A Dubai landlord cannot simply decide the rent is going up 20% at renewal and send an invoice. Since 2013, the size of any increase has been fixed by law and tied to how far the current rent sits below the market average for that unit type and area. The tool that makes this checkable in seconds, commonly called the RERA rent calculator, is officially the Dubai Rental Index, run by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), the regulatory arm of the Dubai Land Department (DLD). This guide walks through how the index works, the exact percentage bands set out in Decree No. 43 of 2013, the 90-day notice rule that has to accompany any change, and what a landlord or tenant can and cannot do around it.
What the calculator actually is
The Rental Index is a DLD e-service, not a private tool. You enter the tenancy contract's expiry date, the property type, the area, the number of rooms, and the current annual rent, and the system returns the average market rent for comparable units and, from that, the maximum legal increase for your renewal (Dubai Land Department, Rental Index). It is reachable through several official channels built on the same underlying index: the Ejari website, the DLD website itself, the DubaiNow app, and the Dubai REST app, which bundles it alongside lease registration, renewal, cancellation, and rental dispute filing in one place (Dubai Land Department, Dubai REST). Access generally requires logging in, so both landlords and tenants can pull the same figure rather than negotiating from two different guesses.
The legal backbone: Decree No. 43 of 2013
The percentage bands themselves come from a specific instrument, Decree No. 43 of 2013 on Determining the Increase in the Real-Estate Rentals in the Emirate of Dubai, issued by the Ruler of Dubai on 18 December 2013 (Government of Dubai, Decree No. 43 of 2013). It sits on top of the broader tenancy framework, Law No. 26 of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants in the Emirate of Dubai, which was itself amended in 2008 by Law No. 33 of 2008 (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation). That 2008 amendment is worth knowing about: the original 2007 law barred any rent increase at all for the first two years of a tenancy. The amendment removed that blanket freeze and instead tied any increase to a percentage set by RERA, which the 2013 decree then spelled out as the fixed bands still used today.
Article 3 of the decree makes the reference point explicit: the "average market rental rate" used in every calculation is whatever the Rent Index of the Emirate of Dubai, as approved by RERA, says it is for that property type and location (Government of Dubai, Decree No. 43 of 2013). The calculator is not a third-party estimate; it is the legal reference itself.
The five bands, and how the increase is calculated
Article 1 of the decree sets out the maximum increase allowed at renewal, based on how far the sitting rent falls below the index average for a comparable unit:
| Current rent vs. index average | Maximum increase allowed |
|---|---|
| No more than 10% below average | 0% |
| 11%-20% below average | 5% |
| 21%-30% below average | 10% |
| 31%-40% below average | 15% |
| More than 40% below average | 20% |
This is the structure exactly as written in the decree (Government of Dubai, Decree No. 43 of 2013). One detail trips people up: the percentage is applied to the unit's own current rent, not to the index average. Take a two-bedroom apartment where the index average is AED 120,000 a year and the sitting tenant currently pays AED 90,000. That is 25% below average, landing in the 21%-30% band, so the landlord may add 10% of AED 90,000, meaning AED 9,000, for a new rent of AED 99,000, not 10% of the AED 120,000 average. Even after the increase the rent still sits under the average, so at the next renewal it could move again, though by less, since a smaller gap moves it into a lower band. The system is built to close the gap gradually across renewals, not in one jump.
If the current rent is already within 10% of the index average, the answer is a flat zero. There is no rounding in the landlord's favor and no separate service fee attached to a renewal that stays within these bands.
The 90-day notice rule
A landlord cannot spring an increase on a tenant at the door. Article 14 of Law No. 26 of 2007, as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008, requires that if either party wants to change any term of the tenancy contract, including the rent, at renewal, they must notify the other side no less than 90 days before the contract expires, unless the parties have separately agreed otherwise (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation). The law also defines what counts as valid notice: a written notification delivered through a Notary Public, by registered post, by hand, or through another technological means approved by law, the same article's definitions section spells this out (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation). A verbal mention in a hallway or a casual WhatsApp message is not the standard the law contemplates.
