Who controls brokers and developers in Dubai?
Issues related to the purchase of villas and apartments in Dubai are overseen by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), which operates under the Land Department of the Emirate. RERA was established in 2007 to ensure transparency and accountability of transactions.
What does RERA do:
- Registers real estate brokers and developers, controls their activities;
- Monitors compliance with laws and regulations when concluding purchase and sale transactions;
- Resolves disputes between parties in the market.
In addition, RERA has recently been working on various initiatives related to monitoring and market development.
What has already been done to protect the rights of home buyers?
Firstly, since 2009, the Dubai authorities have introduced licensing of real estate activities. "Before that, unless the shawarma seller did not offer you to buy real estate. It was not uncommon for clients who entrusted their investments to the wrong partners to lose large sums. Moreover, it is not necessarily about fraud; more often it is just about unprofessionalism. The agent's ignorance of financial and legal aspects sometimes costs his clients dearly," says the managing partner Royal Home Real Estate Elena Timchenko.
Today, any buyer on the market can easily get comprehensive information about the agency, as well as a specific broker, from open government sources and draw the right conclusions.
Secondly, certain requirements were introduced for development companies. For example, developers are now required to register all sales at the construction stage in RERA and provide a 10-year warranty on the constructed objects.
Third, RERA has established a rent index to regulate rental prices.
Blogger is not equal to broker! How do I check the agent's license?
The realtor's license, which is issued by the Regulatory Agency, is called a brokerage card. "It used to be a plastic card that needed to be renewed annually (usually they were worn as badges). Now the licenses are electronic, and a lot of important information is tied to them," explains the sales director Metropolitan Premium PropertiesAlina Adamko.
The broker will send you a copy of his card upon request.
Below is an example of our expert's broker card. In addition to the document number, the name of the owner, the name of the agency, the date of issue and the expiration date, there is also a personal rating of the specialist (from 1 to 5 stars). Realtors are evaluated by five factors: experience / number of years worked in real estate, the number of transactions carried out, compliance with the rules, the number of branches of the agency and social activities.
The information contained in the broker card can be found independently by downloading the Dubai Rest application to your phone. All the necessary information is publicly available!
Step 1. Enter the category: Licensed Real Estate Brokers/Licensed Realtors
Step 2. Click the button: Proceed to service/Use the service
Step 3. In the search field, type the name of the realtor – and you're done!
This way you get authentic, detailed information about the specialist you are interested in:
- Broker's number in the RERA registry (abbreviated BRN/ Broker Registration Number)
- The number of the real estate agency that the realtor is assigned to: ORN/Office Registration Number
- Agency license number: License Number
In addition, this electronic resource allows you to see what range of services an agent or agency is entitled to provide. This is important, since the broker does not always have the right, say, to manage real estate or rent, and so on. By providing services that are not prescribed in the license, the realtor violates the regulations and misleads customers.
Another point – to obtain a license, a broker must be assigned to a real estate agency. That is, realtors working on freelancing are violators. The system does not imply the provision of such services in a free format, without reference to the organization. After all, it is the agency that takes responsibility for the integrity and professionalism of its employees. In case of any violations on the part of its employee, the company may be fined in the amount of 50 000 dirhams.
Where to complain about an unscrupulous realtor?
It is quite easy to do this using the same Dubai Rest application.
To do this, you need to:
- Select the section "Complaints of violations"/Real Violations Complaints.
- Enter the necessary data: your own, the violator, as well as the details of the lot / project.
- Attach the documents.
The transparency of the system created in Dubai encourages licensed brokers to work in good faith. Those who provide services without permission are in the gray zone, out of sight of the supervisory authority. Therefore, if your transaction is accompanied by an agent without a brokerage license, it is worth considering where you will look for him tomorrow or in a year if something goes wrong.
How to get a brokerage license in Dubai?
To become a licensed realtor in Dubai, you need to take courses at the Dubai Real Estate Institute (DREI). This institution is specially certified for these purposes. According to the results of classes (12 academic hours), a special exam from RERA is provided. Today, testing takes place online. Applicants need to answer 40 questions in 60 minutes. The passing score for obtaining a broker's license: 75%.It should be noted that Dubai realtors undergo training and retake exams for knowledge of rules and regulations every year.
As a rule, if an agency hires a promising candidate who does not have a license yet, it pre-trains him on its own, and only then sends him to the real estate institute and to the exam.
«Preparation involves a detailed mastering of property legislation, market functioning mechanisms and ethical aspects», – explains the Director of CIS markets Fäm Properties Valery Tumin.
What documents are required to obtain a RERA license in Dubai:
- a copy of the resident visa or identity card/ Emirates ID;
- photo (the size of a passport);
- confirmation that you have been trained at the Dubai Real Estate Institute and passed the RERA exam;
- police certificate of no criminal record in Dubai/ Good Conduct Certificate
How do I apply for a brokerage license?
This can be done through the Trakheesi online system.
Step 1. Registration and creation of an account in the system (if the client registers for the first time). If an extension is necessary, then we log in and select the service.
Step 2. Filling in the data, attaching the necessary documents and sending the application online (it will be automatically approved).Step 3. Payment of the fee. At the time of publication, it is 520 dirhams plus VAT. Log in, select the payment method and pay online
Step 4. Getting the finished card. It can be downloaded or printed from the system.
Recommendations
To sum up, an effective mechanism of control over real estate activity has been created in Dubai. The buyer's rights in the real estate market are well protected, unless he voluntarily follows the gray zone, turning to unlicensed specialists.
What should alert in interaction with the agent!
- The offer to transfer funds to the agency's account, and not to the seller's account directly.
- The amount of the requested commission differs from the generally accepted figures.
- A proposal to conclude a contract of sale of a finished object on paper. Now everything is being processed electronically!
- Accepting money outside the office. All calculations must be made at the company's office in exchange for receipts!
How to avoid mistakes when choosing an agent?
- We request a copy of the brokerage license from the specialist, and also check the information in the Dubai Rest application. It is necessary to make sure that both the company (ORN) and the broker (BRN) have accreditation.
- We look in the application to see how experienced your realtor is. We pay attention to the number of transactions concluded by him and his rating.
- We focus on large, well-knownreal estate agencies.They are most often staffed by professionals.
- We pay attention to the rules in the emirate in which the transaction is planned. RERA oversees only Dubai, but other emirates have their own regulatory authorities, and the requirements may differ.
Thank you for your help in preparing the article by our experts in Dubai:
Alina Adamko, Sales Director Metropolitan Premium Properties
Elena Timchenko, Managing Partner Royal Home Real Estate
Valeria Tumina, Director of CIS Markets Fäm Properties
