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RERA, Dubai’s property regulator
The regulator behind the initials on every form, permit and rent calculator in Dubai: what it licenses, what it audits, what it will and will not hear a complaint about, who runs it, and the six-year-old change in the law that most pages on the subject have not noticed.
Written September 2026 · 10 min read
RERA is the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, the regulator inside the Dubai Land Department. The department is the registrar: it holds the title deeds, records every sale and every tenancy, and collects the 4% on a transfer. RERA regulates the people and the practice around those records: it licenses the brokers and the brokerages, approves the developers and their projects, audits the escrow accounts an off-plan buyer's money sits in, issues the permit every advertisement must carry, and hears the complaint when a broker or a developer breaks the rules. It was set up by Law No. 16 of 2007, in the summer the market was doubling, and it runs today under Law No. 4 of 2019, which lists its duties in an article and a half.
Almost everyone in Dubai meets the name somewhere else first. The "RERA rental index" and the "RERA calculator" that cap a rent increase, the "RERA forms" a sale is signed on, the "RERA exam" a new broker sits, the "RERA permit" on a listing: the initials have become the word for the whole rulebook. Some of that is still the agency's and some of it is not. Article 10 of the 2019 law moved the registration of tenancy contracts and "the regulation of the relationship between landlords and tenants" from RERA to the Land Department itself, so Ejari, the rental index and the calculator have belonged to the department's own rental side for six years, whatever the market calls them. The bands did not change; Decree No. 43 of 2013 still caps the increase, and the Rental Dispute Centre still applies it. Only the letterhead moved. Here is what RERA does, what it does not, who to go to for each, and how to check or complain.
Who does what
Three bodies share the work, and most of the confusion on the subject is a question sent to the wrong one.
| Body | What it is | Go to it for |
|---|---|---|
| The Dubai Land Department (DLD) | The registrar and the parent: title deeds, transfers, the sale and rent registers, Ejari, the rental index and calculator, the Dubai REST app, the call centre on 800 4488 | Registering a sale, a mortgage or a lease; checking a deed; the rent-increase figure |
| RERA | The department's regulatory agency: brokers, developers, projects, escrow, advertising permits, owners' associations and service charges, complaints about any of them | Checking a broker or a permit; a complaint about a broker, a brokerage or a developer; a project's escrow and completion; a service-charge budget |
| The Rental Dispute Centre (RDC) | The department's tribunal for landlords and tenants, set up by Decree No. 26 of 2013 | A deposit, an increase, a notice, a repair, unpaid rent, an eviction |
The line that matters most: a complaint about a landlord goes to the tribunal, and a complaint about an agent goes to RERA. The department's own complaint form says so in as many words, and turns a rental complaint away for lack of jurisdiction.
What RERA does
Law No. 4 of 2019 gives the agency fifteen functions. In plain words, they come to seven things a buyer, a seller or a tenant will actually meet.
- It licenses the trade. A brokerage needs a licence from RERA to exist, and every person who advertises, negotiates or transacts property needs a broker card of their own, issued after an approved course and an exam at the Dubai Real Estate Institute, the department's training arm. The card carries a number, the BRN, and the number has to appear on every advertisement that person publishes. RERA keeps the register of who holds one, and fines those who work without.
- It approves the adverts. No listing on a portal, no sign on a villa, no post on social media is lawful without a permit from RERA, issued through Trakheesi against the owner's signed Form A and the title deed. The permit number and its QR code are how a reader tells a real listing from a copied one.
- It holds the off-plan money. Law No. 8 of 2007 requires every instalment on an off-plan home's payment plan to be paid into an escrow account for that project, registered with and audited by RERA, from which the developer draws only against construction progress certified by an approved consultant. The agency registers each project and publishes its completion percentage, which is the figure a buyer checks before the next instalment.
- It approves the developers. A developer is registered with the agency before it can sell a unit, and its projects are approved one by one; a project cancelled by RERA is one whose escrow account is returned to the people who paid into it, through the interim register that names them.
- It runs the buildings' money. Under Law No. 6 of 2019 every jointly owned building has an owners' committee, a management company the agency licenses, and a yearly budget the agency approves, from which the service charge per square foot is set and published as the service charge index. Mollak, the payment system, is the department's.
- It hears complaints about the trade. A broker who took a fee twice, advertised without a permit, sat on a deposit or misdescribed a home; a brokerage that let them; a developer that missed a milestone: those go to RERA, through the department's channels, and the agency investigates, fines and can suspend or cancel a licence.
- It trains and it studies. The law charges it with awareness programmes on rights and obligations, with policies "aimed at striking a balance between supply and demand", and with bringing UAE nationals into the profession.
What RERA does not do
It does not hear a tenancy dispute. A landlord who kept a deposit, a tenant who stopped paying, a notice served late, a rent raised above the index: every one is a case for the Rental Dispute Centre, which has its own judges and its own fee, 3.5% of the annual rent. RERA will not open the file, and a complaint sent to it loses the days it takes to be redirected.
