Why your clients are already asking about Dubai
For several years running Dubai has been the main market for private foreign investment in housing, and buyers from Russia and the CIS consistently rank in the top five by number of deals. The reasons are simple and need no explaining to the client: no income or property tax, a dirham pegged to the dollar, title registered by the state, and a purchase from AED 2 million grants a ten-year residence visa.
For an agent this means one thing: the demand exists, it comes by itself, and something has to be done with it. There are three options: wave it off, hand the client to "someone in Dubai" for a thank-you, or build Dubai into your work and get paid for it. The rest of this article is about the third.
What you can and cannot do without a UAE licence
UAE law does not prohibit an agent from another country from finding a client, advising them, showing projects and bringing them to a deal. What is prohibited, and done only by a licensed company in Dubai:
- publishing listings of UAE property: each requires a Trakheesi permit against an agency licence;
- signing DLD transaction forms and registering the deal;
- receiving commission from the developer directly: developers pay only agencies under an agency agreement.
Hence the structure that works for every foreign agent: the client is yours, the deal and the money go through a licensed agency in Dubai, and your share is fixed by an agreement with that agency. The UAE regulator does not care about your licence in Russia or Kazakhstan. Your own country's rules on advertising foreign property and taxing your remuneration remain yours.
Three participation formats and what they pay
| Format | What you do | What the agency does | Your share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Referral | pass on the client's contact | everything else: communication, selection, viewings, the deal | 10–50% on the market, 50% at FOR YOU |
| Sub-brokerage, white label | manage the client yourself under your brand | the local part: viewings, documents, registration, settlements | at FOR YOU up to 90% on off-plan, 100% on secondary with a fixed handling fee |
| Agency partnership | the same, but on behalf of a company, with a team | the same plus branded materials, training, inventory access | the same terms for a legal entity |
The difference between the first and second rows is not the percentage but who talks to the client. A referral is "introduce and forget". Sub-brokerage is your client from the first call to the keys, with the Dubai agency working as your local department, invisible to the client.
Numbers differ from agency to agency. In the public programmes of Dubai companies the referral share is usually 20–50 percent, and for foreign partners who manage the client themselves some promise up to 80 percent on selected projects. Compare not just the percentage but what stands behind it: payout timing, advance, client registration.
Why the share must be in the contract, not in a chat
Money for a deal in Dubai flows only through the accounts of licensed companies: the developer pays the agency, the agency pays you. Direct settlements between agents are not recognised by the regulator. So the only document that makes your share real is an agreement with the agency where it is written down together with the client registration.
Practical conclusion: when an agency promises you 50, 80 or 90 percent verbally or in a chat, that is a promise. When the same share is written into a Sub-Brokerage Agreement with your client registered, that is an obligation. The first disappears with the manager who gave it. The second stays. Demand the document before you name the client.
How the deal works when the client is in Moscow and the property is in Dubai
Remote buying in Dubai is the norm, not the exception. Most off-plan deals with foreigners close without a visit. Here is the full path.
- Enquiry and selection. You take the brief as you always do. The agency in Dubai provides live availability across developers, prices and payment plans, presentations under your brand. A good agency answers within an hour, not a day.
- Viewing. An online tour of the project and district, or the client's visit: then the agency meets them, and you remain their agent.
- Booking. The client signs a booking form and pays the developer a deposit, usually 5–10 percent. The unit is taken off the market.
- Contract. For off-plan this is the SPA with the developer, signed electronically. The deal is registered in the Oqood register and the client receives a registration document.
- Payment. According to the developer's payment plan into an escrow account controlled by DLD. The money goes neither to the agency nor to the seller, but to the protected project account.
- Commission. The developer pays the agency, the agency pays you under the agreement. At FOR YOU within two working days of the money arriving, and on off-plan there is an advance: 84 percent of the commission right after the SPA is signed, on selected projects 100, without waiting for the developer.
On the secondary market there are more steps: a memorandum (Form F), a 10 percent deposit, an NOC from the developer, deal day at the Trustee Office with manager's cheques and issuance of the Title Deed. Here you cannot do without a power of attorney or the client's visit, and here it matters especially that the agency has its own conveyancer.
Power of attorney and client documents
The client needs one mandatory document: a passport. A UAE residence visa is not required for a purchase, and there are no nationality restrictions for Russia or CIS countries.
If the client does not travel, an agency representative conducts the deal under a power of attorney. A POA from Russia is prepared as follows: notary, then consular legalisation, because the UAE is not party to the Hague Convention and an ordinary apostille does not work there, then attestation at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and translation into Arabic by a certified translator. The process usually takes several weeks, so it is started in parallel with the selection, not after.
An alternative many clients choose themselves: fly in for one day, sign everything in person and see the property while there. For the secondary market this is often simpler than a POA.
Payment and money
Source-of-funds checks (AML and KYC) in the UAE are mandatory for every buyer without exception, and the agency is obliged to perform them. Prepare the client for this in advance: bank statements, documents on asset sales, income confirmations.
The payment method for a client from abroad is chosen with the agency before the booking, not after. FOR YOU has a dedicated finance department for settlements with clients and partners from different countries, so the question "how do I pay" is settled before the unit is taken off the market.
Your remuneration is paid by the agency in the agreed form, and this must be agreed before signing: country, currency, method. FOR YOU works with different settlement formats. There is no UAE tax on such remuneration for a foreign recipient, and taxes in your own country are your own matter.
How not to lose the client
The main fear of any agent handing a client to another country: they will be poached. The fear is justified, and protection against it lies not in trust but in three things.
- Written client registration. In the agreement or its annex the client is registered to you before the agency speaks to them. Not after the first call, but before.
- The communication rule. In the white label format the client should not even know an agency stands behind you: presentations and materials go under your brand, and you are the one who talks to the client. In the referral format it is the opposite, the agency manages the client openly, but your share is already fixed.
- A partner's reputation you can verify. How many years in business, who its partners are, what other agents say. At FOR YOU 80 percent of partners came on the recommendation of other partners, which is the best indicator that clients are not poached.
Red flags: the agency asks for the client's name and phone before anything is signed; the share is stated verbally; the payout timing question is answered with "as soon as the developer pays" without a number of days; there is no live person responsible for partners.
Would it be simpler to open your own agency in Dubai?
Every second agency with Dubai clients asks this. The short answer: almost never on the first ten deals. A licence, RERA registration, an office, staff visas, broker cards, a bank account, accounting and a year to get it all working. Our partner from Georgia, the agency VRC, ran 28 deals through FOR YOU in white label format without ever opening an office in the UAE, and that is a typical story, not an exception. Once volume grows to dozens of deals a year, the question can be revisited. A detailed cost breakdown of your own agency is on the page for agencies.
Where to start
- Go through your base: who asked in the last year about foreign property, investment, visas, relocation. Usually 5–10 percent of clients.
- Choose a partner in Dubai and sign the agreement before the first client. Check the agency's licence in the Dubai REST app.
- Get the materials: a market presentation, live availability, payment plans. Without them the conversation with the client stays generic.
- Run the first deal in the referral format if unsure, or in white label if you are ready to manage the client yourself. Decide the rest by the result.
Foreign partners at FOR YOU are looked after by a dedicated person: onboarding, regular calls, client reviews. What the partnership includes and how it looks for your team is described on the page for agencies.
