Title deed in Dubai: what it is, how to check it and what it costs

Ownership of a Dubai property is evidenced by its title deed, the certificate the Dubai Land Department (DLD) issues from its Property Register; Article 24 of Law No. 7 of 2006 gives title deeds absolute evidentiary value. DLD issues it electronically when a sale is registered, for an AED 250 issuance fee plus map, knowledge and innovation fees, and its Verify Title Deed service checks one immediately on the DLD website or the Dubai REST app.

What a Dubai title deed is

Law No. (7) of 2006 Concerning Real Property Registration in the Emirate of Dubai was issued on 13 March 2006. Article 7 sets up a Property Register maintained by the Land Department to record all Real Property Rights. Article 22 then says: “The Department will issue title deeds relating to Real Property Rights based on the data recorded in the Property Register.”

Article 24 gives those deeds “absolute evidentiary value in verifying Real Property Rights”. All quotations here come from the English translation published on the Dubai Legislation Portal.

DLD’s service pages call it a “Certificate of Title / Title deed”. Not every deed records freehold; DLD’s mortgage pages distinguish ordinary title deeds from usufruct title deeds, and our guide to buying as a foreigner covers who may hold a freehold deed.

How the title deed is issued when you buy

Ready-property sales are registered at a trustee centre (DLD’s term is Real Estate Registration Trustees Center), which DLD says takes 25 minutes. Among the outputs DLD lists are an electronic title deed and an electronic map. The fee lines for the deed and map are these.

For an apartment or villa the deed-related lines add up to AED 520: 250 for the deed, 250 for the map, 10 for knowledge and 10 for innovation. Source: DLD Property Sale Registration.

The same sale also carries the 4% registration fee and the trustee centre’s own charge: AED 4,000 plus VAT, or AED 2,000 plus VAT on a sale below AED 500,000. Both are set out, with worked examples, on our DLD fees page.

The electronic title deed

DLD’s outputs are electronic. The sale page lists an “Electronic Title Deed”. The Issue Title Deed and Title Deed Modification pages include a step to “Receive a link to the title deed via email”, and the mortgage pages say their outputs are delivered by email.

DLD’s Electronic Title Deed user guide shows how to open the deed in the Dubai REST app:

1. Open the Dubai REST app and log in.
2. Select the property.
3. Open the menu (three dots) for Property Services.
4. Select Electronic Title Deed. The deed is displayed on screen.

Once the deed is in your name, our service charge checks explain what to request from the building’s management company. A tenancy on the property is registered separately, through Ejari. If you plan to let the home, our property management page explains the owner brief.

How to verify a Dubai title deed

DLD’s Verify Title Deed service “allows customers to verify the validity of the Certificate of Title / Title deed issued by the Land Department”. It runs on the DLD website and in the Dubai REST app, its residency status is “All”, DLD gives the service time as immediate, and no fee is listed.

The website form asks for the title deed number, the title deed year and the owner’s name, with the property type (land, unit or villa) optional. In Dubai REST, DLD’s verification guide offers two options: Validate Property, or Validate Owner & Property.

Verification has limits. A verified deed shows the deed is genuine; on its own, it does not show that the seller has no mortgage or other restriction. Look the property up on the Property Status Enquiry as well. Its page lists search fields but does not describe its results in text, so we do not say here what it shows. If the home is mortgaged, ask for the bank liability letter that DLD’s mortgaged-sale service requires.

Getting a new copy, or correcting a title deed

Issue Title Deed asks for a copy of the owner’s Emirates ID and a copy of the title deed certificate. Because deeds are electronic, an owner who needs to see the deed again can open it through the Electronic Title Deed service in Dubai REST. Where a bank or an embassy wants an official statement of ownership, use DLD’s To Whom It May Concern Certificate.

A lost or damaged deed is less clear. DLD’s Issue Title Deed page does not use the words lost, damaged or replacement, and it lists Emirati citizens as eligible. If a deed has been lost or you need a re-issued certificate and you are not an Emirati citizen, ask DLD or a trustee centre which service applies.

Off-plan handover: when Oqood becomes a title deed

An off-plan sale is first recorded through Oqood. The developer registers the unit on DLD’s provisional register through the Oqood portal, and the document issued is a provisional registration e-certificate, not a title deed. For that step DLD lists 2% of the sale value from each of the seller and the purchaser, knowledge and innovation fees, and AED 1,000 where the developer self-registers.

The title deed comes at completion. DLD’s Request to complete the initial procedures data service “allows parties who are compliant with their contractual obligations to issue a Certificate of Title / Title deed”. The developer applies through the Real Estate Developers Portal (Oqood), DLD lists eligible customers as companies, and the service time is 6 business days. The outputs are an e-certificate of title and an e-map.

For land, the same page lists a map fee of AED 225 where the map is unified with Dubai Municipality and AED 100 outside its jurisdiction, in place of the AED 250 unit map.

DLD’s page does not say whether the developer bears the AED 520 or passes it on to the buyer. Check what your sale and purchase agreement says about it. Before handover, work through our off-plan checklist, including DLD’s project status check.

Mortgages and the title deed

Registering a mortgage and releasing one both carry a title deed fee. DLD’s Mortgage registration application lists AED 250 for issuing each title deed, plus 0.25% of the mortgage value. The Mortgage release application lists AED 1,000 for removing the mortgage and AED 250 for issuing the title deed, with knowledge, innovation and service partner fees on top.

DLD’s release page and its mortgaged-sale page give different release totals; our DLD fees page shows both in full. If the property will be mortgaged, see our mortgage coordination page.

How we checked

Every source here was checked on 1 October 2026: the English text of Law No. 7 of 2006 on the Dubai Legislation Portal and each DLD service page named above, with fees and service names copied as DLD writes them. Each DLD page shows the site-wide stamp “Site was last updated on 23 September 2026”. Totals are our arithmetic. Where DLD does not say something (who pays the handover fee, how a non-Emirati owner replaces a lost deed) we say so rather than fill the gap.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Published by Firswood Properties L.L.C (RERA ORN 59926, broker BRN 96318).

Common questions

Our residential sales page sets out the information we ask buyers and sellers to prepare. To ask about a specific deed or purchase, use the enquiry form; to compare communities first, start with our Dubai property guides.

Cite as: Firswood Properties, Title deed in Dubai: what it is, how to check it and what it costs, 2 October 2026.