Transferring Dubai property: gifts, inheritance and shared ownership
Not every property changes hands by sale. A transfer between family members, an estate passing to heirs, two owners going separate ways and a company changing shareholder each move a property without a buyer in the ordinary sense — and each is registered differently, at a different cost. These are the four routes and what the Land Department requires for them.
7 answers, each with the official source it rests on · Last checked 23 August 2026
Who can receive a gifted property
Transferring a property to someone as a gift is a registered Land Department procedure with its own eligibility rules, not a private arrangement between family members. The Land Department's gift registration service describes it as transferring ownership without compensation, and the recipients it names are first-degree relatives — its own list is mother, father, spouse and children — or a company. Siblings are not on that list, and neither is any other relative, so anyone outside it is not covered by the service as published. The service is also limited by the property itself: it applies provided the property is not restricted and is not granted land. Where the recipient is a company, the Land Department requires the company to be registered first, and an unregistered entity has to complete a company registration before the gift can go through. The page does not set out every condition attached to gifting into a company, so ask a Real Estate Registration Trustee centre what your own case needs rather than assuming.
“first-degree relatives; mother, father, spouse, or children”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Property Gift Registration · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Proving the relationship for a gifted property
Because the reduced gift fee depends on the relationship, the Land Department asks you to prove it, and proof issued outside the UAE has to be recognised here before it counts. The gift registration service lists proof of relationship — a marriage certificate or a birth certificate — along with an Emirates ID for citizens and residents or a valid passport for non-residents, and a legal power of attorney where somebody is signing on your behalf. For UAE citizens the page names the marriage contract or the Family Book instead. Where the certificate was issued abroad, the page says it must be translated and attested by the UAE embassy in the issuing country and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in that country. That chain runs in the country that issued the document, not at a counter in Dubai, and it is usually the slowest part of the whole procedure — start it first. Requirements differ from country to country, and the UAE mission where the document was issued is the authority on what yours needs.
“must be translated and attested by the UAE embassy in the issuing country and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in that country”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Property Gift Registration · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
What registering a gifted property costs
Registering a gift carries its own Land Department fee, and the published figure is 0.125% of the property valuation with a minimum of AED 2,000 — a different rate from the one that applies to a sale. That is the transfer fee itself. The service page then lists the fees that sit on top of it: AED 250 for issuing the title deed certificate, a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee, and a map fee where a map is needed — AED 250 for an apartment or villa, AED 225 for a unified map with Dubai Municipality, and AED 100 for land outside its jurisdiction. Separately there are the service partner fees charged at the trustee office, which the page sets at AED 4,000 plus VAT where the value is AED 2,000,000 or more, and AED 2,000 plus VAT where it is below that. Every figure here is the Land Department's own published number rather than a market estimate, and published fees change — check the service page before you budget against them.
“0.125% of the property valuation with a minimum fee of AED 2,000”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Property Gift Registration · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
The valuation that sets the gift fee
The gift fee is a percentage of the property's valuation, so the valuation has to exist before the transfer can be registered. The Land Department's gift registration service states that a property evaluation request must be submitted at one of the Real Estate Trustee Centres before applying for registration, and the fee is calculated on that valuation rather than on a figure the two parties agree between themselves. The valuation is a paid service in its own right. For a residential apartment the Land Department publishes AED 4,000, plus a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee, and a service partner fee of AED 230 plus VAT where the request is made at a centre. Other property types are priced separately — vacant land, land for a major project, hotel buildings and agricultural land each carry their own figure — so if your property is not a residential apartment, ask the trustee centre which band it falls into rather than assuming this one.
Source: Dubai Land Department — Property Valuation · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Putting an inherited property into the heirs' names
When an owner dies the property does not move at the Land Department first — it moves at a court, and only then at the Land Department. The registration service is Inheritance Title Transfer, and what it asks for is proof that the succession has already been settled elsewhere: a legal notification of inheritance, and an official letter from Dubai Courts, another UAE court or the Awqaf, addressed to the Land Department. Alongside those it asks for Emirates ID copies for every heir who is a citizen or resident, passports for heirs living abroad, and — where the property still carries a mortgage — a no-objection letter from the entity holding it. The Land Department's own fee is AED 1,000 per property, collected from the heirs, plus AED 250 for issuing the title deed, map fees where a map is needed, a AED 20 knowledge and innovation fee for each drawing, and AED 130 plus VAT in service partner fees. Who inherits, and in what shares, is not a question the Land Department answers on this page, and it is not one this service decides — that comes from the court that issues the notification.
“AED 1,000 to be collected from the heirs for each property”
Who to go to
Dubai Courts — or the UAE court or the Awqaf with jurisdiction — for the inheritance notification and any question of who inherits; a Dubai Land Department Real Estate Registration Trustee centre for the transfer itself.
Source: Dubai Land Department — Inheritance Title Transfer · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Dividing a property owned with someone else
Two or more people who own a property together can register the end of that joint ownership, and the Land Department's service for it is the registration of the distribution of owned property among co-owners. It settles who owns what share; it is not the service for physically splitting one unit into several, which is a different procedure with different requirements. What this one asks for is an agreement between the owners, certified by an official competent entity and then certified by the Land Department, together with Emirates ID for every owner who is a citizen or resident and passports for owners living abroad. The fee is 1% of the value of the shares being separated in each property, plus AED 250 for issuing the title deed, map fees where a map is needed, and a AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee for each drawing. The agreement is the part the Land Department does not write for you: it decides who ends up with what, and it has to be certified before the registration can proceed.
“1% of the value of the disassociated shares in each property”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Partners division registration application · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Buying the company that owns the property
Where a property is held by a company, the sale can be done by transferring the company's shares rather than the property itself, and the Land Department registers that as its own service. The fee structure has the same shape as an ordinary sale: 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the purchaser as the registration fee, a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee for each drawing, and AED 250 from the purchaser for issuing the certificate of title. Service partner fees at the trustee office are AED 4,000 plus VAT where the sale is AED 500,000 or more, and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that. What changes is the paperwork rather than the rate: the Land Department asks for the company's trade licence, its memorandum and articles of association, any amendments to them, and identification for the owners, and the exact list depends on whether the company is a sole establishment, a limited liability company, a joint stock company, a branch, a free-zone entity or a foreign company. Free-zone entities are asked additionally for a no-objection certificate for property purchases.
“2% of the sale value for the sale registration fee”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Company shares sale · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
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