one register. Since Law 4 of 2019 the registry has been the department's own rather than RERA's, though the name has stayed, and in daily use the word means three things at once: the system, the act of registering a lease on it, and the certificate that proves you did. When an agent says "the Ejari is done", it is the certificate they mean.
What is Ejari used for?
The registry exists so that the terms of every tenancy in Dubai are on record in one place: the rent, the term, the parties, the property. Two things follow from that. The first is protection. A registered contract binds both sides to what it says, and either side can hold the other to it in front of the Rental Dispute Centre, which will not hear an unregistered one. The second is the rental index. The RERA rental index, which caps what a landlord may ask at renewal, is built from Ejari's own data, and the rent it reads as your current rent is the one on your registration. The registered rents on this site's reports are the same records, read back out: every rent figure on a community report is an Ejari contract, and in the twelve months to September 2026 the register recorded 564,267 residential contracts in Dubai, 337,816 of them renewals and 226,451 new leases.
Then the certificate is the key to everything else the city asks of a tenant: the DEWA account, the family visa, a school place, a parking permit, a telephone line, and the housing fee the municipality works out from the rent written on it.
What is the difference between an Ejari and a tenancy contract?
The tenancy contract is the agreement: what the landlord and the tenant signed, on the unified form RERA introduced so that every lease in the city says the same things in the same places. Ejari is the department's record of that agreement — the contract, uploaded and approved, given a registration number and a certificate. One is between two people; the other is the state's copy of it. A contract can exist without an Ejari, and most do for a few days between signing and registering, but until it is registered it is a private paper: DEWA will not read it, and the Rental Dispute Centre will not hear it. An Ejari cannot exist without a contract, because the contract is the thing being registered. The certificate reproduces the contract's terms — the parties, the property, the rent, the dates — so when a form asks for "the Ejari", it is asking for that certificate, not for the contract you signed.
Who is responsible for Ejari registration?
The regulation places the duty on the landlord, or on the agent or management company acting for the landlord, and RERA has said so more than once. The department's own rules say who may do it by which route. A property management company, or an owner who manages their own homes, registers through the Ejari system it has an account on. Where the property is not managed that way, the tenant, or someone holding a power of attorney for the tenant, registers at a trustee centre. And the Dubai REST app takes a registration when landlord and tenant are both individuals and the owner's details on the department's record are current. In practice it is done by whoever the contract says, and often by the tenant, because the tenant is the one who needs the certificate first. Agree at signing who will do it and by when; a good agent does it for the tenant the same week. The fee is conventionally the tenant's, and the department names the tenant as the applicant.
How much is the Ejari fee?
| Route | Fee | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Dubai REST app or the department's website | AED 177.75 | AED 100 to register the contract, AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee, then a service partner fee of AED 55 and AED 2.75 VAT on it |
| Trustee centre or typing centre | AED 220 | The same AED 120 to the department, plus the centre's AED 95 and the VAT on it |
| Renewal | The same, each year | A renewal is a fresh registration of the renewed contract |
| Cancellation | Nothing in the app; AED 40 + VAT at a centre | The department charges no fee to close a registration |
Those are the department's own figures, from its service card as read on 15 September 2026. The AED 120 is regulation; the partner fees are what the department publishes for its two channels; and a centre charging more than AED 220 is charging for something other than the registration. A landlord's or agent's "Ejari fee" of several hundred dirhams at renewal is the one to refuse: the Rental Dispute Centre's chairman has said no such fee may be claimed.
What documents do I need for Ejari?
The department's own list is short. Through the app, a copy of the signed unified tenancy contract. At a trustee centre, the original contract, the Emirates ID of whoever is applying, and a power of attorney if that person is a representative (one issued in Dubai is entered by its number; one from another emirate is attached). Everything else a centre asks for is the information the contract form itself has to carry, and the counter checks the form against the documents:
- The signed tenancy contract, on the unified Ejari form
- A copy of the landlord's title deed, which the form's property details are read from
- The landlord's passport or Emirates ID
- The tenant's passport, residence visa and Emirates ID
- The DEWA premise number of the property, which is on any DEWA bill for it and is the number Ejari matches the home on
- For a company tenant, the trade licence and the signatory's ID
A tenant whose visa is still being issued can usually register on the passport and the entry stamp, with the Emirates ID added afterwards. Ask the centre before you queue.
How can I do Ejari online?
Through the Dubai REST app, which is the department's own and the cheaper route, or through the Ejari system on the department's website if you are a company or an owner with an account there. The department's service card gives the app route in five steps:
- Sign in to the app with UAE Pass and choose the tenancy registration service
- Fill in the contract's details and upload the signed unified contract
- Pay the AED 177.75
- A department employee reviews and approves the request
- The e-Contract Registration Certificate arrives by email, with the Ejari number on it
The app route is open when the landlord and the tenant are both individuals and the owner's details on the department's record are current. A home let through a management company is registered by the company through its own Ejari access, and if the app turns a request away, that is usually why. The department's page for the service, with its fees and conditions, is Register / Renew Tenancy Contract on dubailand.gov.ae.
