Trakheesi Permit Dubai 2026: Property Ad Rules

If you run or are about to launch a real-estate brokerage in Dubai, the Trakheesi permit is the single piece of paperwork that stands between your listings and the public. Trakheesi is the Dubai Land Department's permitting platform, and it governs every advertisement a brokerage publishes about a Dubai property: portal listings, website pages, Instagram carousels, WhatsApp broadcasts, printed brochures, roadside billboards and exhibition stands. No permit number, no advertisement — and the major portals now enforce this automatically at upload.

The good news is that the system is predictable. If your DET trade licence carries the right activity, your brokers are registered with RERA, and you have a signed Form A for each unit, permits issue in a day or two through a self-service portal. The bad news is that brokerages routinely lose weeks because one upstream item — an expired broker card, a missing landlord authorisation, an activity code that does not cover broking — quietly blocks everything downstream. This guide walks the whole chain in order, with costs, timelines, renewal triggers and the mistakes that get listings pulled.

What is a Trakheesi permit and who needs one?

A Trakheesi permit is the advertising authorisation issued by the Dubai Land Department that allows a licensed brokerage to publish a specific property advertisement. Every listing must display the permit number, the broker's BRN and the company's ORN. Brokers must first hold a DET trade licence with the broking activity and complete RERA registration, and commission earned is subject to 5% VAT once turnover exceeds AED 375,000.

Trakheesi is not one permit. It is a family of permits and registrations issued through the same platform, and confusing them is the most common source of delay. In practice a functioning Dubai brokerage touches four of them.

The company registration, producing your Office Registration Number (ORN), is the foundation. It links your DET trade licence to the Land Department's real-estate register and makes your firm visible as a legitimate broking office. Without an ORN, no individual in your company can be issued a broker card.

The broker card, producing a Broker Registration Number (BRN), is issued per person. Each salesperson who deals with clients, shows units, negotiates or signs forms must hold a current BRN under your ORN. Brokers moving between agencies must have their card transferred; they cannot simply continue trading on an old number.

The advertising permit is issued per listing. This is what most people mean when they say "Trakheesi permit". It is unit-specific, time-limited and tied to a signed listing agreement with the owner. One permit does not cover a whole building or a whole portfolio.

Finally, event and campaign permits cover exhibitions, roadshows, property fairs, kiosk stands in malls and off-plan launch events. These are separate approvals with their own documentation, usually including venue consent and the developer's authorisation where an off-plan project is being promoted.

Anyone advertising Dubai property commercially needs the relevant permit: brokerages, property management firms, developers advertising their own stock, holiday-home operators promoting short-term units, and marketing agencies publishing on a brokerage's behalf. The obligation follows the advertisement, not the platform. A private owner selling their own home without a brokerage sits outside the brokerage permit regime, but the moment an agent is engaged, the agent's permit obligations apply in full.

Prerequisites: what must be in place before you apply

Trakheesi is the last gate, not the first. Applications fail overwhelmingly because an upstream prerequisite is missing or expired, so it is worth auditing all six items before you touch the portal.

A valid DET trade licence with the correct activity. The Department of Economy and Tourism issues mainland Dubai licences, and real-estate broking is a specific activity — not a generic "real estate" catch-all. Buying and selling brokerage, leasing brokerage, property management and owners' association management are distinct activities with distinct approvals. If your licence lists property management but not broking, you cannot obtain broker cards or advertising permits for sales listings. Amending an activity through DET is straightforward but takes time and triggers an amendment fee, so check this before you hire brokers.

A registered office address. Dubai brokerages need a physical, Ejari-registered commercial premises. A residential address or a mailbox will not pass. This is where the tenancy chain matters: your own office lease must be registered on Ejari, and that Ejari certificate is part of the licensing file. Many new brokerages are surprised that the same system they will use for client tenancies first appears as a requirement for their own office.

RERA training and examination for each broker. RERA, the regulatory arm that oversees Dubai's real-estate profession, requires prospective brokers to complete a certified training programme and pass an examination before a card is issued. The course covers agency law, the escrow regime, Form A/B/F documentation, advertising rules and professional conduct. Plan for a few days of training plus scheduling time for the exam.

