Dubai rent increase calculator

The rule in short

In Dubai, a landlord can only raise the rent at renewal, and only by an amount that depends on how your current rent compares with the average rent of similar units. The average comes from the RERA rental index, which Dubai Land Department (DLD) now publishes as the Smart Rental Index. The bands are set by Decree No. 43 of 2013, Article 1.

The comparison is always made against the index average, not against your rent:

Gap % = (index average − current rent) ÷ index average × 100

If your rent is AED 60,000 and the average for similar units is AED 80,000, the gap is 20,000 ÷ 80,000 = 25%. That puts you in the 21–30% band, so the landlord can ask for at most 10% more: AED 66,000.

Two other rules sit next to the bands. The landlord has to tell you about any change to the rent or terms at least 90 days before the contract expires, unless your contract sets a different period (Law No. 26 of 2007, Article 14, as replaced by Law No. 33 of 2008). And the cap is a ceiling. Nothing in the decree says the landlord is owed the full percentage.

The five bands

Decree 43/2013 lists five bands. The percentages are of your current rent, while the bands are measured against the average.

Maximum rent increase at renewal, Decree No. 43 of 2013, Article 1

Your rent is below the index average by	Maximum increase	Decree wording
up to 10%	0%	up to 10% less than the average
11% to 20%	5%	11% to 20% less
21% to 30%	10%	21% to 30% less
31% to 40%	15%	31% to 40% less
more than 40%	20%	more than 40% less

If your rent is at or above the average, the first row applies and no increase is allowed. However far below the average you are, the increase never goes above 20%.

The decree writes the bands in whole numbers: “up to 10%”, then “11% to 20%”. It does not say what happens to a gap of, say, 10.5%. The calculator puts those slivers in the higher band and shows the lower reading next to it, so you can see both. DLD does not publish the rounding its own calculator uses, so if your gap lands between two bands, check the figure DLD’s tool gives you.

Worked examples

Each of these is also a test case for the calculator, so the slips below are produced by the same code that runs above.

A rent well below the average

AED 60,000 against an index average of AED 80,000. The gap is 25%, the band is 21–30%, the cap is 10%.

Maximum rent at renewal

Your rent is 25% below the averageBand: 21% to 30% below

Decree No. 43 of 2013
Current annual rent	AED 60,000.00
Rental index average, similar unitsYour rent is 25% below the average: (80,000 − 60,000) ÷ 80,000	AED 80,000.00
Maximum increase: 10%10% of 60,000	AED 6,000.00
Highest new annual rent	AED 66,000.00

A ceiling, not an automatic right. Ejari renewal is paid separately: AED 177.75 online or AED 220.00 at a trustee centre. General information, not legal advice.

A smaller gap, a smaller increase

AED 85,000 against AED 100,000 is 15% below the average, so the 11–20% band applies and the cap is 5%: AED 4,250, for a new rent of AED 89,250.

Maximum rent at renewal

Your rent is 15% below the averageBand: 11% to 20% below

Decree No. 43 of 2013
Current annual rent	AED 85,000.00
Rental index average, similar unitsYour rent is 15% below the average: (100,000 − 85,000) ÷ 100,000	AED 100,000.00
Maximum increase: 5%5% of 85,000	AED 4,250.00
Highest new annual rent	AED 89,250.00

A ceiling, not an automatic right. Ejari renewal is paid separately: AED 177.75 online or AED 220.00 at a trustee centre. General information, not legal advice.

Rent close to, or above, the average

AED 95,000 against AED 100,000 is only 5% below, which is inside the first band, so the rent stays at AED 95,000. The same is true of AED 110,000 against AED 100,000: rent above the average cannot go up at all.

Maximum rent at renewal

Your rent is 10% above the averageBand: up to 10% below

Decree No. 43 of 2013
Current annual rent	AED 110,000.00
Rental index average, similar unitsYour rent is 10% above the average: (100,000 − 110,000) ÷ 100,000	AED 100,000.00
Maximum increase: 0%No increase in this band	AED 0.00
Highest new annual rent	AED 110,000.00

A ceiling, not an automatic right. Ejari renewal is paid separately: AED 177.75 online or AED 220.00 at a trustee centre. General information, not legal advice.

The biggest band

AED 55,000 against AED 100,000 is 45% below the average. That is more than 40%, so the cap reaches its maximum of 20%: AED 11,000, for a new rent of AED 66,000.

Between two bands

AED 89,500 against AED 100,000 is 10.5% below the average. That is more than “up to 10%” but less than “11%”. The calculator applies 5% (AED 93,975) and lists the 0% reading (AED 89,500) on the slip.

