Three things called a partner programme
| Format | Who you are | What you do | Market pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral programme | anyone: agent, blogger, lawyer, acquaintance | pass on a client's contact | 10–50% of the agency commission |
| Broker partnership | a broker with own clients, in Dubai or abroad | manage the client yourself, deal through the agency | 70–90% of commission |
| Agency partnership, white label | a real estate agency in another country | sell Dubai under your own brand | 70–90% plus branded materials |
When an agency writes "partner programme: up to 80 percent", you need to know which row it means. "Up to" usually refers to the second or third, where you do all the work with the client. Nobody pays that much for a bare contact handover.
Referral programme: what a contact pays
The simplest format: you know someone who wants to buy in Dubai, you pass them to the agency and receive a share after the deal. From then on the agency works with the client: selection, viewings, documents.
Market rates run from 10 to 50 percent of the agency's commission. The spread comes down to what counts as a "client": some pay 10 percent for any contact, others 50 for a client with a confirmed budget and intent. At FOR YOU a referrer receives 50 percent of the commission for a passed-on client, with the client registered to the referrer in writing.
A separate option that few offer: a reward for a referred partner rather than a client. You introduce the agency to a broker or another agency and receive a percentage of the agency's income from that partner for as long as they work. At FOR YOU it is 1 percent of any income from the referred partner, indefinitely, in practice around AED 10,000 a year from one active partner. That is no longer a one-off payout but passive income.
Broker partnership: you manage the client yourself
Here you do not hand the client over but remain their broker from the first conversation to the keys. The agency provides the licence, developer agreements, lawyers, a commission account and deal registration. For that it keeps 10–30 percent.
The key difference from employment: you do not join a payroll. Your RERA card, if you have one, stays where it was issued; if you have none, you do not need one, because the partner agency conducts the deal legally. The model is covered in detail in the article on freelance brokers in Dubai.
At FOR YOU a partner broker receives 88 percent of commission on off-plan deals up to AED 5 million and 90 above, and on the secondary market keeps 100 percent and pays a fixed handling fee. No subscription and no entry fees.
Agency partnership: white label
A format for real estate agencies in Russia, the CIS and Europe whose clients ask about Dubai. You sell under your own brand: presentations, project materials and client communication are yours. The Dubai agency works as your local department: viewings, documents, registration, settlements. The client, as a rule, does not know anyone stands behind you.
The legal frame is a Sub-Brokerage Agreement: a contract between two agencies setting out the share, payment procedure and client registration. Terms are usually the same as for a broker: 85–90 percent on off-plan. How it looks from the foreign agent's side is covered in the article on working with Dubai from Russia and the CIS.
What to compare when everyone's percentages are the same
The percentage is what gets written in large type. Here is what determines what you actually receive:
- Payout timing. "After receiving commission from the developer" can mean a week or a quarter. Ask for days.
- Advance. Is there a payout right after the SPA, what percentage, on which developers. 85 percent in three days is often better than 90 in three months.
- Client registration. Is the client registered to you in writing before the agency speaks to them. Without it any percentage is a promise.
- Direct developer agreements. If the agency has no agreement with the developer you need, the deal goes through an intermediary and your share is calculated from a smaller sum.
- What is free and what is not. Listings, subscription, portal access, inventory access. Paid extras quickly eat the difference in percentages.
- A live person. Who is responsible for partners, how fast, in what language. A partner programme without a responsible person is a form on a website.
- Verifiability. Licence and ORN in the public record, partners you can ask, numbers the agency is willing to show.
What must be in the contract
Any of the three formats is formalised in a document before you name the client. The minimum that must be written:
- your share and what it is calculated from: commission before VAT, after deductions or before;
- payout deadline in days after the money reaches the agency;
- the client registration procedure and the period for which the client is held;
- who communicates with the client and in what format;
- what happens in a client dispute between two partners;
- the form and country of payment.
If an agency refuses to sign anything before "the first deal", that is the answer to whether you should work with it.
How FOR YOU's partner programme is built
All three formats from the table, on one licence: a referrer receives 50 percent of commission for a client and 1 percent of income from a referred partner indefinitely; a partner broker 88–90 percent on off-plan and 100 on secondary with a fixed handling fee; a foreign agency the same terms under a Sub-Brokerage Agreement with materials under its own brand. Payment within two working days of the money arriving, on off-plan an advance of 84 percent right after the SPA. The client and the share are fixed in writing before the deal, and nobody joins a payroll.
Licence 1230242 and ORN 37533 are open for verification in the Dubai REST app, and the total commission paid to partners is published on the company page. Terms for each format: referrers, brokers, agencies.