Good-conduct and eligibility documentation. Broker card applications require standard personal documentation and a clean professional record. Brokers previously sanctioned for advertising breaches may face additional scrutiny.

A signed Form A per listing. Form A is the standardised owner–brokerage listing agreement. It records the owner's details, the property details, the agreed commission, whether the mandate is exclusive, and the listing period. The Trakheesi advertising permit is issued against a specific Form A, and the permit's validity cannot outrun the Form A's expiry. This is the single most important operational habit for a brokerage: no Form A, no permit, no advertisement.

Proof of ownership or authority. The title deed (or the Oqood interim registration for an off-plan unit) confirms the person signing Form A is the owner. Where a representative signs, you need a properly attested power of attorney that specifically covers letting or selling. For a corporate owner, you need the company's DET trade licence, memorandum and a board resolution naming the signatory.

Step-by-step: how to get a Trakheesi advertising permit

The sequence below assumes your company and brokers are already registered. If they are not, budget an additional three to six weeks for licensing, training and card issuance before the first permit is even possible.

Step one — sign Form A with the owner. Complete every field. Vague commission terms and open-ended listing periods cause permits to be issued for shorter windows than you expect, or rejected outright. Confirm the owner's identity against the title deed and get the deed copy at the same time.

Step two — verify the property record. Match the unit number, plot number, building name, community and area on the title deed to what you intend to advertise. Trakheesi validates against the Land Department's property register, so a transposed unit number rejects the application. For off-plan units, confirm the project is registered and that the developer permits third-party advertising; many developers restrict which brokerages may market a launch.

Step three — prepare compliant creative. Photographs must depict the actual unit. Stock imagery, renders passed off as photographs, and photographs of a different unit in the same building are breaches. Floor plans should match the registered layout. Watermarking is permitted and encouraged for your own protection, but the watermark must not obscure the permit number or misrepresent the property.

Step four — submit through the Trakheesi portal. Log in with the brokerage credentials, select the advertising permit service, choose the permit type (sale, rent, off-plan, commercial), attach Form A, the title deed or Oqood, and the creative where required, and nominate the responsible broker's BRN. Applications are typically processed within one to two working days, and many issue automatically where the property record matches cleanly.

Step five — publish with the permit number visible. Once issued, the permit number and its QR code must appear on the advertisement itself. On portals this is a mandatory field. On social media the number must appear in the creative or the caption, not buried in a bio link. On print and outdoor, it must be legible at normal viewing distance.

Step six — monitor expiry and renew. Diary the permit's expiry alongside the Form A expiry. When a listing agreement is renewed, a fresh permit is required; the old number does not roll over.

What must appear in every Dubai property advertisement

Portals reject or suspend listings automatically when required identifiers are missing, so treat the following as a publishing checklist rather than a nicety.

The Trakheesi permit number must be displayed prominently. The QR code generated with the permit, where the platform supports it, links to the Land Department's verification record and is increasingly expected by buyers. The ORN identifies the brokerage. The BRN identifies the individual broker responsible for the listing — and it must be the broker who actually holds the mandate, not a generic company account. The company name should match the DET trade licence exactly, not a trading nickname. The property reference should be consistent across platforms so duplicates can be reconciled.

Substantively, the advertisement must be truthful. The price must be the price the owner has authorised. The size must be the registered size. The listing must not claim exclusivity where the Form A is non-exclusive, must not describe a leasehold interest as freehold, and must not advertise a unit that has already been let or sold. "Bait" listings — attractive units advertised at prices the owner never agreed, used to harvest enquiries — are one of the breaches the permit regime exists to eliminate.

Costs and timelines

Fees are set by the Dubai Land Department and adjusted periodically, and training providers price their own courses, so confirm current amounts on the official schedule before you budget. The structure, however, is stable, and the table below shows how the cost blocks stack up for a small brokerage in its first year.

