Dubai service charges by community: the median is AED 14 per sq ft

A Dubai apartment owner pays a median of AED 14 per sq ft a year in service charges, about AED 10,500 for a 750 sq ft one-bed. That is the middle of 549 fully filed residential buildings in 2023, the latest year in which buildings filed complete budgets in the records we hold. The spread is wide. Jumeirah Village Circle, a typical mid-market community, sits at AED 14.08; the master community around Downtown Dubai charges more than twice that, at AED 29.09.

Service charges are the yearly charges collected from owners to cover the management, operation, maintenance and repair of a jointly owned building, in the words of Dubai's jointly owned property law. Owners pay them, not tenants, unless the lease says otherwise. For a landlord they come straight off the rent.

How much does each community charge?

Table: median annual service charge by master community, AED per sq ft, 2023. Buildings = fully filed residential buildings in the community (at least 5). The middle half of buildings sits between the low and high quartile. Source: DLD service-charge filings, Peak Trust Research.

The order follows what the buildings contain. Towers in Palm Jumeirah, Business Bay and Downtown come with concierge and hotel-style services, pools and large shared areas, and the owners pay for all of it. The three most expensive buildings in 2023 were One at Palm Jumeirah (AED 52.20 per sq ft), BV Residences on Jumeira Bay (AED 52.00) and W Residences on the Palm (AED 42.38).

The mid-market districts sit close together. Jumeirah Village Circle, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai South and Al Furjan are all between AED 14 and AED 15. International City and Dubailand are the cheapest in the table.

We left two communities out of the table because their figures sit far below the rest: DAMAC Hills, at a median AED 3 across 17 buildings, and Nshama (Town Square), at AED 5 across 11. Both include villa and townhouse clusters, which are billed differently from towers. A figure that low can also mean a filing that misses part of the bill, so check either one against DLD's Service Charge Index before you rely on it. The low bottom quartiles for Jumeirah Village (AED 3.22) and Dubai Land probably reflect the same mix of villa clusters and towers.

What does that mean for a real flat?

The rate is charged per square foot of the unit, every year, so multiply it by the size.

Table: annual service charge by unit size at the 2023 low quartile, median and high quartile for Dubai buildings, and at the Burj Khalifa District median. Arithmetic on the figures above.

Three lines make up most of the bill. In 2023 the median building's maintenance, general services and shared-area utilities each came to about AED 3 per sq ft. The reserve fund, the management fee and the master-community fee added about AED 1 each, and insurance less than that. Where district cooling is billed through the owners' association, a separate air-conditioning line can sit on top.

How much of the yield does it take?

For a landlord, this is the number that matters. Divide the yearly charge by the price per square foot and you get the share of the property's price that goes on service charges each year.

Table: 2023 median service charge as a share of the January–September 2026 median ready-apartment price per sq ft. Charges: DLD service-charge filings; prices: DLD registered sales. Peak Trust Research.

Put simply, service charges take about one percentage point off a typical Dubai apartment's gross yield. In cheaper areas they tend to take more, because the charge per square foot falls less than the price does. A JVC flat bought at AED 1,306 per sq ft pays about the same AED 14 per sq ft as a JLT flat bought at AED 1,543. Downtown is the exception at the top end, at 1.13%.

Our rental yields page shows gross yields by area, before service charges. Our service charge index lists every community we can price. It counts every priced building, including part-filed ones, so its citywide median, AED 13.07, sits a little below this guide's AED 14.

Are service charges going up?

Slowly, on the last comparable evidence. We compared each building only with itself, and only where it filed the same set of cost categories in both years.

Table: like-for-like change in Dubai residential service charges, same buildings and same cost categories in both years. Source: DLD service-charge filings, Peak Trust Research.

By community, the biggest rises from 2022 to 2023 were on Palm Jumeirah (median +14.3% across 8 buildings), in Dubai South (+11.7%, 7 buildings) and in The Greens (+11.5%, 6). JVC rose 5.9% (23 buildings) and JLT 4.9% (16). Dubai Marina, Business Bay, Dubai Sports City and Dubai Silicon Oasis were flat, within a point either way. Most of these community samples are small, so treat them as a guide to direction only.

Why don't we show 2024, 2025 or 2026?

The newer filings are incomplete, and an incomplete bill looks like a cheap one. Buildings file their budgets category by category. In our records, 554 of 645 projects filing for 2023 have the full set; for 2026 it is 10 of 381.

Table: residential projects with service-charge filings, and how many carry a full set of cost categories (five or more), by year. Source: DLD service-charge filings, Peak Trust Research.

Added up as they stand, the 2026 filings give a median near AED 3 per sq ft, which would suggest charges fell by three-quarters. They didn't. Most of those buildings have filed one or two lines so far. We'll update this guide once a newer year is complete. Until then, use these medians as a benchmark, and DLD's Service Charge Index for a specific building's approved budget.

What it means for investors

• Get the building's figure, not the area's. Charges vary a lot inside one community: the middle half of Business Bay buildings runs from AED 16 to AED 27 per sq ft. Look up the exact building's approved budget before you buy.
• Put the charge into your yield sum. At the median it takes about a point off gross yield, and more in cheaper areas. Work out the net figure before you compare two flats.
• Check for arrears. Under Dubai's jointly owned property law, a unit can't be disposed of until its unpaid service charges are paid. Ask for the clearance early in a resale.
• Look at what the charge pays for. Hotel services, chilled water and big amenity decks all show up in the bill, whether or not you use them.
• Expect charges to move. The median barely changed between 2022 and 2023, but individual buildings did: 176 of 329 went up and 89 went down. A building's next budget can be higher.

For an opinion on the full cost of holding a specific property, see how we work with investors. For how service charges weigh on the off-plan versus ready decision, read off-plan or ready in Dubai.