It does not issue title deeds or register sales. That is the department's registration side, at the trustee's office on the day of transfer, and the fee is the department's 4%.
It does not, since 2019, run Ejari or the rental index in law, though it built both and the names have stayed. The registry has recorded tenancies since 2010, and it is large: in the twelve months to 15 September 2026 it registered 555,102 residential contracts in Dubai, 226,427 of them new leases and 328,675 renewals, and the median new lease that year was registered at AED 73,000 against a median renewal at AED 60,899. That gap is the index doing the job the decree gave it, holding a sitting tenant's rent below what the landlord could ask a stranger. The rent increase calculator on this site works the bands on your own figures and prints the date the notice was due by.
It does not set prices or commissions. The 2% a brokerage charges on a sale and the 5% of a year's rent it charges on a lease are convention, written into the Form A and the tenancy contract, not a tariff. What it does set is the rule that a fee is payable only to a licensed broker under a signed form, which is why an agent who asks for cash before a form is signed is an agent to walk away from.
It is not the RERA of any other place. India's states each have a Real Estate Regulatory Authority under a 2016 act with the same initials, which is why a search for the letters alone finds Maharashtra and Karnataka before Dubai. The other emirates have their own bodies too; Abu Dhabi's is the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, and Sharjah's is its Real Estate Registration Department. Dubai's RERA regulates the emirate of Dubai.
How to check a broker or a listing
The department's Dubai REST app, free and open without a login for the checks that matter, will tell you three things in a minute. Enter a broker's name or BRN and it returns the licence: the person, the brokerage that sponsors the card, and whether it is current. Enter a permit number, or scan the QR code on the advert, and it returns the permit's record: the property it covers, the broker it was issued to, and whether it is still valid. Enter a project and it returns its registration, its escrow account and its completion percentage. The listing pages on this site print the permit number under the home's details, and a reader who checks it against the app is doing exactly what the system was built for.
How to complain
A complaint about a broker, a brokerage or a developer is filed with the department, which routes it to RERA. On the day this page was written, the service was called "Complaint Against a Real Estate Company" on the department's website and in the Dubai REST app, it asked for the evidence that proves the violation — the advert, the receipt, the messages, the screenshots — and it undertook to respond by call or SMS within five business days. Three limits are printed on the same page and are worth reading before you file: a rental complaint is turned away to the Rental Dispute Centre; a dispute about the contract itself, a refund or damages is for the courts, not the regulator; and a complaint about a contract concluded more than six months ago is not considered. Cold calls from brokers have a form of their own, "Report Malicious Calls", and the department fines the brokerage the number belongs to. The call centre is 800 4488 inside the UAE. Fees, forms and timings are the department's to change; check its page on the day.
The people
The agency's chief executive is appointed by the Chairman of the Executive Council, under Article 7 of the 2019 law. Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita led RERA from its founding in 2007 until July 2024, when Decree No. 44 of 2024 promoted him to Director-General of the Land Department itself. Abdullah Ahmed Mohammed Saleh Al Shehi was appointed chief executive of RERA by Executive Council Resolution No. 73 of 2025, in September 2025, from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment. The agency sits in the department's building on Baniyas Road in Deira, beside the tribunal and the registry.
The names, and where each one leads
| The name people use | What it actually is | Whose it is |
|---|---|---|
| RERA rental index, RERA calculator | The measure of what similar homes rent for, and the free tool that applies Decree 43's bands to your rent — explained here | The Land Department's since 2019 |
| Ejari | The registry of tenancy contracts, since 2010 — explained here | The Land Department's since 2019 |
| RERA forms — A, B, F, I, U | The standard listing, buying, sale and commission-sharing agreements — explained here | RERA's |
| RERA permit, Trakheesi | The advertising permit every listing must carry — explained here | RERA's |
| RERA exam, RERA card, BRN | The course, the test and the broker registration a new agent needs — the sequence, in order | RERA's, through the Dubai Real Estate Institute |
| Escrow account, project status | The account an off-plan buyer's instalments sit in, and the completion percentage it is drawn against — off-plan explained | RERA's |
| Oqood | The interim register an off-plan sale is recorded on until the deed exists — explained here | The Land Department's |
| Service charge index, Mollak | The approved rate per square foot for each building — explained here — and the system it is paid through — explained here | The rate is RERA-approved; Mollak is the department's |
| Rental Dispute Centre | The tribunal for landlords and tenants — explained here | The Land Department's |
| Dubai REST | The department's app: Ejari, the calculator, broker and permit checks, complaints, Mollak invoices — explained here | The Land Department's |
Why the register is the regulator's best argument
The agency's case for itself is in the two registers it made possible. The sale register that the escrow law and the interim register built holds 1,095,957 residential sales in Dubai, and in the twelve months to 11 September 2026 it recorded 166,446 of them, 121,409 off-plan and 45,037 completed resales, every off-plan instalment of which passed through an escrow account RERA audits. The rent register holds 1,707,517 contracts since September 2023 alone. This site reads both every night, and every community and building page on it prints what was actually paid there, sale and rent, from the records the department keeps. A regulator that makes a market legible is doing its job; the reports are what that looks like.