Where else to do it
In person, at a RERA-approved typing centre or a real estate services trustee office, of which the city has many; the department times the counter at twenty-five minutes, excluding the wait. The certificate is issued the same day once the documents are accepted, and arrives as a PDF with the Ejari number on it. Keep it where you can find it. You will be asked for it more often than for the contract itself.
The one thing that goes wrong
A property holds one active Ejari at a time. When a tenant leaves, the landlord has to cancel that registration, and if it has not been done, yours will not go on. It is the commonest reason a registration fails, and it is usually discovered at the DEWA counter, with the movers booked. Before you sign, ask whether the previous Ejari has been cancelled, and if the landlord is vague, ask to see the cancellation.
Renewal, and the end
Each renewal is registered again, with the renewed contract and the same fee, and the new certificate carries the new term and the new rent. That is where an increase that was never served properly gets caught: the registered rent is the rent, and the index reads it from here. When you leave, the Ejari is cancelled, DEWA is closed against the final reading, and the deposit conversation begins. A cancelled Ejari is also what the next tenant is going to ask you about.
Where this leads
The pages that pick up from here
The tenancy contract →
The form the registration is made from — what each box records, and the extra page the arguments come from.
The DEWA premise number →
The one item on the list people cannot find — what the number is, where the bill prints it, and who to ask when there is no bill yet.
The RERA rental index →
The rule that decides how much the rent can rise at renewal — and it starts from the rent on your Ejari.
Tenancy contract renewal →
Registering the renewed year: the steps, the fees, the ninety-day rule and what lapses if the Ejari does.
Ejari cancellation →
Closing the record when you leave — who cancels it, the routes and the fee, and why the next tenant’s registration fails until it is done.
The Rental Dispute Centre →
The tribunal the certificate is the ticket to — what it hears, what a case costs, and how to file one.
The cost of living in Dubai →
The registration fee in its place on a budget: what a home rents for on the register the Ejari feeds, and the housing fee, DEWA, the agency fee and the deposit around it.
Property for rent →
What is on the market with McCone today, and what renting here costs beyond the rent.
The area guides →
Every Dubai community, with what it sells for and rents for from the registers.
Property management in Dubai →
For the landlord: who registers, renews and cancels the contract when you are not in the country, and what that costs on the rent your area records.
RERA →
The regulator that built the registry, and the 2019 law that moved it to the department — who does what, in one table.
The Dubai Land Department →
The department behind the deed, the lease, the fee and the app: how it is divided, which of its services you will actually use, what each costs, and where it is.
Questions people ask
Ejari, answered
What does Ejari mean?
Ejari is Arabic for “my rent”. It is the name of the Dubai Land Department’s registry of tenancy contracts, built by its regulator RERA in 2010, and in daily use it means the system, the act of registering a lease on it, and the certificate that proves you did.
What is Ejari used for?
It puts the terms of every Dubai tenancy on one record — the rent, the term, the parties, the property — so that either side can hold the other to it at the Rental Dispute Centre, and so the RERA rental index can read the rent. The certificate is then what DEWA, the immigration authority, schools and parking permits ask for.
What is the difference between an Ejari and a tenancy contract?
The tenancy contract is the agreement the landlord and tenant signed on the unified form. Ejari is the Land Department’s registration of that contract, which produces a certificate with an Ejari number. A contract can exist unregistered, but DEWA will not read it and the Rental Dispute Centre will not hear it; an Ejari cannot exist without a contract.
How can I do Ejari online?
In the Dubai REST app: sign in with UAE Pass, choose the tenancy registration service, fill in the contract’s details and upload the signed unified contract, pay AED 177.75, and the certificate arrives by email once a department employee has approved it. The app route is open when landlord and tenant are both individuals; a home let through a management company is registered by the company.
How much is the Ejari fee?
AED 177.75 through the Dubai REST app or the department’s website — AED 100 to register, AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees, then a service partner fee of AED 55 plus AED 2.75 VAT — and AED 220 at a trustee centre or typing centre, as the department’s service card lists them. It is paid again each year at renewal; cancelling costs nothing in the app.
Who is responsible for Ejari registration?
The regulation places the duty on the landlord or the agent managing the property, and in practice it is done by whoever the contract says, often the tenant, who needs the certificate first. A management company registers through its own Ejari access; otherwise the tenant registers at a trustee centre or, where both parties are individuals, in the Dubai REST app. The fee is conventionally the tenant’s.
What documents do I need for Ejari?
The department’s own list is the signed unified tenancy contract (a copy in the app, the original at a centre), the applicant’s Emirates ID, and a power of attorney for a representative. A centre also checks the form against the landlord’s title deed and ID, the tenant’s passport, visa and Emirates ID, and the DEWA premise number of the property. A company tenant adds its trade licence.
Do I need Ejari to connect DEWA?
Yes. DEWA will not open a residential account without an Ejari, and the same certificate is asked for when you sponsor a family visa, enrol a child at school, apply for a parking permit, or bring a dispute to the Rental Dispute Centre.
Why will my Ejari not register?
Usually because the previous tenant’s Ejari is still active. A property holds one active registration at a time, and the landlord has to cancel the old one before the new one can go on. Ask whether it has been cancelled before you sign.
Regulation here is stated as regulation, and what the market merely does is marked as convention. Figures were checked in September 2026; the rest of the set is written the same way.