Dubai property, explained › Renting
The RERA rental index
The rule that decides how much a Dubai landlord may raise the rent at renewal, the calculator that applies it, and the ninety days’ notice that makes it stick.
Written September 2026 · 4 min read
Dubai fixes the rent for the term of a tenancy and regulates what happens at renewal. A landlord may not raise the rent mid-contract, and at renewal may raise it only as far as the RERA rental index allows, and only with ninety days' written notice before the contract ends. The index is the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's measure of what similar homes rent for; the calculator is the free tool on the Dubai Land Department's site that applies the rule to your own figures. Between them they answer the question every tenant asks in the third year: how much can this go up?
The rule
Decree No. 43 of 2013 sets five bands. The measure is how far your current rent sits below the index's average for a similar property.
| Your rent against the index average | Permitted increase |
|---|---|
| Up to 10% below | None |
| 11% to 20% below | Up to 5% |
| 21% to 30% below | Up to 10% |
| 31% to 40% below | Up to 15% |
| More than 40% below | Up to 20% |
Two things the table implies. A rent that is already at the average, or above it, cannot be raised at all. And a rent that has fallen a long way behind the market climbs back in steps of at most 20% a year, which is the point: a tenant who signed in a cheap year is not handed the whole difference at once.
The notice
The rule has a second half that matters more in practice. Law No. 33 of 2008 requires ninety days' notice, in writing, before the contract expires, of any change to its terms, the rent included. A landlord who serves the notice late, or not at all, has no increase that year; the tenancy renews on the same terms. Tenants lose this argument by not knowing it and landlords lose it by leaving the email to the last fortnight. If you are the landlord, diarise the date the day the contract is signed. If you are the tenant, check the date on the notice against the date on the contract before you check anything else.
The calculator
The Dubai Land Department publishes the rental increase calculator on its website and in its Dubai REST app: free, no login. Give it the property, meaning the area and building, the type and the number of bedrooms, and your current annual rent, or simply your Ejari contract number, and it returns the increase the index allows, if any. The figure it prints is the one the Rental Dispute Centre will apply, so the calculator is not advice; it is the ruling in advance. Print it and attach it to the notice, whichever side you are on.
What changed in 2025
Until the end of 2024 the index was an average by area and property type, updated on a schedule, and it treated a tired tower and a new one on the same street alike. On 2 January 2025 the department replaced it with the Smart Rental Index. Every building now carries a star classification, one to five, from an assessment of its construction, finishing, maintenance and services, and the permitted rent follows the building's rating rather than the area's average. The practical effects: two towers a road apart can have different ceilings, the index moves with the Ejari data rather than on a publication date, and a landlord who lets a building run down loses the right to the rents of one that has not.
If the two sides disagree
Either side may take the question to the Rental Dispute Centre, the tribunal at the department that hears tenancy cases. It rules on the index and the notice, and it will not hear a case on a contract that was never registered with Ejari. Filing costs a percentage of the annual rent, currently 3.5%, with a floor and a ceiling, and most disagreements end before then, once the calculator's figure is on the table. A tenant's other lever is the market itself. The community rent reports on this site keep new leases and renewals apart, so you can see what renewals in your area actually landed at, not only what the index would permit.
What the index is not
It is not a rent control on new leases. A landlord letting to a new tenant asks whatever the market bears, and Ejari records it; the index governs the step from one term to the next for the same tenant. It is not a mechanism for reductions either. A tenant paying above the average can ask, and the centre can rule, but the decree is written for increases. And it does not run in the first year: the contract fixes the rent for its term, and nothing in the index changes that.
Where this leads
The pages that pick up from here
Ejari →
The registration the index reads your current rent from — and the Rental Dispute Centre’s ticket.
The sales reports →
Registered rents by community, with a new lease and a renewal never blended — what renewals actually landed at.
The area guides →
Every Dubai community, with what it sells for and rents for from the registers.
Questions people ask
The RERA rental index, answered
How much can my landlord increase the rent in Dubai?
It depends on how far your current rent sits below the index’s average for a similar property. Up to 10% below: no increase. 11% to 20% below: up to 5%. 21% to 30%: up to 10%. 31% to 40%: up to 15%. More than 40% below: up to 20%. The bands are Decree No. 43 of 2013.
How much notice does a landlord have to give to raise the rent?
Ninety days before the tenancy expires, in writing. Miss the notice and the contract renews at the same rent for the next term — the notice is what makes the increase enforceable, not the index alone.
Where is the RERA rent calculator?
On the Dubai Land Department’s website and in its Dubai REST app, free to use. Give it the property and your current rent, or your Ejari contract number, and it returns the increase the index allows.
What changed with the Smart Rental Index in 2025?
The index moved from an area average to a building rating. Every building carries a star classification, and the permitted rent follows the building rather than the community, so two towers on one street can have different ceilings.
Can I refuse a rent increase?
You can refuse anything above what the calculator allows, and anything served with less than ninety days’ notice. If the landlord insists, either side can take it to the Rental Dispute Centre, which rules on the index. Filing costs a percentage of the annual rent, currently 3.5%, with a floor and a ceiling.
Does the index apply in the first year?
No. The contract fixes the rent for its term, and the index governs what can change at renewal. It also cannot be used to raise a rent that is already at or above the average.
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.