Answers · Selling, ownership and legal

What does my agent need before they can advertise my property?

Two things. A signed Contract A, which is the marketing agreement between you and the brokerage, and a Trakheesi advertising permit from the Dubai Land Department for each advertisement, at AED 1,020 each. The permit number has to appear on the advert, with a QR code that shows whether the property is already sold.

Updated October 2026

Most of what is written about Dubai advertising permits is written for the buyer, telling them to scan the code and check the number. This page is the other side of the same system, because if you are selling, the permit rules tell you whether your property is actually being marketed or whether somebody has just told you it is.

Here is what it costs your agent, from the Land Department’s own service page.

Service time is one working day, across fourteen permit categories: newspaper, SMS, outdoor, vehicle, printed, electronic, billboard, promotional campaigns, open house events, classified, organising exhibitions, project launch events, promotion platforms and seminars.

What people don’t realise is that this is not a licence your agent holds. It is a permit per advertisement, issued against a specific property and a specific channel. So the steps before your property can legally appear anywhere are these.

1. You sign Contract A, the Land Department’s smart contract recording a marketing agreement between the seller and the brokerage.
2. The brokerage logs into Trakheesi, which requires an account held against an Emirates ID or UAE Pass, with a representative acting under a power of attorney.
3. For a ready Dubai property offered for sale, the system asks for the number of that Contract A as a field in the application.
4. For twelve of the fourteen categories, the terms require a copy of the marketing contract with the owner to be attached. The two that do not are organising an exhibition and a project launch event, which are developer-side permits.
5. The brokerage enters a start and an expiry date, attaches the advertisement form, pays, and receives a permit e-certificate.
6. The permit number goes on the advertisement, and since 24 April 2023 a Madmoun QR code has to appear on print and audiovisual advertisements too.

Which means the AED 1,020 is not spent until your Contract A exists. An agent telling you for three weeks that your apartment is live on four portals, without a signed Contract A, has not bought a permit, because the system will not issue one without the contract number. Nothing was permitted, so there is nothing to scan.

The categories are separate permits. A newspaper advertisement, an outdoor advertisement, a promotional campaign and an open house are four permits on one property, which is AED 4,080 before anybody has photographed anything. I am not saying that is a reason to be suspicious of an agent who did not run all four. I am saying it gives you a question with a factual answer, which is better than asking how the marketing is going. Ask which permits were issued on your property and for which channels, and ask for the numbers.

The expiry works the same way. The service page states no validity period and the Trakheesi manual shows the expiry as a date the applicant enters themselves, so a permit’s length is set per application rather than by a published rule. That matters because “use of expired permits” is one of the three violations the Department named in its last published enforcement round, which tells you permits do lapse even though no standard term is published anywhere I can find.

The most recent published enforcement figures I can locate are from 20 October 2020, when RERA fined ten real estate companies and warned another thirty after inspection campaigns auditing advertising permits. The three violations named were advertising without a permit, manipulation of permit numbers, and use of expired permits, and on the amounts the wording is that “the fines are progressive and start from AED 50,000”, escalating as far as cancelling the violating company’s licence. Nothing newer is published, so that figure carries its date.

Two conditions on the same service page catch sellers out. For Dubai properties the terms say it is not allowed to showcase off-plan properties that are not registered with the Escrow Account Department, so if you are reselling an off-plan unit the escrow registration has to be in place before the permit will issue. And for exhibitions, documents go in at least one month ahead, a thirty-day gap is required between exhibitions from the same country, and sales are not allowed during the exhibition at all, only preliminary reservations. So if somebody is taking your unit to a property show abroad and calling it a selling event, that is not what the permit allows.

Does the permit prove my agent has the right to sell my property?

It proves there is a marketing contract with the owner on file for that permit, which is a stronger signal than most people assume, but it is not an ownership or authority check in itself. Contract A is non-exclusive unless you make it exclusive, so several brokerages can hold a valid Contract A and a valid permit on the same property at the same time.

Who pays the AED 1,020, me or the agent?

The brokerage applies and the brokerage pays, and the Land Department’s service page lists the payment methods as credit card, e-Dirham and the Noqodi wallet. Nothing published says the cost may be passed to the seller. If a brokerage contract asks you to reimburse advertising permits, that is a commercial term in your contract rather than anything the Department requires, and it is worth reading before you sign.

My property sold weeks ago and the advert is still up. Is that a violation?

The Madmoun QR code is specifically designed to show whether a property has been sold or rented, so a live advert on a sold property is visible to anybody who scans it. Advertising without a valid permit and using an expired permit are both named violations. The route is a complaint against the real estate company through the Land Department, and the published handling time for that service is five business days.

• Dubai Land Department, Real Estate Ad Permit e-service. The fourteen activity categories; fees of AED 5,000 for a project launch event permit, AED 1,000 for other permits and a AED 20 knowledge and innovation fee; the non-refundable AED 10,200 exhibition preliminary booking fee deducted from the final permit fee and the AED 1,020 participation fee per exhibitor by single cheque; a service time of one working day; the required documents per category; the service terms requiring brokers to supply a copy of a marketing contract with the property owner for twelve of the categories; the prohibition on sales during an exhibition; the thirty-day gap between exhibitions from the same country; the one-month document deadline; the escrow registration condition on Dubai off-plan; the payment methods; and no stated permit validity period
• Dubai Land Department, Trakheesi User Manual 2025 (PDF). Account creation against an Emirates ID or UAE Pass with representatives acting under a power of attorney; the requirement to enter the number of the marketing contract “A” between the owner and the real estate broker for a property ready for sale in Dubai; the start and expiry date fields; the permit categories; and the note that a permit to promote a company’s own services does not permit any promotion of properties or real estate projects
• Dubai Land Department, Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide 2024 (PDF). Contract A as the agreement to market a property between the seller and the brokerage, Contract B between buyer and broker and Contract F between seller and buyer; the requirement to obtain a Trakheesi permit for any advertisement or marketing material; and the requirement that “the permit number must be displayed on the ad”
• Dubai Land Department, “Dubai Land Department provides ‘Madmoun’ service to verify validity of real estate ads via QR codes”, 18 April 2023. The QR code is issued through Trakheesi and lets a consumer confirm the advertisement is authentic and RERA-approved, view the advertising company and the property’s condition and specifications, and check whether the property has been sold or rented; required on print and audiovisual advertisements from 24 April 2023. Quoted: Eng. Marwan bin Ghalita, CEO of RERA
• Dubai Land Department, “DLD fines 10 real estate companies and warns another 30 for not adhering to advertising requirements”, 20 October 2020. Ten companies fined and thirty warned; the three named violations of advertising without a permit, manipulation of advertising permit numbers and use of expired permits; “the fines are progressive and start from AED 50,000”, escalating as far as cancelling the violating company’s licence. Quoted: Ali Abdulla Al Ali, Director of the Real Estate Licensing Department