Mortgage Guides
You have the deposit saved and a price in mind. The gap between those two numbers is not the answer, and it is usually bigger than people expect.
Short answer
Your down payment is one part of the cash you need. When you buy, there are registration and bank costs on top of it.
On a resale, those extra costs come to roughly 6% of the property price, plus a few fixed amounts and the bank’s own charges. On an off-plan purchase, a refinance or an equity release, the list is shorter. They are not the same.
The mortgage pays for part of the property. It does not pay for putting the property in your name, registering the bank’s claim over it, or the bank checking what the property is worth. Those come out of your pocket, in cash, on the day.
So there are two numbers, not one. The price is what the property costs. The cash you need is what has to leave your account before you own it.
The amounts below are what CredMe budgets when it works out the cash you need. They are not a copy of a government authority’s published fee list. That is a separate document, with its own figures and its own dates, and the Dubai page sets it out.
| Cost | What CredMe budgets | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Your down payment | The property price less what the bank lends | Buying only, resale or off-plan |
| Registering the property | 4% of the property price, plus AED 580 | Buying only. Off-plan: paid to the developer upfront |
| The agent’s fee | 2% of the property price | Resale purchase only |
| Registering the mortgage | 0.25% of the mortgage, plus AED 290 | Every mortgage, including refinance and equity release |
| The trustee office | AED 4,200, which is AED 4,000 plus VAT | Where the transfer is completed at a trustee office |
| The valuation | AED 2,500 to AED 3,000, or the bank’s own fee | Where the bank has the property valued |
| The bank’s processing fee | The matched bank’s own rate, or no figure at all | Where the bank charges one |
Three of those need a word of explanation. The AED 580 goes with registering the property and the AED 290 goes with registering the mortgage, fixed amounts that sit alongside those two percentages, not separate costs of their own. And CredMe does not publish one processing fee for everyone, because there isn’t one. Until a product has been matched to you, no figure is shown. Treat it as a real cost with no number yet, rather than as a cost that does not exist.
The valuation is a range for the same reason, and CredMe does not average it. A single number invented from the middle of a range reads like a price somebody quoted you.
One thing to watch: these amounts follow the Dubai structure. Property charges are set by each emirate, so they differ elsewhere. If your property is in another emirate, tell us and we will work to that emirate’s charges.
This is the part most cost lists get wrong. The four situations are not the same.
| Your situation | Down payment | Property registration | Agent’s fee | Mortgage registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resale: buying an existing property | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Off-plan: buying from a developer | Yes | Yes, paid to the developer | No | Yes |
| Refinance: changing your mortgage | No | No | No | Yes |
| Equity release: borrowing against it | No | No | No | Yes |
The two biggest costs (4% for registering the property and 2% for the agent) apply only when a property changes hands. On a refinance or an equity release, nothing is being bought and nobody is selling you anything, so neither one applies. Registering the mortgage still does, because there is still a mortgage to register.
The 4% and the 2% are also often quoted together as a single 6%. They are two separate costs with two different rules. Treating them as one number charges an off-plan buyer 2% of the property price they do not owe.
If you are switching or releasing equity, those journeys have costs of their own on the way out. What switching costs itemises them, and whether to switch at all covers the decision. For the two equity routes, see buying out and releasing equity together and releasing equity on its own.
A property at AED 1,500,000, bought as a resale. Say the bank lends AED 1,200,000. That amount is simply an input here, picked to keep the sums clear. It is not a limit and not an offer.
Your down payment: AED 1,500,000 − AED 1,200,000 = AED 300,000.
Then, on top:
Registering the property, 4% of AED 1,500,000 = AED 60,000, plus AED 580 = AED 60,580.
The agent’s fee, 2% of AED 1,500,000 = AED 30,000.
Registering the mortgage, 0.25% of AED 1,200,000 = AED 3,000, plus AED 290 = AED 3,290.
The trustee office = AED 4,200.
The valuation, AED 2,500 to AED 3,000.
That comes to AED 398,070, and the valuation takes it to between AED 400,570 and AED 401,070, before the bank’s processing fee, which has no figure until a bank is matched.
So about AED 100,000 on top of the AED 300,000 most people would have budgeted for. Had the same property been off-plan, the AED 30,000 agent’s fee would not be there at all.
Example only. Your actual costs depend on your property, mortgage and transaction type. The figures are illustrative and are not what any bank has offered.
Work out your down payment first, because it moves the most. It is the price less what the bank lends, and how much a bank lends depends on limits that vary by property and by buyer. How the property limit works explains that share, and what banks look at covers how much you could borrow in the first place.
Then add the costs for your situation, and leave yourself some room. The valuation is a range and the processing fee has no figure until you pick a bank. Cash you did not need is a much better problem than cash you are short of on the day.
Worth knowing: this list covers the mortgage and the transfer. Setting up a home has its own costs: a utilities deposit, service charges on the building, moving in. They are real, but they are not part of what you pay to buy the property.
CredMe applies this framework to your own figures. It takes your property price, the finance you would need and the situation you are in, and produces only the costs that apply to you. The calculator does it against your numbers.
Each line records where its figure came from: CredMe’s own framework, a government charge on record for your emirate, or the rate of the bank being recommended. The same calculation produces the figure in the calculator and the figure in your CredReport.
What it is not is a lending decision. CredMe is not a bank and cannot approve or decline a mortgage. This is an initial assessment, not a lending decision, and a CredMe Mortgage Consultant goes through it with you before any bank is recommended.
More explanations like this one are in the mortgage guides.
Written by CredMe Team
Based on CredMe's approved upfront-cost framework, its mortgage assessment methodology, and verified regulatory sources
Last reviewed 18 August 2026
Every amount here is CredMe’s own budgeting figure for estimating the cash a customer needs. None of them is presented as a charge published by a government authority. The statements about lending limits come from the sources below, each read on the date shown. The worked example uses made-up figures throughout.
Indicative guidance only. Not a formal offer of finance and not a lending decision. The amounts shown are CredMe’s budgeting framework, and each bank and authority sets its own charges. CredMe is not a bank and cannot approve or decline a mortgage. See our disclaimer.
Getting a mortgage in Dubai: what the Land Department charges to register a sale and a mortgage, what freehold and Oqood mean in practice, and which parts of the process are federal rather than local.
What loan to value means on a UAE mortgage: what the ratio is measured against, which cap applies to which buyer and property, and why the regulatory maximum is an outer limit rather than an offer.
What it costs to move a UAE mortgage to another lender: the charges capped by the Central Bank, what the land department charges to transfer, and how to work out your break-even.
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