Where this leads
The pages that pick up from here
The RERA rental index →
The five bands that cap a rent increase, and the ninety days’ notice — the rule that carries the agency’s name and has been the department’s since 2019.
The Rental Dispute Centre →
Where a complaint about a landlord or a tenant actually goes: what it hears, what a case costs, the three stages.
Trakheesi →
The advertising permit the agency issues for every listing, and how to check the one in front of you.
RERA forms and the EOI →
The lettered agreements the agency wrote — Form A to list, Form F to sell — and what each commits you to.
Ejari →
The tenancy registry, since 2010, and the certificate the rest of Dubai’s administration reads.
Off-plan or resale →
The escrow account and the completion percentage the agency audits, against a completed home’s deed.
Service charges →
The per-square-foot rate the agency approves for every building each year, and Mollak, the system it is paid through.
How to become a real estate agent in Dubai →
The RERA course, the exam and the broker card, in the order they actually happen — the job comes first.
Dubai property prices and rents →
The two registers the regulator made legible, read every night: what every community and building actually sold and let for.
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
RERA, answered
What is RERA in Dubai?
The Real Estate Regulatory Agency: the regulator inside the Dubai Land Department, set up by Law No. 16 of 2007 and now governed by Law No. 4 of 2019. It licenses brokers and brokerages, approves developers and their projects, audits off-plan escrow accounts, issues the advertising permit every listing must carry, approves service-charge budgets, and investigates complaints about the trade. The department itself is the registrar — deeds, transfers, the sale and rent registers.
What does RERA stand for?
Real Estate Regulatory Agency. It is often written "Authority", and India’s state regulators under the 2016 Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act carry the same initials, which is why a search for the letters alone finds Maharashtra before Dubai. Dubai’s RERA regulates the emirate of Dubai only; Abu Dhabi and Sharjah have their own bodies.
What is the difference between RERA and the Dubai Land Department?
The department is the registrar and the parent: it holds title deeds, records every sale and tenancy, runs Ejari and the rental index and collects the 4% transfer fee. RERA is its regulatory agency: the people and the practice around those records — brokers, developers, adverts, escrow, buildings’ service charges. Since Law No. 4 of 2019, the registration of tenancy contracts and the landlord–tenant relationship sit with the department, not the agency, though the names have stayed.
How do I file a complaint with RERA in Dubai?
Through the Dubai Land Department’s website or the Dubai REST app, under "Complaint Against a Real Estate Company", with the evidence attached — the advert, the receipt, the messages. On the day this page was written the department undertook to respond by call or SMS within five business days, turned rental complaints away to the Rental Dispute Centre, and did not consider contract disputes, refunds or contracts concluded more than six months earlier. The call centre is 800 4488. Check the department’s page on the day; the form and its limits are its to change.
Who is the CEO of RERA Dubai?
Abdullah Ahmed Mohammed Saleh Al Shehi, appointed chief executive by Executive Council Resolution No. 73 of 2025 in September 2025, from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Housing Establishment. Before him Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita led the agency from its founding in 2007 until July 2024, when Decree No. 44 of 2024 made him Director-General of the Land Department. The chief executive is appointed by the Chairman of the Executive Council, under Article 7 of the 2019 law.
What is the maximum rent increase as per RERA?
20% a year, and only where the current rent is more than 40% below the index’s average for a similar property. Decree No. 43 of 2013 sets five bands: nothing up to 10% below, 5% at 11–20% below, 10% at 21–30%, 15% at 31–40%, 20% beyond that. Any increase needs ninety days’ written notice before the contract ends. The calculator that applies the bands is the department’s, free, on its website and in Dubai REST.
How do I check whether an agent is RERA-registered?
Search the broker’s name or BRN in the Dubai REST app, without a login. It returns the licence: the person, the brokerage that sponsors the card, and whether it is current. Every lawful advert also carries a permit number and QR code; scanning it returns the property, the broker it was issued to and whether the permit is still valid.
How do I get a RERA licence or broker card in Dubai?
In this order: be hired by a licensed brokerage, which sponsors your residency visa; complete the approved course at the Dubai Real Estate Institute; pass the exam; and RERA issues the broker card, tied to that brokerage, with a BRN that must appear on every advert you publish. The licence cannot be bought first, and a brokerage that asks you to fund your own before you are employed is one to walk away from.
Does RERA handle tenancy disputes?
No. A deposit withheld, a rent raised above the index, a notice served late, unpaid rent or an eviction is a case for the Rental Dispute Centre, the department’s tribunal, which has its own judges and a filing fee of 3.5% of the annual rent. RERA’s complaint channel turns rental complaints away for lack of jurisdiction. A complaint about the agent who handled the tenancy, on the other hand, is RERA’s.
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.