Trakheesi

Trakheesi is Arabic for "permits", and it is the Dubai Land Department's system for the permits the property market runs on: above all, the permit that every advertisement for a Dubai property has to carry. No listing on a portal, no post on social media, no board outside a villa is lawful without one, and the number on it is the fastest way a buyer or tenant has of telling a real listing from a fake. Here is what the permit is, how a broker gets one, and how to check it in a minute.

What the permit is

Every advert for a specific property needs a permit from RERA, issued through Trakheesi, and every advert must show the permit number, and now the QR code that goes with it. The permit ties three things together: the property, identified by its title deed; the owner's authority to sell or let it, which is the signed Form A; and the licensed broker doing the advertising. A broker cannot obtain one without all three, which is the point. A listing with a permit is a property that exists, an owner who has agreed to market it, and a broker RERA can find.

How a broker gets one

• The owner signs the Form A, the listing agreement, through the department's Dubai REST app
• The broker applies on Trakheesi, uploading the Form A, the title deed and the owner's identification
• RERA issues the permit, with its number and QR code, for that property and that broker
• The permit is valid for the term of the listing agreement, and lapses with it; a renewed Form A means a renewed permit

The portals check the number against the department's records when a listing is uploaded, and the largest of them label a listing whose permit has been confirmed. A broker advertising without a permit, or under another broker's number, is fined, and RERA publishes the fines; the amounts run to tens of thousands of dirhams per advert.

How to check one

Every advert carries the permit number, and every advert since the QR code was introduced carries the code. Scan it, or enter the number in the Dubai REST app, and the department returns the permit's record: the property it covers, the broker it was issued to, and whether it is still valid. What to compare:

• The property on the permit against the property in the advert: the building, the unit type, the size. A permit for a one-bedroom on a two-bedroom's advert is somebody else's permit
• The broker on the permit against the agency you are speaking to
• The validity: an expired permit means an expired listing agreement, and an owner who may no longer be selling

Every McCone listing carries its permit number on the listing page, under the details, where a reader can check it before calling.

What else runs through Trakheesi

The same system issues the other permits the market needs. A developer's permit to advertise an off-plan project, which requires the project to be registered with RERA and its escrow account open, so a project advertised lawfully is a project that exists on the register. Permits for property exhibitions and promotions. And, since RERA extended the rules to social media, the permit an agent or an influencer needs to post about a particular property at all, which is why the videos of villas that appear in your feed now carry a number in the corner.

Why it matters to a buyer or tenant

Dubai's market is fast and most of it is advertised by people the buyer has never met. The permit is the one check that costs nothing and answers the first question: is this real? A listing that cannot show one, or shows one that does not match, is not a listing to send a deposit to. It says nothing about whether the price is right, which is what the registers are for, and nothing about whether the seller's title is clean, which is what the title deed check is for. It says the advert is honest, and that is where every purchase starts.