Gift Registration Fee: 0.125% of Gifted Value (min AED 2,000)
DLD Know Your Rights: registering a Gift Contract costs 0.125% of the value of the property gifted, with a minimum of AED 2,000 (subject to DLD gift policies).
When ownership moves as a gift rather than a sale, beginners often still budget the familiar 4% sale registration fee. Dubai Land Department (DLD) prints a different line for that path: Registration of a Gift Contract costs 0.125% of the value of the property gifted, provided the fee will not be less than AED 2,000 (subject to the policies of the DLD applicable to the gifting of real estate).
This article is orientation from a primary DLD investor booklet. It is not personalised legal, tax, banking or investment advice. Always confirm the live fee schedule with DLD, your trustee office, and a qualified adviser before you gift or accept gifted property.
Where the 0.125% sits in Know Your Rights
In Know Your Rights… For Real Estate Investors in Dubai, the chapter Fees on Transfer of Ownership and Other Real Estate Disposals states that fees for registering real estate disposals are payable by the parties to real estate contracts in accordance with Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013 on the Adoption of Fees of the Dubai Land Department. The booklet adds that those fees vary depending on the contract type, the value of the real estate, and the duration of the contract.
For beginners: a gift registration is still a DLD registration of a disposal — it is simply not the same printed percentage as a Sale and Purchase Contract. For agents: put the gift row on the brief next to the sale 4% and the mortgage 0.25% of loan, so a family transfer is not costed as if it were an ordinary sale.
The printed base is gifted value, with a floor
Know Your Rights prints the gift example in one row: Registration of a Gift Contract — 0.125% of the value of the property gifted, provided that the fee will not be less than AED 2,000, subject to DLD policies applicable to gifting real estate. That wording matters. Do not invent a “same as sale 4%” rule for gifts, and do not invent a zero-fee family transfer that the primary does not print.
Keep the gift registration fee separate from the sale registration fee of 4% of the purchase price (equal parts unless agreed otherwise) that the same fees table prints for a Sale and Purchase Contract. Keep it separate from the mortgage registration fee of 0.25% of the mortgage value (the loan). Three different printed lines, three different contract types.
Why gift registration is still a register step
The same fees chapter sits inside DLD’s wider message that disposals are registered so interests appear on the official record. A signed private gift letter is not the same thing as a DLD-registered Gift Contract. For investors receiving family property: ask whether the gift will be registered at DLD (or a licensed trustee office linked to DLD) and which value base DLD will use. For agents: do not brief “it is only a gift, so there is no DLD fee” when Know Your Rights prints both a percentage and a minimum.
What investors and agents should ask before transfer
Before you treat a gifted secondary or ready unit as fully costed, ask: Is the registration modelled on the printed 0.125% of gifted value, with the AED 2,000 floor checked against the live DLD policy for gifting? Have you separated that line from the 4% sale registration fee and from any mortgage registration if finance is also involved? Is the gift path confirmed with DLD policies on gifting real estate, not only with a WhatsApp family agreement?
Brief the stack in plain order when a gift is live: title due diligence → confirm gift vs sale contract type → register the Gift Contract with the printed 0.125% (min AED 2,000) → new title deed showing the registered ownership. Do not sell an unregistered private note as a completed DLD transfer. This is orientation, not personalised advice. Recheck the live DLD pages, Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013 as applied by DLD, and your signed documents before you move title.
Primary: Dubai Land Department, Know Your Rights… For Real Estate Investors in Dubai — PDF (Fees on Transfer of Ownership and Other Real Estate Disposals; cites Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013).