On timelines, a realistic first-time path looks like this. Company formation and the DET trade licence take roughly one to two weeks once documentation is complete. Office lease and Ejari registration run in parallel. ORN registration follows the licence. RERA training and examination take a week or two depending on the course calendar, and broker cards issue within days of a passed exam. Only then does the advertising permit become a one-to-two-day turnaround. An established brokerage adding a new listing is looking at 24 to 48 hours; a brand-new brokerage getting its first listing live should plan for four to six weeks.

Portal enforcement and how breaches are detected

Dubai's advertising regime works because enforcement is largely automated at the point of publication. The major portals — Property Finder, Bayut and Dubizzle among them — validate permit numbers against the Land Department's records at upload. A number that is expired, belongs to a different unit, or is not linked to the uploading brokerage causes the listing to be rejected or unpublished. Portals also run duplicate detection: where the same unit appears twice under different permits, both listings can be flagged pending clarification of the mandate.

Beyond portal automation, the Land Department monitors social media, outdoor advertising and print. Complaints from owners whose properties are advertised without authorisation are a common trigger for investigation, as are complaints from buyers who attend a viewing to find the advertised unit does not exist or is priced differently.

Consequences escalate. A first breach typically means the advertisement is removed and a fine is issued against the brokerage. Repeated breaches can lead to suspension of the broker's BRN, restrictions on issuing new permits to the company, and in serious cases action against the trade licence. Because the sanctions attach to the ORN as well as the individual, one careless broker can throttle an entire office's ability to advertise. Fine amounts are set by the Land Department's penalty schedule and are revised periodically; check the current schedule rather than relying on figures quoted in older blog posts.

Rentals: where Trakheesi ends and Ejari begins

The two systems are frequently confused. Trakheesi governs the advertisement; Ejari governs the tenancy contract. Their sequence in a lettings deal is straightforward.

You sign Form A with the landlord and obtain a Trakheesi advertising permit. You publish the listing with the permit number, ORN and BRN displayed. You market, conduct viewings and negotiate. When terms are agreed, the parties sign the tenancy contract — Form F or the standard Unified Tenancy Contract. The tenancy is then registered on Ejari, producing the certificate the tenant needs for utility connections with DEWA, for residence-visa processes handled through ICP and GDRFA, and for school registration. Ejari registration also makes the tenancy visible to RERA's rental index, which is what determines the lawful rent increase at renewal.

A brokerage that advertises without a permit but registers the tenancy correctly is still in breach. A brokerage that advertises correctly but leaves the tenancy unregistered exposes its landlord client to problems at renewal and its tenant client to problems with DEWA and residency. Handle both, and record both in your file.

Off-plan and developer advertising

Off-plan marketing carries an extra layer. The project must be registered and its escrow account established before units may be promoted. The developer must authorise the brokerage to market the project, usually through a written appointment that the Trakheesi application will reference. Advertisements must not promise completion dates, rental yields or capital returns that the developer has not published — projected returns are one of the most heavily policed categories of claim, because they shade into investment advice.

Where a unit is already sold off-plan and the buyer wishes to resell before handover, the advertisement relates to an interim-registered unit rather than a titled one. The Oqood interim registration record, together with the developer's no-objection certificate for assignment, replaces the title deed in the permit application. Brokerages should confirm the developer permits assignment at all — many restrict resale until a defined percentage of the purchase price has been paid.

Tax: VAT and corporate tax on brokerage income

Advertising compliance and tax compliance are separate regimes, but they land on the same brokerage. Registration and filing are handled through the Federal Tax Authority's EmaraTax platform at https://tax.gov.ae/, and the Land Department's own services sit at https://dubailand.gov.ae/.

VAT. Real-estate brokerage commission is a standard-rated service at 5%. Registration with the Federal Tax Authority is mandatory once taxable supplies exceed AED 375,000 in a rolling twelve months, with voluntary registration available from AED 187,500. Because commissions on a handful of prime deals can cross the mandatory threshold quickly, monitor turnover monthly rather than annually. Note the distinction between your commission and the underlying property: your service is standard-rated regardless of whether the property itself is a residential lease (exempt) or a commercial sale (standard-rated).

