Sellers in Dubai tend to ask us one question — what is it worth? — and the honest answer is that the market has already told them. Every residential sale in the emirate is registered with the Dubai Land Department and the transaction data is public. The asking prices on the portals are a different dataset: they are what owners hoped for, and in most communities they sit five to fifteen per cent above what was achieved.
So the first thing we do with a seller is not a valuation in the traditional sense. It is a list of the last six to ten transactions in the same community and unit type, adjusted for floor, view and condition, with the asking prices those units were marketed at beside them. The gap between the two columns is your negotiation range. Price at the top of the achieved column and you will sell in weeks; price at the top of the asking column and you will sell in months, to a buyer who has watched you reduce twice.
The paperwork, in order
A Dubai sale runs on a small number of forms. The listing agreement with your broker is Form A, and it should appoint one agent only, for a fixed term — a property listed with six agents at six prices tells buyers exactly what to do. The agreement with the buyer is Form F, the memorandum of understanding, signed with a ten per cent deposit held by the broker. From there you need a no-objection certificate from the developer, which confirms your service charges are paid and typically costs between AED 500 and 5,000, and — if there is a mortgage — a liability letter from your bank and a settlement on the day of transfer.
Transfer itself happens at a registration trustee's office. Buyer, seller or their attorneys attend, the balance is paid by manager's cheque or bank transfer, the DLD fee is settled, and the new title deed is issued on the spot. There is no capital gains tax on the sale for an individual, resident or not.
A tenanted property is not a problem. An undisclosed tenancy is.
The tenant question
If the property is let, say so at the first viewing, with the rent and the contract end date. An investor will value the income; a family buyer needs to know that Dubai tenancy law requires twelve months' notice, served through a notary or registered post, before a tenant can be asked to leave for a sale or for the owner's use — and that the tenancy survives the sale. Sellers who leave this to the buyer's lawyer to discover lose the buyer.
The rest is presentation, and it matters less than sellers fear. A clean, uncluttered property with working cooling and the service charge paid up will outsell a staged one with an unpaid invoice. What moves a sale in Dubai is a defensible price, paperwork that is ready before the buyer asks, and a single agent who returns calls. We can do the three of those; the property is yours.