Maximum rent at renewal

Your rent is 10.5% below the averageBand: 11% to 20% below

Decree No. 43 of 2013
Current annual rent	AED 89,500.00
Rental index average, similar unitsYour rent is 10.5% below the average: (100,000 − 89,500) ÷ 100,000	AED 100,000.00
Maximum increase: 5%5% of 89,500	AED 4,475.00
Lower reading: 0% onlyThe gap falls between two of the decree's bands; check DLD's calculator	AED 89,500.00
Highest new annual rent	AED 93,975.00

A ceiling, not an automatic right. Ejari renewal is paid separately: AED 177.75 online or AED 220.00 at a trustee centre. General information, not legal advice.

Late notice

Same figures as the first example, AED 60,000 against AED 80,000, but the contract expires on 31 March 2027 and the landlord’s notice arrives on 30 January 2027. That is 60 days before expiry. The 90-day deadline was 31 December 2026. If the contract has no clause allowing shorter notice, the 10% increase cannot be enforced through the Rental Dispute Centre at this renewal, and the rent stays at AED 60,000 unless you agree to more.

Maximum rent at renewal

Your rent is 25% below the averageBand: 21% to 30% belowNotice deadline: 31 December 2026

Decree No. 43 of 2013
Current annual rent	AED 60,000.00
Rental index average, similar unitsYour rent is 25% below the average: (80,000 − 60,000) ÷ 80,000	AED 80,000.00
Maximum increase: 10%10% of 60,000	AED 6,000.00
Highest new annual rent	AED 66,000.00

A ceiling, not an automatic right. Ejari renewal is paid separately: AED 177.75 online or AED 220.00 at a trustee centre. General information, not legal advice.

The 90-day notice rule

Law No. 26 of 2007 regulates landlords and tenants in Dubai. Law No. 33 of 2008 rewrote several of its articles, including Article 14. As it stands, a party who wants to change the terms of the tenancy, the rent included, has to notify the other party at least 90 days before the contract expires, unless otherwise agreed.

Three practical points follow.

• Count back from the expiry date. If the contract ends on 30 June 2027, notice must reach you by 1 April 2027. The calculator works this out when you enter the expiry date, and tells you whether a notice you received was in time.
• “Unless otherwise agreed” matters. Some contracts set a different notice period. A clause like that is valid, so read your contract before relying on the 90 days.
• Keep the notice. It should be in writing. Keep the message or letter and note the date you received it. That is the evidence the Rental Dispute Centre will look at.

If you and the landlord cannot agree on the new rent, Articles 9 and 13 (as amended) send the question to the Rental Dispute Centre, which sets a fair rent using RERA’s increase criteria and other factors.

Getting the index average from DLD

We do not have the index data, and nobody outside DLD does: the figures sit behind DLD’s Rental Index service, which asks for details of your unit before it shows an average. So the calculator asks you to bring that one number.

1. Open DLD’s Rental Index service. The same tool is in the Dubai REST and DubaiNow apps.
2. Enter the contract expiry date, property type, area, number of rooms and your current annual rent.
3. Note the average rent it shows, and its own verdict on the allowed increase. Save a screenshot or PDF.
4. Enter the average into the calculator above to see the working, the notice deadline and the Ejari fee.

DLD’s FAQ describes the index as indicative for new leases and mandatory when the parties dispute a renewal increase. In a dispute, the DLD result is what counts.

What the Smart Rental Index changed, and what it did not

DLD launched the Smart Rental Index on 2 January 2025. According to DLD’s announcement and FAQ:

• buildings are classified by construction quality, design, energy efficiency, services and location, using AI over registered Ejari contracts
• outliers are excluded and averages are weighted
• it is updated once a year
• it covers residential areas, including free zones and private developments, but not DIFC
• commercial and industrial versions are still being developed
• a landlord or owner can ask DLD to update a building’s classification

It changed how the average for your unit is worked out, so two flats in the same area can now have different averages if their buildings are classed differently. It did not change the bands in Decree 43/2013. Some guides suggest the percentages were revised in 2025. They were not.

Edge cases

A new lease, or your first renewal with a new landlord

The cap applies “when renewing” (Decree 43/2013, Article 1). A brand-new tenancy with a new tenant is priced by agreement, and DLD treats the index as indicative for new leases.

The index shows your rent above the average

Then the gap is negative and the answer is 0%. Since 2025 the average depends on how DLD classifies the building, so an older or lower-grade building can carry a lower average than newer towers in the same area. A landlord who thinks their building is misclassified can ask DLD to update the classification. That is the route, rather than ignoring the result.

The landlord missed the 90-day notice

Without a clause in the contract allowing shorter notice, an increase notified less than 90 days before expiry cannot be enforced through the Rental Dispute Centre for that renewal. The landlord can give proper notice before the next renewal. You can always agree to an increase voluntarily. The calculator’s notice check only compares dates; it cannot read your contract.

