A brokerage is a regulated business, not just another trade licence. On top of the usual company setup sits a second regulator — RERA — with its own registrations, exams and per-agent cards. Here's the honest version: the DET licence, the RERA layer, what it really costs, how long it takes, and the mistakes that catch new brokers.
Dubai's property market is one of the busiest in the world, and brokerage is one of the more accessible ways into it — the barrier to entry is knowledge and compliance, not a warehouse full of stock. But that accessibility fools people. They set up the company, then discover they can't actually broker a single deal until RERA has registered the office and each agent holds a broker card. Get the sequence wrong and you're paying for a licence that can't legally trade yet.
So let's be clear about the shape of it. A Dubai real estate brokerage is a DET mainland company with a real estate activity, sitting under a second regulator: RERA — the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, the arm of the Dubai Land Department (DLD) that governs everyone who brokers property in the emirate. Two layers, done in the right order.
The mistake that costs the most: putting agents to work — showing units, posting listings, quoting clients — before their RERA broker cards are issued and before the office has its Office Registration Number. It feels like momentum, but it's unlicensed activity. Every listing needs an approved permit, and every agent needs a card. Build the compliance layer first, then sell.
Brokering property on Dubai's mainland means a mainland trade licence from the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), under a real estate activity — most commonly "Real Estate Brokerage" or "Real Estate Buying & Selling Brokerage" plus, if you'll manage rentals, "Real Estate Leasing Brokerage." Pick the activities that match what you'll actually do; adding one later means an amendment. Our mainland company formation page covers the mechanics of the licence itself.
Reserve the trade name with DET, secure your initial approval, then sort a physical office — a brokerage needs real premises with an Ejari tenancy registration, not just a flexi-desk in most cases, because RERA registration is tied to a genuine office address. A free zone licence won't work here: it doesn't grant the right to broker mainland property transactions, which is where the vast majority of agency work sits.
With the DET licence in hand, the company registers with RERA as a brokerage. This is the step that turns a "real estate company" into a licensed broker in the eyes of the Land Department. On successful registration, RERA assigns the office an Office Registration Number (ORN) — the identifier that follows your brokerage on every listing, contract and permit.
No ORN, no legitimate brokering. It's the licence-plate for your agency, and portals, developers and the DLD's own systems will ask for it. In practice this is where a lot of first-timers underestimate the paperwork — RERA wants the trade licence, the office tenancy, and details of who's running the firm before it issues the number.
Here's the part that separates a brokerage from a normal company: the firm is registered, but each individual agent is licensed separately. Every person who will broker deals — including you, if you're client-facing — needs their own RERA broker card, and it isn't automatic. To earn one, an agent must:
Only once the card is issued can that agent legally list, show and close. Where brokers get caught out is treating the card as a rubber stamp and letting new hires start early. It isn't, and they can't. Plan the training-and-exam timeline into every hire.
You've got the office registered and an agent carded. You still can't just post a listing. Dubai runs advertising through Trakheesi, the Land Department's permit system. Before a property appears on Bayut, Property Finder, Instagram, a billboard or a WhatsApp broadcast, that specific listing needs a Trakheesi permit number, tied to the property and displayed in the ad.
This trips up new agencies constantly. They load twenty listings onto a portal to look busy, without permits, and the fines follow. Treat it as a hard rule: no permit, no ad. The portals increasingly enforce it at upload, but the responsibility — and the penalty — sits with your brokerage.
A rhythm worth building in from day one: listing agreement signed → property verified → Trakheesi permit pulled → advert goes live with the permit number on it. Make it a checklist every agent follows, and advertising compliance stops being a risk and becomes routine.
Two numbers matter here, and people conflate them: the cost to set up the company, and the cost per agent. Treat every figure below as indicative — real quotes depend on your activities, office and headcount, and government fees change.
| Item | Indicative cost (AED) |
|---|---|
| DET real estate trade licence + initial approval | ~15,000–25,000 |
| RERA brokerage registration & ORN | ~5,000–10,000 |
| Office tenancy + Ejari (small serviced office) | From ~15,000–30,000/yr |
| DREI training course + RERA exam (per agent) | ~3,000–4,000 each |
| RERA broker card + Good Conduct (per agent) | ~2,000–4,000 each |
| Agent residence visa (per person) | ~4,000–7,000 each |
| Trakheesi permits (per listing) | Small per-advert fee |
Read it this way: getting the brokerage licensed and RERA-registered before a single agent joins usually lands around AED 30,000–50,000 all in. Then each agent adds their own AED 5,000–8,000 or so for training, exam and card, on top of the visa. A five-agent shop is a very different budget from a solo broker — and under-costing that per-agent registration is one of the most common planning errors we see. For the wider picture on setup fees across activities, our cost of company formation in Dubai guide is a useful companion read.
Rough, honest timeline once you're moving:
The company can be licensed and RERA-registered inside a month. But "open" means "able to sell," and that waits on your first carded agent. Anyone promising a fully trading brokerage in a few days is quoting the company licence and quietly skipping the RERA layer.
A Dubai brokerage fits an experienced agent going independent, a small team spinning out of a bigger agency, or an investor who wants a compliant vehicle and will hire licensed brokers to run it. What it rewards is discipline: knowing the laws the RERA exam tests, keeping every advert permitted, and treating client money and contracts by the book. It's a low-inventory, high-compliance business — the opposite of a shop that just needs stock on shelves.
Once you're trading, you'll want your VAT position sorted (brokerage commission is a taxable service) and a proper corporate bank account in place — commissions and, where relevant, deposit handling need clean, well-documented banking from day one.
Final approvals rest with the authorities — DET for the licence, and RERA and the DLD for the brokerage registration, the ORN and every agent's card and exam result. Nothing here is a guarantee that a specific application or exam passes; it's the map we use to get clients through cleanly, in the right order, without paying for a licence they can't yet trade on. What we can do is stack the odds in your favour: choose the right activities, register the office properly, and sequence the agent cards and permits so nothing waits on nothing.
Thinking about starting a brokerage in Dubai? Tell us how many agents you're planning for and whether it's sales, leasing or both, and we'll give you an honest read on the DET licence, the RERA path and a realistic per-agent budget — free consultation, no pressure.
DET licence, RERA registration and ORN, agent cards and Trakheesi permits — done in the right order, with one advisor who knows your file and tells you the real per-agent numbers up front. We'll get the compliance layer right before you sell.