Manager cost calculator.

The quote for a long let is normally 5 to 8% of the year's rent, plus 5% VAT. Expect more on the bill. Finding the tenant is often a separate charge of about 5% of annual rent, or a month's rent. Lots of managers charge you again when the lease renews, and contractor invoices tend to come with 10 to 20% added. Put all of that together and a mandate sold to you at 6% can easily cost more than a tenth of your rent.

The 6% is only the part they lead with. If one of them bills placement every single year and adds a fifth to every repair, you're suddenly paying a lot more for the same headline. Get each charge listed in writing before you sign. And ask straight out whether you'll see the contractors' own invoices or just their summary of them.

Work out what they'd need to beat. Take the full yearly cost and divide it by one week's rent. That tells you how many weeks of empty flat they have to save you, compared with letting it yourself, before the fee pays for itself. Say the rent is AED 120,000 and the manager costs about AED 14,000 all in. They'd have to find you a tenant around six weeks faster each year, or get you a noticeably better rent at renewal.

You get your time back, plus a result you might not manage alone. The calculator puts that result in numbers, either weeks of vacancy saved or a higher rent. A good manager gets there in one of two ways. They fill the unit faster, and every empty week avoided is a week's rent in your account. Or they hold out for a better renewal price, up to the limit Decree 43 allows.

Think about where you are now. Maybe you live abroad, or the flat stood empty for two months last time, or nobody has ever checked your rent against the index. Fix just one of those and a manager covers their fee comfortably. If your place lets inside two weeks and the tenant plans to stay, there isn't much left for them to improve.

Your net income. Gross rent makes any fee look small. You can get the net figure from the rental yield calculator, and the guide to the real cost of owning covers the other yearly costs, service charges among them.

It's what the manager adds on top of the contractor's bill before sending it to you. Nothing illegal about it, and most do it, but the management agreement often leaves it out. Ask for the figure in writing and ask to see the contractors' invoices themselves. On AED 6,000 of repairs a year, a 15% markup is AED 900 you'd never spot in the headline percentage.

Yes. Ask for letting-only, which you'll also hear called tenant placement or leasing-only. The agent markets the flat, runs viewings, screens the tenant and does the Ejari, and after that the tenancy is yours to run. You pay once rather than every year. If you're in Dubai, own one unit and it normally lets within a fortnight, this is often the cheaper way to do it.

No, we take nothing from management fees, and the calculator isn't nudging you towards or away from a manager. We put the ranges together from published Dubai management agreements and fee guides. Treat them as a guide. What your contract says is what you'll pay.