How the RERA rental index decides your rent increase

A landlord in Dubai does not get to choose the renewal figure. Decree No. 43 of 2013, issued by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, on 18 December 2013, fixes the maximum increase allowed when a lease contract is renewed. It turns on one comparison: how far the current rent sits below the average rental value of similar units. The further below, the more a landlord may ask. Where the rent is already close to that average, the permitted increase is nothing.

The average is not a matter of opinion. Article 3 of the Decree says the average rental value of similar units is determined in accordance with the Rent Index of the Emirate of Dubai approved by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency. Everything practical runs off that index: the calculator on the Dubai Land Department portal, the notice a landlord has to serve, and the case the Rental Disputes Centre will hear if the two sides fail to agree.

The five bands

Article 1 of Decree 43 sets out five steps. Read it as a ceiling rather than an entitlement. A landlord may ask for less, or for nothing, and many do when a tenant is reliable.

Twenty per cent is the top of the scale in every case. Article 2 applies the Decree to landlords, private or public, across the Emirate, including special development zones and free zones. So a tower inside a free zone is inside the same bands as a building in Deira.

Where the average comes from

Dubai Land Department launched the Smart Rental Index 2025 on 2 January 2025, covering all residential areas of the emirate, including key areas, special development zones and free zones. The department has said the index weighs technical and structural characteristics, quality of finishes and maintenance, the building's location and spatial value, the level of services and facilities such as maintenance, cleanliness and parking management, and market conditions. Commercial and industrial coverage was flagged as a later phase.

Building classification is the part most tenants have never heard of. Under the department's classification survey, a building is rated from one to four stars against a published standard, with a separate 4 Plus category for buildings meeting the highest sustainability standards. The assessment runs to 64 questions across five groups: engineering and technical criteria, sustainability, documentation, health and safety, and administration and finance. Owners can pull the classification report for their building, and ask for it to be updated, through the Dubai REST app. A reclassification can move the indexed average for every unit in the tower.

Running the calculator

The Rental Index sits under e-Services on dubailand.gov.ae and covers residential, commercial, industrial, industrial land and staff accommodation. It asks for the contract end date, the property type, the area, the number of bedrooms and the current annual rent. What comes back is the indexed average for that description of unit and the change the Decree permits on those figures. Run it for the exact unit, on the exact renewal date, and keep the result. A printout with the contract end date visible on it is worth more in an argument than a recollection of what the screen said in June.

The ninety-day notice

A lawful increase also has to be asked for in time. Article 13 of Law No. 26 of 2007, as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008, lets either side revisit the terms before expiry. Article 14 then requires that, unless the parties have agreed otherwise, the party wishing to amend any term must notify the other "no less than ninety (90) days before the date on which the Lease Contract expires". Miss it and the contract renews on the existing terms.

Form matters as much as timing. Article 2 of Law 26 of 2007 defines notification as written notice sent through the Notary Public, or delivered by registered post, by hand, or by any other technological means approved by law. Practice varies here, and messaging apps are where it usually goes wrong. The safer reading is the one the Rental Disputes Centre acts on: its filing checklist for an eviction claim asks for a notarised notice or the registered post receipt. If the notice cannot be evidenced, treat it as not served.

Eviction is a different notice, on a different clock

A raise and a removal are separate instruments and people conflate them constantly. Article 25(2), as replaced by Law 33 of 2008, allows a landlord to require the tenant to vacate on expiry on four grounds: demolition and reconstruction or new structures that would stop the tenant using the property; restoration or comprehensive maintenance that cannot be done while the tenant is in occupation; the owner taking the property for his own use or that of a first-degree relative; and a wish to sell. For any of them the landlord must give the tenant at least twelve months' notice of the reasons, served through a Notary Public or by registered mail.

There is a tail to the own-use ground. Article 26 stops the landlord letting the property to a third party for at least two years in the case of residential property, or three years for non-residential property.

If the two sides cannot agree

The Rental Disputes Centre was established by Decree No. 26 of 2013, issued on 18 September 2013. Article 6 gives it jurisdiction over rent disputes between landlords and tenants for property in the emirate, including free zones, and carves out three categories: disputes in free zones that have their own tribunals, lease finance contracts, and long-term leases falling under Law No. 7 of 2006. Article 17(a) makes judgments final, with no appeal of any kind, where the value of the rent claim is less than AED 100,000. Above that, the window to appeal a First Instance judgment is fifteen days from the day following the hearing at which it was issued. Where the parties settle amicably, Decree 26 provides for half the fee to be refunded.

The Centre states one business day to complete registration. Filing wants the latest lease, Emirates ID or trade licence, and a bank statement showing the IBAN.

Registration decides whether there is a case at all

Article 4 of Law 26 of 2007 requires all lease contracts subject to the law to be registered with RERA, through Ejari, and then goes further: judicial authorities and government departments, authorities and corporations may not consider any dispute or claim, or take any action relating to a lease contract, unless the contract is registered. An unregistered tenancy is not a weaker case. It is not a case. Registration also feeds the housing fee charged by Dubai Municipality at 5 per cent of the yearly rent, which appears on the utilities account rather than as a separate bill.

Where the published figure and the asking price part company

The index is built from registered contract values, area averages and the building's classification. Asking rents on portals are not the same thing and often sit above it. Two consequences follow, and both are common. A landlord whose rent is already at or near the indexed average is entitled to no increase at all in a year when advertised rents in the same tower have moved sharply. A tenant who has stayed put through several quiet years can find the gap has widened past 40 per cent, which puts the full 20 per cent on the table in a single renewal.

The Decree also speaks only to renewal. It sets no ceiling on what a landlord and a new tenant agree at the start of a fresh lease, which is why a unit can be relet well above the figure the sitting tenant could lawfully have been charged. That asymmetry is the reason the ninety-day notice is worth more attention than the calculator. Run the index before the ninety-day mark, not after it. Serve anything you send in a form that produces a receipt, and file the receipt with the contract.