DIFC

Decree 43/2013, Article 2, says the decree covers special development zones and free zones such as DIFC. DLD’s Smart Rental Index FAQ says the index excludes DIFC. So a DIFC tenant cannot read an average from the DLD tool, and the calculator cannot help without one. The two official sources do not line up here, so ask DLD or the Rental Dispute Centre directly.

Shared housing under Law No. 4 of 2026

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum issued Law No. 4 of 2026 on shared housing on 11 March 2026, according to the Dubai Media Office. It takes effect 180 days after publication in the Official Gazette, and DLD is to publish a separate rent indicator for rooms in shared housing. It does not change the Decree 43/2013 bands. For an ordinary flat or villa let to one tenant, nothing here changes. For a room in shared housing, the room-level indicator, once DLD publishes it, is the figure to compare against, and the calculator does not cover it yet.

Gaps between bands

Covered above: a gap of 10.5%, 20.5% or 30.5% is not addressed by the decree’s wording. A gap just over 40%, on the other hand, is clearly “more than 40%”, so 40.01% gets 20% with no ambiguity.

If the landlord asks for more than the cap

1. Check your inputs. Run DLD’s Rental Index with the right area, property type and room count, and enter the result here. Make sure your rent figure is the annual rent on your Ejari contract.
2. Answer in writing. Tell the landlord or agent the rent you will renew at, attach the DLD index result, and keep a copy.
3. Check the dates. If notice came late and your contract does not allow shorter notice, say so.
4. Go to the Rental Dispute Centre. If you still cannot agree, either party can file a case. The Centre sets the rent using RERA’s criteria, and DLD’s FAQ says the index is mandatory in renewal disputes. Bring the tenancy contract, the Ejari certificate, the landlord’s notice and the index result.

We have not listed fees or filing times for the Rental Dispute Centre because we have not verified them against an official page. Check them with the Centre before filing.

Ejari fees at renewal

A renewed contract is registered in Ejari again, and the fee is separate from the rent. DLD lists the same fees for registering and renewing:

Ejari register or renew fees, AED

Item	Online (website or Dubai REST)	Trustee centre
Registration	AED 100.00	AED 100.00
Knowledge fee	AED 10.00	AED 10.00
Innovation fee	AED 10.00	AED 10.00
Service partner fee	AED 55.00	AED 95.00
VAT on the partner fee	AED 2.75	included in total
Total	AED 177.75	AED 220.00

The trustee-centre parts add up to AED 215, and 5% VAT on the AED 95 partner fee is AED 4.75, which makes AED 219.75. DLD publishes the total as AED 220.

Common mistakes in other guides

These come up again and again in rent-increase articles. We checked each against the decree, the law or DLD’s own pages.

• “Rent can’t be increased in the first two years.” That was the original Article 9 of Law 26/2007. Law 33/2008 replaced it, and there has been no two-year freeze since.
• Dividing by the current rent. Using the first example, 20,000 ÷ 60,000 is 33.3%, which would wrongly put the tenant in the 15% band. The decree measures the gap against the average, which gives 25% and a 10% cap.
• “The Smart Rental Index changed the percentages.” It changed how averages are calculated. The bands are still those in Decree 43/2013.
• The 20% band described as rents “above” the average. DLD’s own January 2025 announcement says 20% applies to rents that “exceed the average by more than 40%” and cites “Decree No. (34) of 2013”. The decree is No. 43, and the 20% band is for rents more than 40% below the average. Rent above the average gets no increase at all. Some news write-ups copied the release word for word.
• Conflicting launch dates for the Smart index. You will see 2024 and 2025. DLD’s announcement is dated 2 January 2025.
• Treating the cap as an entitlement. The decree sets a maximum. A landlord can ask for less, and the notice rule still has to be met.

Not for Sharjah or Abu Dhabi

Decree 43/2013 and Law 26/2007 are Dubai legislation. Sharjah and Abu Dhabi have their own tenancy rules, and we have not verified them to the same standard, so this calculator does not apply there. Do not use the Dubai bands to judge an increase in another emirate.

How this calculator works

• Inputs: your current annual rent, the index average from DLD, and optionally the contract expiry date and the date you received notice.
• Gap: (average − rent) ÷ average × 100, kept to six decimal places so a figure like 20% is not nudged over a band edge by rounding.
• Band: a gap at or below 10% gives 0%. Above 10% and up to 20% gives 5%. Above 20% and up to 30% gives 10%. Above 30% and up to 40% gives 15%. Above 40% gives 20%. Gaps between the decree’s whole-number bands are flagged.
• Maximum new rent: current rent plus the band percentage of current rent, rounded to the fil.
• Notice: deadline = expiry date minus 90 days. Notice received on or before that date is in time.
• Ejari: the DLD fees above, shown on the slip as a separate payment.

Nothing you type leaves your browser. The figures behind the calculator are in the sources list below with the date each was checked.