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Glossary

RERA

RERA is the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, مؤسسة التنظيم العقاري, the regulatory arm of the Dubai Land Department. It licenses brokers and developers, approves service charges and advertising, and runs the rent index. A "RERA number" is a broker's registration number, and you can check it free.

What RERA is

Law No. (16) of 2007, issued 30 July 2007, Article 3: "a public corporation named the 'Real Estate Regulatory Agency' will be established and will have legal personality, financial and administrative autonomy ... It will be affiliated to the Land Department." That law was replaced by Law No. (4) of 2019, issued 4 September 2019, which keeps RERA "affiliated to the DLD", inserts a Director General between RERA's chief executive and the Executive Council, and moves one job out: "The DLD hereby succeeds RERA in exercising all the functions related to the registration of Lease Contracts". Ejari is therefore DLD's counter today, whatever the shorthand.

DLD's own one-line description: RERA "manages the real estate licensing and training systems, spreads real estate knowledge, regulates and supervises development escrow accounts, sets the standards governing owners' associations and jointly owned property management companies, audits their operations, addresses investor inquiries and grievances, and develops and manages the real estate control system." Its chief executive since 19 September 2025 is Abdullah Ahmed Mohammed Saleh Al Shehi, appointed by Executive Council Resolution No. 73 of 2025.

What it regulates

The 2007 law's Article 5 listed RERA's functions, and the list still describes the job: to "license all types of activities relating to the business of RERA, including the activities of real estate development"; to "accredit financial institutions ... to manage real estate development escrow accounts"; to "license and regulate real estate brokerages and monitor and supervise their activities"; to license property-management companies; to "monitor and supervise the activities of Owners Associations"; to "monitor real estate advertisements published in various media outlets"; to issue statistics; and to run education programmes. The 2019 law adds, in Article 5, the duty to "approve Real Property Development Projects in the Emirate, monitor their percentages of completion, and issue the relevant resolutions and recommendations", and extends advertising oversight into free zones including DIFC.

In practice a buyer meets RERA through four systems: Trakheesi for licences and advertising permits, Mollak for service charges, the rent index, and the broker register below.

What a RERA number is

Bylaw No. (85) of 2006 Regulating the Real Estate Brokers Register, Article 12: "The Division will issue a Real Estate Broker card to applicant bearing his name, address, and registration number in the Register. The name and registration number entered in the Register must appear in all correspondence and reports issued by the Real Estate Broker." That registration number is what listings show as the broker's BRN; the brokerage's own number is the ORN. The bylaw predates those labels, so the letters are trade usage for an official mechanism.

1. Open DLD's Licensed Real Estate Brokers list on its website. It searches "within brokers, Offices, Mobile number, Area and ORN" and filters by broker type and office.
2. Or open Dubai REST, whose stated scope includes "details about real estate brokers and their performance levels, data of real estate offices and their classifications".
3. Match the name and number on the card the broker shows you to the record. No record, no broker.

DLD also runs a "Dubai Brokers" portal under the Trakheesi domain. The step-by-step inside the app is not published as text on a DLD page; the two tools above are.

The RERA website

There isn't one. The domain rera.gov.ae exists, is owned by DLD, and serves nothing; on the day of writing it does not answer at all. RERA is a section of dubailand.gov.ae, in English and Arabic. The Rental Disputes Centre, by contrast, has its own site.

The rent index

Decree No. (43) of 2013, issued 18 December 2013, Article 1, caps increases by how far the current rent sits below the average for similar units: none up to 10% below; 5% at 11% to 20% below; 10% at 21% to 30%; 15% at 31% to 40%; 20% beyond 40%. Article 3 makes the "Rent Index of the Emirate of Dubai approved by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency" the measure of that average. On 2 January 2025 DLD launched the Smart Rental Index 2025, which "calculates the applicable increase based on data drawn from multiple factors, including rental contract values in the building, the average rental values in the area, and the building classification". DLD's own launch release cites the decree as No. 34; the instrument on the legislation portal is No. 43.

Two things people search for that RERA doesn't call by that name

"RERA tagging" appears on no DLD or legislation page. What agents mean by it is the Trakheesi permit that every property advertisement must carry. DLD's licensing page puts it plainly: "To market the project, an official permit must be obtained from the Trakheesi system."

"RERA dispute" is not RERA's either. Decree No. (26) of 2013 gives the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre "the exclusive jurisdiction to ... determine all Rent Disputes that arise between Landlords and Tenants of Real Property situated in the Emirate, including in free zones". RERA licenses and regulates; the Centre adjudicates.

Where this comes up

DLD · Trakheesi · Ejari

Frequently Asked Questions

This entry is part of the Home Guide Dubai glossary - the vocabulary a Dubai buyer or Golden Visa applicant actually meets, defined in plain English and kept consistent with our verified guides.