The Dubai Title Deed
How You Get One, How to Verify It, and What Oqood Is
The title deed is the document that proves you own a property in Dubai. Before it exists you may hold an Oqood registration instead — a different thing entirely. Here is how each is issued, what the Dubai Land Department charges, how to verify a deed before you pay anyone, and what the numbers on it mean.
What a Dubai Title Deed Is — and What Oqood Is Not
A title deed is the Dubai Land Department’s record that a named party owns a specific property. It is the top of the documentary hierarchy: a sale and purchase agreement records what two parties agreed, but the title deed records what the state recognises. When the DLD registers a sale it issues an electronic title deed and an electronic map, and those are the documents that matter when you later sell, mortgage, or prove ownership.
Oqood is not a title deed. Oqood is the DLD’s self-registration system, and it is where off-plan and other provisional contracts are recorded — the provisional register, as distinct from the main property register. If you have bought off-plan, what you hold in the period between signing and handover is an Oqood registration, not a deed. The DLD notes that the sale and purchase contract must be registered in the provisional register within 90 days of the date the contract is signed.
That distinction has practical consequences. An Oqood registration proves you have a registered interest in a unit that does not physically exist yet. A title deed proves you own a completed property. Both are real and both are registered, but they are not interchangeable, and anyone describing an Oqood certificate as a title deed is either confused or hoping you are. Our guide to off-plan property in Dubai covers what the provisional stage involves.
For most buyers the title deed arrives through Property Sale Registration, the DLD service that registers a sale between a seller and a buyer. The DLD lists that service as open to all residency statuses, and gives a service time of 25 minutes at a Real Estate Registration Trustees centre. Separately, the DLD operates a service specifically named “Issue Title Deed”, which updates an approved title deed document — that one is listed as available to Emirati citizens, so it is not the route by which an expatriate buyer first receives a deed.
Title Deed vs Oqood
Two registers, two documents
DLD Fees and Documents on a Dubai Title Deed
The Dubai Land Department publishes fee schedules per service. These are the figures listed for the two services through which most title deeds are issued.
| Item | Tutar | Service | Notlar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration fee — seller | 2% of sale value | Property Sale Registration | Paid by the seller |
| Registration fee — buyer | 2% of sale value | Property Sale Registration | Paid by the buyer |
| Title deed certificate issuance | 250 AED | Both services | Per certificate |
| Unified map with Dubai Municipality | AED 225 | Both services | Where applicable |
| Map — land outside Dubai Municipality | AED 100 | Both services | Where applicable |
| Apartment map | 250 AED | Title transfer | Where applicable |
| Villa map | 250 AED | Title transfer | Where applicable |
| Knowledge fee | AED 10 | Both services | Per drawing |
| Innovation fee | AED 10 | Both services | Per drawing |
| Service partner fee | AED 4,000 + VAT | Property Sale Registration | Sales of AED 500,000 and above |
| Service partner fee | AED 2,000 + VAT | Property Sale Registration | Sales below AED 500,000 |
| Online title deed verification | No fee listed | Verify Title Deed | Blockchain-validated result |
Source: Dubai Land Department e-service pages — Property Sale Registration, Title transfer application ve Verify Title Deed, all retrieved 14 August 2026. Fee schedules change — confirm current figures with the DLD or a Real Estate Registration Trustee before budgeting.
Getting, Checking and Using a Dubai Title Deed
Six things worth knowing before you buy, sell or hand over money on a Dubai property.
Want a title deed checked before you pay a deposit?
Send TruHauz the deed number and the unit. We will verify it against the DLD record and tell you what it shows.
The Three Moments a Title Deed Decides Something
Most buyers meet the title deed once, at handover, and never think about it again. It actually matters at three separate points, and the first is before you have paid anything.
At Due Diligence
Verification is free and online. The DLD tool validates a property from the deed number, year and type, and a second option validates the owner alongside the property — which is how you confirm the person selling is the person on the register.
At Registration
The deed is produced by the registration itself. Sale registration issues an electronic title deed and electronic map, delivered digitally. The 4% of sale value split between the parties is the fee that buys that record.
At Resale or Mortgage
Everything downstream depends on the deed: selling, mortgaging, proving ownership, and the developer no-objection certificate that a freehold sale requires. An Oqood registration will not substitute for it.
Sıkça Sorulan Sorular
What buyers and owners ask most often about Dubai title deeds and Oqood.
Check the Deed Before the Deposit
TruHauz verifies the title deed, the owner and the registration status on every property we advise on. Send us the unit and we will confirm what the DLD record actually shows.
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