Combined buyer and seller costs on a resale deal.
Total transaction costs
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Buyer pays
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Seller pays
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Why the buyer carries the bill in Dubai
On a UAE resale the two sides of the deal do not share the costs evenly. The buyer shoulders almost everything: the 4 percent transfer fee, the trustee office fee for the registration appointment, the agency commission with VAT, and a mortgage registration fee if the purchase is financed. The seller’s costs are slight by comparison, usually nothing more than a small admin charge to discharge any existing mortgage on the title. This calculator splits a transaction into those two columns so each party can see what they are walking into before the appointment at the trustee office.
Enter the sale price, the buyer’s new mortgage if there is one, and any seller mortgage to be cleared. The tool totals each side separately and adds them for the combined cost of moving the property.
Splitting a AED 2 million resale
Use the default: a AED 2 million sale, a AED 1.4 million buyer mortgage, and no seller mortgage to discharge. The buyer’s side stacks up quickly while the seller’s stays at zero.
| Side and line | Working | Amount |
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The imbalance is stark, and the chart makes it impossible to miss: the buyer’s bar reaches AED 130,820 while the seller’s barely lifts off the axis at zero on this deal. Add a seller mortgage to discharge and a small bar appears, but the buyer still dominates.
The agency commission question
Who pays the agent is the one genuinely negotiable line. By long custom in Dubai the buyer pays the 2 percent commission plus VAT, and the calculator assumes that, which is why the agency cost sits in the buyer column. In some deals the parties split it or the seller contributes, particularly in a slow market where a seller is motivated. The 4 percent transfer fee and the 5 percent VAT on commission are the figures the tool applies; the DLD sets the former and the Federal Tax Authority the latter, and both can change, so verify the current rates and confirm in the sale agreement exactly who bears the commission.
Who this is for and a seller’s blind spot
This calculator suits both sides of a private resale, an investor selling a unit and a family buying one, who want a clear picture of net proceeds and net outlay. Sellers in particular tend to assume the sale is cost-free for them, and on a mortgage-free property it nearly is. The blind spot is the discharge: if the seller still owes the bank, clearing that mortgage and lifting the lien from the title carries an admin fee, captured here when you enter a seller mortgage to discharge, and the bank may also levy an early-settlement charge that sits outside this tool.
For the buyer, the practical tip is the same as on any UAE purchase, keep the fee money liquid and apart from the deposit, because the trustee will not complete the transfer until the fees are settled on the day. Watch the threshold edge case too: properties at or above AED 500,000 attract the higher trustee fee in this model, so a sub-AED 500,000 deal would use the lower figure and produce a slightly different buyer total.
Run this before you agree heads of terms and the negotiation becomes clearer, because both sides know who pays what. It estimates transaction costs at transfer only, not capital gains on the seller’s profit, which there is no UAE personal tax on for individuals in any case, nor the ongoing costs of owning the property afterward.
If the seller agrees to split the agency fee, how does that change things?
The total transaction cost is unchanged, but it moves between the columns. Half the commission shifts from the buyer’s side to the seller’s, lowering the buyer’s outlay and giving the seller a real cost where there may have been none. Reflect any such agreement in the contract, because the default in Dubai is buyer-paid.
Does the seller pay the 4 percent transfer fee?
In practice the buyer pays the full 4 percent in Dubai, even though the fee is sometimes described as split 2 percent each. Unless your contract explicitly shifts part of it to the seller, budget for the buyer to carry the whole transfer fee.