Why checking is easy in Dubai
Dubai's property market is regulated more tightly than most markets clients come from. Every agency, every broker and every listing is registered in the systems of the Dubai Land Department (DLD) and its regulator RERA, and these registers are public. You do not need to trust an agency's website: you need to open the app and cross-check.
Five checks follow, in order. The first three take minutes, the last two are a conversation.
Check 1. Licence and RERA registration
A legal agency has two numbers. First: a trade licence from Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism (DET). Second: RERA registration, the ORN (Office Registration Number). Without the second, a company can be anything, but not a property broker.
How to check: install the Dubai REST app (the official DLD app), open the section for licensed brokerage companies and enter the name or ORN. You will see the registration status, validity and legal name. Cross-check three things: the name matches the website and the contract; the status is active; the validity does not expire next month.
If an agency does not state its ORN on first request, the conversation can end there. Legal agencies put it in the website footer and in their signature.
Check 2. Broker cards and BRN
The people who will work with your client must hold a broker card with a BRN issued under that ORN. In the same Dubai REST app, in the licensed brokers section, enter the name or BRN: you will see the photo, the company name and the card validity.
Why this matters to a partner abroad: only a broker with a valid card is entitled to sign transaction forms and represent the client. If the "partner relations manager" has no card, that is normal, but whoever goes with your client to the viewing and the signing must have one.
Check 3. Listings and Trakheesi
Every property listing in Dubai must carry a Trakheesi permit number issued against the agency's licence. Open any listing of the agency on Property Finder or Bayut: the permit number is shown in the listing card. It can be verified through the DLD "Verify License and Permits" service or in Dubai REST.
What it says about the agency: listings without permits or with someone else's numbers mean the company either works through a third party's licence or breaks advertising rules. The agency gets the fines; the client gets the problems with the property.
Check 4. The contract before the client's name
The first three checks tell you the agency exists and is legal. The fourth tells you whether you can work with it. Ask for a template agreement before you name the client: a referral agreement or a Sub-Brokerage Agreement.
It must contain: your share and what it is calculated from; the payout deadline in days after the money arrives; the procedure for registering the client to you; who communicates with the client and how; what happens in a dispute. An agency that proposes "first the deal, then the paperwork" is proposing that you work on a handshake.
A useful test: ask how many days after the developer's commission arrives you will receive the money. The answer "as soon as we get it" without a number of days is no answer.
Check 5. People and numbers
Ask for three things that cannot be faked in an evening.
- Contacts of current partners. An agency whose partners are happy gives them without a pause. Call one or two and ask about payout timing and whether clients were ever poached.
- Numbers. How many partners, how many deals through partners, how much paid out. Not necessarily exact, but the person running the partner programme knows them by heart.
- A responsible person. Name, position, how long in Dubai, how to reach them. A partner programme backed by a website form and a shared mailbox does not work.
Separately, look at how many years the agency has been in the market and what it does besides partnerships. A company with its own brokers, its own deals and its own developers will not vanish after your first commission.
Red flags
- They ask for the client's contact before anything is signed.
- They do not state the ORN or suggest "looking on the website" where it is absent.
- The share is stated verbally or in a messenger, but not in a document.
- The payout timing question is answered without a number of days.
- They promise a share above 90 percent for a bare contact handover.
- There is not a single partner you can talk to.
- The agency's listings carry no Trakheesi numbers.
Check us first
We suggest starting with a check ourselves. FOR YOU REAL ESTATE L.L.C licence number 1230242, ORN 37533: open Dubai REST and cross-check. The network has over 250 partners, and the total commission paid to them and partner case studies are published on the company page. We send the template agreement before we ask for the client's name. A specific person is responsible for foreign partners; their name and contacts are on the page for agencies.
