How to Check a Dubai Property Agent Is Real: RERA Verification, Permit Numbers and the Scams They Stop

Dubai's property market is among the most heavily registered in the world. Brokers are licensed individually, agencies are licensed separately, every advertisement needs a permit, off-plan money must sit in escrow, and ownership changes hands only at a Land Department trustee office.

That registration is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It means a genuine transaction leaves a verifiable trail at five distinct points, and every common scam in this market works by breaking one of them. If you check all five, the overwhelming majority of fraud becomes impossible to run on you.

Each check takes a few minutes. None requires a lawyer.

Check One: The Broker's BRN

Every individual permitted to broker property in Dubai holds a Broker Registration Number, issued by RERA, the regulatory arm of the Dubai Land Department. It appears on a physical broker card with the agent's photograph and an expiry date.

How to verify it. Open the Dubai REST app, published by the Dubai Land Department, and use the broker validation service. The Dubai Land Department website offers the same lookup. Enter the BRN or the agent's name and you will see whether the registration is current, which agency it is attached to, and when it expires.

What a failure means. No BRN, an expired one, or one registered to a different agency than the business card says, all mean the same thing: this person cannot legally represent a property transaction in Dubai. There is no benign explanation. An agent in good standing produces their card without hesitation, because they are asked several times a week.

Ask to photograph the card. An agent who objects has told you something.

Check Two: The Agency's ORN

The brokerage itself holds an Office Registration Number, separate from the individual broker's BRN, plus a Department of Economy and Tourism trade licence.

How to verify it. The same Dubai REST and Dubai Land Department lookups cover registered offices. Confirm the ORN is live and that the trade name matches what is on the contract and the invoice you are being asked to pay.

Why it matters separately. An individually registered agent operating outside a registered office, or under a trade name that does not match their registration, puts your transaction outside the regulatory structure that would otherwise protect it. The commission invoice should come from the registered entity, not from an individual.

Check Three: The Listing's Permit Number

This is the check almost nobody does and it is the single most useful one.

Every property advertisement in Dubai requires a permit. The system is called Trakheesi, and the permit number must appear on the listing — on the portal, on the brochure, on the social media post. It ties that specific advertisement to a specific property, a specific agency and a specific authorisation from the owner.

How to verify it. Dubai REST and the Dubai Land Department site let you validate a permit number against the property it was issued for.

What it stops. The most common Dubai property scam is not an elaborate forgery. It is a listing for a property the advertiser has no right to market — real photographs, real address, real price, taken from a genuine listing and reposted by someone who will collect a deposit and disappear. A permit number that does not exist, or that resolves to a different property or agency, exposes that in seconds.

It also stops the bait-and-switch: the exceptional unit at an exceptional price that is "just gone" when you call, and which never had a permit because it never existed.

Check Four: Where the Money Goes

This is the check that determines whether a mistake is recoverable.

For off-plan. Every registered off-plan project in Dubai must have an escrow account, held at a bank, into which all buyer payments go and out of which the developer can draw only against construction milestones verified by the Land Department. Your cheque is written to the escrow account in the project's name, never to the developer's general account and never to an individual.

Confirm the project is registered, confirm the escrow account number, and confirm your payment is recorded on the Oqood interim register in your name. All three are verifiable through the Dubai Land Department.

For a resale. Money moves at the registration trustee office on transfer day, with a manager's cheque made out to the seller, handed over as the title transfers. There is no legitimate reason to pay a seller in advance of transfer.

For a rental. Cheques go to the landlord named on the title deed, and the tenancy is registered through Ejari. A landlord who cannot show a title deed in their name, or an agent collecting rent to a personal account, is the standard shape of the duplicate-letting scam — where one unit is let to several tenants who each arrive on move-in day with a key that works and a contract that does not.

The rule that covers all of these: never transfer money to a personal bank account, and never pay cash. A legitimate Dubai property payment goes to a developer escrow account, a registered trustee office, a registered brokerage's corporate account, or a named owner. If you are asked for anything else, stop.

Check Five: The Paperwork Chain

Dubai transactions use standard forms. Their absence is informative.

• Form A — the agreement between the seller and their broker, authorising the marketing. This is what the Trakheesi permit is issued against.
• Form B — the agreement between the buyer and their broker.
• Form F, the MOU — the sale contract between buyer and seller, signed by both and by the brokers.
• The title deed — issued by the Dubai Land Department, verifiable through Dubai REST. Check the name on it matches the person signing.
• The developer NOC — confirms service charges are clear and the developer has no objection to the transfer.
• Oqood registration — for off-plan, proof your interest is on the interim register.

