What will you receive after selling a Dubai property?

• Sale price: what the buyer agrees to pay for the property.
• Net sale proceeds: the price, less debt repayment and your costs, plus or minus agreed adjustments.
• Money still to receive: what remains after accounting for costs you have already paid separately and sale proceeds you have already received.

Net proceeds are not profit. Profit needs a separate calculation using your original purchase cost and other relevant spending. A large remaining loan can reduce the cash you receive even when the property sells above its purchase price.

Working formula: sale price − bank payoff − seller-paid costs − debit adjustments + agreed credits = net proceeds. An unknown cost stays marked “quote needed”; it is not zero.

Dubai Land Department’s sale-registration schedule lists 2% of the sale value for the seller and 2% for the buyer. Clause 11 of its no-broker sale-contract template leaves spaces for the parties’ agreed allocation of the combined 4%. Check your signed agreement instead of assuming the buyer pays everything.

The same DLD schedule lists service-partner fees of AED 4,000 plus VAT for a sale of at least AED 500,000, or AED 2,000 plus VAT below that threshold. Other document and map charges can apply. Ask the registration provider for an itemised quote and enter only the share you pay.

DLD also requires the developer’s electronic no-objection certificate for freehold-area sales. Obtain the clearance quote for your property. Use the amount and payment responsibility confirmed for that transaction, rather than a generic “NOC fee”.

Record an agent’s fee from your agreement and invoice. The UAE’s standard VAT rate is 5%, while residential-property supplies are generally exempt, as explained by the Ministry of Finance. Check each charge’s VAT treatment; do not add 5% to the entire residential sale price or add VAT again to an inclusive quote.

Ask your lender for a dated payoff figure, its components and its validity date. The principal is the loan balance being repaid. Accrued interest and settlement fees are different lines, even when the bank collects them in one total.

The Central Bank’s individual-customer fee caps limit home-loan early settlement to the lower of 1% of the outstanding balance or AED 10,000, excluding VAT. This is a cap, not a promise that every customer pays the maximum.

As one published provider example, Emirates NBD’s home-loan key facts list the lower of 1.05% of outstanding principal or AED 10,500, including VAT. That wording already includes VAT. Your own lender’s quote and loan terms determine the figure you enter.

Payment timing also matters. DLD’s mortgaged-property sale procedure separates bank repayment from the seller’s remaining proceeds and requires the bank’s release before final registration in that process. Confirm your route and funding sequence; do not assume every payment happens on one transfer day.

Create one row per amount. For each row, record who pays, the amount including applicable VAT, the source and quote date, the expiry date, whether it is included in another total, and whether it has already been paid.

Mark each row confirmed, estimate, quote needed or not applicable. Write why a row is not applicable. A blank cell should never silently become a confirmed zero.

If a payoff total includes an early-settlement fee, keep the fee visible in the breakdown but do not subtract it again. Apply the same check to combined registration-provider charges and developer clearance packages.

Illustration only, not a property offer or personal quote. Assume a completed apartment sells for AED 1,800,000. The buyer agrees to pay the whole 4% sale-registration fee and the ordinary sale-provider/document package. The seller pays the following selected items. All other amounts and agreements below are invented for this example.

This is not an all-in result. Obtain the missing quotes before using it as a cash target. The agreed buyer credit is also an assumption; a reimbursement is not automatic.

The AED 759,000 bank payoff contains AED 750,000 of principal, AED 7,875 of early-settlement charges and an invented AED 1,125 interest amount. The fee uses the published Emirates NBD example above: 1.05% × AED 750,000 = AED 7,875, below AED 10,500. VAT is already included. These components are counted once through the payoff total.

The agency assumption is 1% × AED 1,800,000 = AED 18,000, plus AED 900 VAT, giving AED 18,900. The 1% is an invented agreed fee, not a prescribed market rate.

Change one assumption: if the seller instead pays a 2% sale-registration share, deduct another AED 36,000. The selected-row subtotal falls to AED 980,775, still before missing quotes. Fee allocation changes the result even when the headline price stays the same.

A cost paid before completion still reduces your overall proceeds. It simply does not need to be paid a second time.

Money still to receive = net proceeds + costs already paid separately − sale proceeds already received. Use this only with the same complete set of rows and agreed adjustments.

In the example, suppose the seller already paid the AED 1,575 clearance cost separately and has received none of the sale price. Remaining receipts across settlement would be AED 1,018,350 before the missing items. Overall provisional proceeds remain AED 1,016,775. The difference is the cost already paid, not extra profit or a promised single cheque.

Count a buyer payment credited toward the price once. The DLD no-broker template also distinguishes a security cheque and its release conditions. A cheque held as security is not automatically available cash. Confirm the actual treatment in your agreement before marking anything “received”.

If you are considering a below-market offer, run the worksheet for that offer’s actual price, cost allocation and conditions. Do not compare one offer’s headline price with another offer’s net proceeds.

A lower price changes your proceeds; it does not remove the need to repay the agreed bank amount or settle your allocated charges. Refresh time-sensitive quotes if the expected completion date changes. For the buyer’s separate budget, use our cash and mortgage buying-cost worksheet.

1. Match the price and fee allocation to the agreement.
2. Ask the lender and transfer provider to confirm the bank payoff, release route, payment sequence and quote validity.
3. Reconcile the developer’s statement, final bills and agreed credits.
4. Remove duplicate charges; distinguish estimates from confirmed amounts.
5. Check separately what you must pay before receiving the remaining proceeds.

Only then use the result to set your cash target. If the result is negative, the assumptions show a shortfall that needs to be resolved before relying on the sale to provide cash.