Direct Answer

In Dubai, the headline DLD fee is 4% of the sale price. On resale transfers, you also pay fixed admin items and a trustee service partner fee, plus VAT on the trustee fee. On off plan, the developer registers your SPA via Oqood, with the 4% structure and separate portal charges.

Explanation

When people say “DLD fee”, they usually mean the Dubai Land Department’s government charges that make a property purchase legally registered in Dubai. It’s the cost of recording the transaction in the official register, and issuing the ownership output (for resale, that’s typically an electronic title deed and map).

What percentage is it?
On DLD’s own “Property Sale Registration” service page, the core sale registration fee is shown as 4% of the sale value, listed as 2% paid by the seller and 2% paid by the buyer. Real life can be a bit messier, because your contract can reassign who pays what, and the market often pushes costs to the buyer. So treat the DLD page as the official fee structure, then treat the MoU or SPA as the document that decides the split in your specific deal.

What admin charges apply?
DLD breaks “admin” into smaller fixed line items. For resale sale registration, the same DLD page lists items like: AED 250 title deed certificate issuance, map fees (for example AED 225 for a unified map under Dubai Municipality, AED 100 for lands not under Dubai Municipality), plus a AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee, and a line item of AED 250 for villas and apartments.

When is it paid, resale vs off plan?

• Resale (secondary): paid at the time of transfer, when the sale is registered through a DLD Trustee Center or the relevant DLD channel.
• Off plan: the developer registers the initial sale in the provisional register via Oqood. DLD’s service terms state the SPA should be registered within 90 days from signing, and the fee structure shown is still the 2% seller + 2% purchaser model, plus knowledge, innovation, and a listed AED 1,000 developer self-registration fee for the Oqood portal.

Quick Fact Table

Item (what buyers call it)	What DLD shows	Where you see it most
DLD sale registration fee	2% seller + 2% buyer (total 4%)	Resale sale registration
Title deed certificate issuance	AED 250	Resale registration output
Map fees	AED 225 (unified map) or AED 100 (non-municipality lands)	Resale, depends on property
Knowledge + innovation fees	AED 10 + AED 10	Resale and Oqood services
Trustee, service partner fee	AED 2,000 + VAT or AED 4,000 + VAT	Resale transfers via trustee centers
Oqood developer self-registration	AED 1,000 (developer portal)	Off plan provisional registration