Corporate tax. UAE corporate tax applies at 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above that. Brokerages must register with the Federal Tax Authority and file a return within nine months of the financial year end. Keep proper books from day one: commission invoices, agent commission splits, marketing spend and permit fees are all deductible business costs, but only if documented.

Personal income. There is no personal income tax in the UAE, so a broker's share of commission is not separately taxed at the individual level. The company-level obligations above still apply.

Worked example: a new three-broker Dubai brokerage

Consider a founder setting up a boutique brokerage in Business Bay with three salespeople, planning around 40 active listings at any time.

She forms a mainland company and obtains a DET trade licence carrying both sales broking and leasing broking activities, so she is not blocked from either side of the market. She takes a small fitted office and registers the lease on Ejari — required for the licence file and, incidentally, her first practical experience of the system her team will use daily.

With the licence issued, she registers the company with the Land Department and receives her ORN. Her three brokers complete RERA training and sit the examination; all three pass, and BRNs issue within days. Total elapsed time from company formation to a fully carded team: about five weeks.

Listing operations then begin. Each owner signs Form A. Each Form A generates one Trakheesi advertising permit. With 40 active listings and an average listing period of a few months, she is processing well over a hundred permits a year, plus renewals. She builds a simple tracker with four columns — unit, Form A expiry, permit number, permit expiry — and reviews it every Monday. This one habit prevents the majority of takedowns.

By month seven her cumulative commission passes AED 375,000, so she registers for VAT with the Federal Tax Authority and begins charging 5% on commission invoices, filing quarterly. She registers for corporate tax at the outset and diarises the return for nine months after her first year end.

Common Mistakes with Trakheesi Permits in Dubai

• Advertising before the permit issues. Uploading a listing "while the permit is processing" is the most frequent breach. Portals catch it, and the fine attaches to the brokerage, not the individual who uploaded it.
• Letting Form A expire while the listing stays live. The permit cannot outlive the listing agreement. When Form A lapses, the advertisement becomes unauthorised even if the permit number still looks valid in your records.
• Using another broker's BRN on a listing. Displaying a colleague's number because your own card is in renewal is a misrepresentation of who holds the mandate, and it is trivially detectable.
• Wrong or missing activity on the DET trade licence. Property management is not broking. Discovering this after hiring three brokers means an activity amendment and weeks of lost trading.
• Stock photography and mismatched images. Photographs must be of the actual unit. Using a show apartment, a render, or a similar unit on a different floor is treated as a misleading advertisement.
• Duplicate listings across brands or portals without matching permits. Each published advertisement needs its own valid permit reference. Cross-posting the same creative under a stale number triggers duplicate flags on both listings.
• Ignoring social media. Instagram reels, TikTok walkthroughs and WhatsApp broadcasts are advertisements. The permit number must be visible in the post itself.
• Forgetting Ejari after the deal closes. A perfectly permitted advertisement followed by an unregistered tenancy leaves the landlord unable to prove the contract to RERA's rental index and the tenant unable to complete DEWA and residency steps.

Getting your Dubai brokerage advertising-ready with Noble Core

Trakheesi is the visible end of a chain that starts with company formation. Get the DET trade licence activity right, register the office lease correctly, put your brokers through RERA training early, and permits become a routine 48-hour administrative step rather than a recurring crisis.

Noble Core Ventures builds that chain for founders entering Dubai's property market. We handle the real-estate brokerage licence in Dubai from activity selection through to ORN registration and broker cards, so nothing downstream is blocked. If your commercial premises or your client tenancies need registering, our guide to Ejari registration in Dubai explains the process, the documents and the renewal triggers in detail. Founders planning the wider commercial model — office location, headcount, commission structures and cash-flow through the first year — should read our walkthrough on how to start a successful real estate business in Dubai. And if you are still choosing between mainland and free-zone structures, our business setup in Dubai guide compares the routes, the costs and the visa allocations side by side.

We also handle the tax side that most brokerages leave until it is urgent: Federal Tax Authority corporate tax registration at incorporation, VAT registration as you approach the AED 375,000 threshold, and a bookkeeping structure that survives a review. Book a free 20-minute consultation and we will map your licence, permits and filings onto a single timeline.

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