If a seller cannot produce a title deed in their own name, or produces one in a company's name without a valid power of attorney or board resolution, that is the end of the conversation.

The Scams These Checks Defeat

The phantom listing. Photographs and details copied from a real listing, advertised slightly below market, with a request for a deposit to "secure the viewing" or hold the unit. Defeated by the permit check.

The fake landlord. Someone with access to a property — a departing tenant, a holiday-let guest, a maintenance contractor — lets it to a new tenant and collects a year's rent. Defeated by checking the title deed and insisting payment goes to the registered owner.

Duplicate letting. The same unit let to several tenants simultaneously with cash or personal-account payments. Defeated by Ejari registration, which cannot produce two concurrent contracts on the same unit.

The unregistered off-plan project. A sale launched before the project is registered, with no escrow account, where buyer money funds something other than the building. Defeated by verifying project registration, escrow and Oqood.

The unlicensed middleman. An individual who is not a registered broker inserting themselves into a transaction and taking a fee for work they cannot legally do, often alongside bad or invented advice about fees and process. Defeated by the BRN check.

Commission pressure. Demands for payment before a Form F is signed, or an invoice from a personal account. Defeated by paying only a registered agency, after contract, against a proper invoice.

Warning Signs Worth Taking Seriously

• Urgency that is not about the property: another buyer who will sign tonight, an offer that expires in hours.
• A price meaningfully below comparable sales with no explanation that survives a question.
• Reluctance to provide the BRN, ORN or permit number, or an explanation of why those do not apply here.
• Any request to pay a personal account, pay cash, or pay before a Form F is signed.
• Viewings that keep being deferred, or a property that can only be seen after a deposit.
• A seller abroad who cannot attend and has no registered power of attorney.
• Pressure to transfer outside a Land Department trustee office.

What To Do If Something Has Gone Wrong

Act quickly, in this order.

• Tell your bank immediately and ask for a recall on the transfer. Speed is the only thing that matters here.
• File a complaint with the Dubai Land Department, through the Dubai REST app or the Real Estate Services complaints channel, which covers broker and agency misconduct.
• Report to Dubai Police, including through the eCrime platform for online fraud.
• For a tenancy dispute, the Rental Dispute Centre is the correct forum, and an Ejari-registered contract is what gives you standing in it.
• Keep everything — listings, messages, receipts, screenshots, the permit number if one was quoted.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I check if a real estate agent is licensed in Dubai?

Ask for their RERA broker card and verify the Broker Registration Number through the Dubai REST app or the Dubai Land Department website. The lookup confirms whether the registration is current, which agency it is attached to and when it expires. A legitimate agent produces the card immediately.

What is a BRN and an ORN in Dubai real estate?

A BRN is the Broker Registration Number held by an individual licensed agent. An ORN is the Office Registration Number held by the brokerage itself. Both are issued under RERA and both are independently verifiable. You should check the agent's BRN and the agency's ORN, because an agent can be registered while the office is not, or the reverse.

What is a Trakheesi permit number and why does it matter?

Trakheesi is Dubai's advertising permit system. Every property listing must carry a permit number tying that advertisement to a specific property, agency and owner authorisation. Validating it through Dubai REST is the fastest way to expose the most common scam in the market — a listing reposted by someone with no right to market the property.

Is it safe to pay a deposit before signing a contract in Dubai?

No. Legitimate payments go to a project escrow account for off-plan, to the seller at a registration trustee office on transfer day, or to a registered brokerage's corporate account after a Form F is signed. Never pay a personal bank account, never pay cash, and never pay to secure a viewing.

How do I verify a property owner in Dubai?

Ask for the title deed and check it through the Dubai REST app, confirming the name on the deed matches the person signing. For off-plan, verify the project registration, the escrow account and that your purchase is recorded on the Oqood interim register in your name.

What should I do if I have been scammed in a Dubai property deal?

Contact your bank immediately to attempt a transfer recall, then file a complaint with the Dubai Land Department through Dubai REST and report the matter to Dubai Police, including via the eCrime platform for online fraud. For tenancy matters the Rental Dispute Centre is the correct forum. Preserve all listings, messages and receipts.

The Short Version

Five checks, each a few minutes: the broker's BRN, the agency's ORN, the listing's permit number, the destination of the money, and the title deed and forms.

Dubai built this registration system precisely so that an ordinary buyer could verify an extraordinary claim. The people who get hurt in this market are almost never the ones who ran the checks and got a bad answer. They are the ones who never ran them.

Every broker at AB Properties is RERA-registered, and we will give you our BRN, our ORN and the permit number for any listing before you ask.