Rental Yield and ROI in Dubai
How to Calculate the Number That Actually Reaches You
Every Dubai listing quotes a gross yield. Almost none of them quote the figure you will actually earn. This guide sets out the three returns worth measuring — gross yield, net yield, and return on total capital deployed — the full stack of costs that sits between them, and a worked illustration that carries a headline 7% all the way down to what lands in the account.
Three Returns, and Only One of Them Is Yours
Валовая арендная доходность is annual rent divided by purchase price. It is the number on every listing, it is the largest of the three, and it is the only one that can be calculated without knowing anything about the specific building. That is precisely why it is quoted: it is a property-market figure, not a property figure.
Net rental yield takes the same rent, subtracts the cost of owning and running the asset for a year, and divides the remainder by the price. This is where a Dubai purchase either holds up or quietly stops working, because the largest deduction — the service charge — is levied on floor area rather than on value. Two apartments bought at the same price in two different towers can carry annual costs that differ by tens of thousands of dirhams, and nothing in the gross yield will warn you.
Return on total capital deployed divides the same net income by the price plus everything you paid to acquire the property. In Dubai that means the Dubai Land Department’s 4% registration fee and the trustee, title deed, map and administrative charges that travel with it — a stack set out in full in our guide to DLD fees in Dubai. Ignoring the entry cost flatters the return in year one and every year after it.
What makes the Dubai arithmetic unusual is what is absent from it. There is no annual property tax, no capital gains tax and no income tax on rental income received by an individual owner, as our guide to Dubai property tax sets out. That is a real structural advantage. It is also the reason the operating costs deserve more scrutiny here than elsewhere: with no tax line to dominate the model, the service charge, the management fee and the void period are the model.
The Three Formulas
What each one measures
Every Line That Sits Between Gross and Net
Entry costs are paid once and belong in the denominator. Annual costs recur and belong in the numerator. Confusing the two is the most common error in a Dubai yield model.
| Расходы | When | Количество | Where It Goes in the Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| DLD registration fee | At transfer | 4% of sale value | Denominator |
| Registration trustee fee | At transfer | AED 2,000 + VAT under AED 500k; AED 4,000 + VAT at or above | Denominator |
| Title deed issuance | At transfer | 250 дирхамов ОАЭ | Denominator |
| Map / site plan fee | At transfer | AED 225 unified map; AED 250 villas & apartments; AED 100 land outside DM | Denominator |
| Knowledge & innovation fees | At transfer | AED 10 + AED 10 | Denominator |
| Mortgage registration | At transfer, if financed | 0.25% of the mortgage value | Denominator |
| Service charge | Annual | AED 10–25 per sqft per year | Numerator |
| Property management | Annual | 5–10% годовой арендной платы | Numerator |
| District cooling carried by owner | Annual | Capacity charge continues even when vacant | Numerator |
| Insurance and maintenance | Annual | Building cover is in the service charge; contents and interior are the owner’s | Numerator |
| Vacancy allowance | Annual | One month empty ≈ 8% of annual rent | Numerator |
| Tax on rental income | Annual | None for an individual owner in Dubai | Not applicable |
DLD, trustee, title deed, map and administrative fees are the Dubai Land Department’s published schedule as set out in our DLD fees guide, retrieved from DLD e-service pages on 24 August 2026 and subject to change. Service charge and management fee ranges are TruHauz’s own published working ranges. Agency commission and Ejari registration are also payable and belong in the model — we have not stated a figure for either here, because the amount depends on the specific engagement and the current published fee. Fee schedules change; confirm current rates before relying on them.
Six Inputs Investors Get Wrong
Each of these is a routine error, and each one flatters the return by enough to change a decision.
Want the yield run on a specific property?
Send TruHauz the unit and the asking price and we will build the full model — entry costs, service charge, cooling and voids — before you make an offer.
Carrying a Headline 7% All the Way Down
Three deductions, applied in order, on one illustrative mid-market apartment. Every input is stated so you can substitute your own.
Валовая прибыль
A 1,000 sqft apartment at AED 1,473 per sqft costs AED 1,473,000. Let at a 7% gross yield it produces about AED 103,000 a year. This is the figure a listing would quote, and nothing has been deducted from it yet.
Net Yield on Price
Take out a service charge at AED 15 per sqft, or AED 15,000, and management at 7.5% of rent, about AED 7,700. Net income falls to roughly AED 80,400 — a net yield on price of about 5.5%, before any void.
Return on Total Capital
Add the entry costs — 4% DLD, AED 4,200 trustee, AED 250 title deed, AED 250 map, AED 20 knowledge and innovation — for about AED 63,600. Against total capital of roughly AED 1,536,600 the same income returns about 5.2%.
Часто задаваемые вопросы
The questions investors ask most often about calculating returns on Dubai property.
Buy on the Net Number, Not the Headline
TruHauz builds the full return model on every property we advise on — entry costs, service charge, cooling, management and realistic voids — so the yield you are quoted is the yield you actually get. Tell us what you are considering.
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