The consequence of missing the window matters as much as the rule itself. Under Article 6 of the same law, if the contract term expires and the tenant simply keeps occupying the property without objection from the landlord, the lease renews automatically for the same term or for a term of one year, whichever is shorter, and under the same terms as before (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation). Read together with Article 14, a landlord who fails to give proper 90-day notice of an intended increase has, in effect, let the old rent roll over, though for a lease originally longer than a year, that automatic renewal is capped at one year rather than the full original term.
New tenants vs. sitting tenants
The bands only bite "upon renewing the real-estate leases," per Article 1 of Decree No. 43 of 2013 (Government of Dubai, Decree No. 43 of 2013). A landlord setting the asking rent for a brand-new tenant, someone signing a first lease on a vacant unit, is not bound by any of this and can ask whatever the market will bear. The calculator protects a sitting tenant's renewal terms; it does not cap what a landlord can list a vacant unit for. This is the main reason headline asking rents in a building can look very different from what long-staying tenants actually pay next door.
What a landlord can and cannot do
A landlord can raise rent at renewal, but only within the band the calculator returns, and only with valid 90-day notice. A landlord cannot charge a separate fee just for renewing the lease. DLD's own guidance states plainly that lease renewal fees are not a legitimate charge and cannot be used as grounds for eviction if a tenant refuses to pay them; a broker's commission is a one-time cost at the first signing, not a recurring renewal toll (Dubai Land Department, news). A landlord also cannot amend the rent mid-contract; Article 13 of Law No. 26 of 2007, as amended, ties any rent review to the point of renewal, not to whenever it suits the landlord during an active term (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation).
What a tenant can do if the numbers don't add up
If a landlord and tenant cannot agree on the renewal rent, or a tenant believes the demanded increase exceeds what the index and decree allow, the dispute goes to the Rental Disputes Center (RDC), Dubai's dedicated judicial body for landlord-tenant matters, which can determine the fair rent using the same RERA criteria the calculator is built on (Rental Disputes Center). Filing there, rather than simply refusing to pay or walking away, is the route that actually tests whether an increase was within the legal band.
A separate track: eviction is not a rent-increase issue
It is worth keeping the 90-day rent-increase notice separate from the notice a landlord must give to reclaim a property for personal use, sale, or redevelopment. Those no-fault eviction grounds, set out in Article 25 of Law No. 26 of 2007 as amended, require 12 months' notice through a Notary Public or registered post, not 90 days (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation). A landlord cannot use a rent dispute as a shortcut to end a tenancy faster than that longer notice period allows.
FAQ
Where do I actually access the RERA rent calculator? Through the Dubai Rental Index, available on the DLD website, the Ejari website, and via the Dubai REST and DubaiNow apps. You enter the contract expiry date, property type, area, room count, and current rent to get the average market rate and maximum allowed increase (Dubai Land Department, Rental Index).
Does the calculator apply to a brand-new tenant's first lease? No. Decree No. 43 of 2013 caps increases "upon renewing" a lease, so a vacant unit being let to a new tenant for the first time is priced freely, not through the index bands (Government of Dubai, Decree No. 43 of 2013).
What if my landlord skipped the 90-day notice but still wants more rent? Under Article 6 of Law No. 26 of 2007, a tenancy that expires with the tenant still in place and no timely objection renews on the previous terms, but for the same term or one year, whichever is shorter, so a multi-year lease does not roll over in full; in practice this means the old rent stands for that renewed term if valid 90-day notice of a change was never given (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation).
Can my landlord raise the rent partway through my contract term? No. Rent review is tied to renewal under Article 13, not to any point the landlord chooses during an active lease (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation).
Does the cap apply to properties in DIFC or other free zones? Yes for this specific rule. Article 2 of Decree No. 43 of 2013 states it applies to all landlords in Dubai, expressly including special development areas and free zones such as the Dubai International Financial Centre (Government of Dubai, Decree No. 43 of 2013).
Can a landlord evict me just to re-let at a higher rent? Not on that basis alone. The no-fault grounds in Article 25, such as personal use, sale, or redevelopment, require 12 months' notice through a Notary Public or registered post, and a rent disagreement by itself is not one of the listed grounds (Government of Dubai, Dubai Real Estate Legislation).
Sources
- Government of Dubai. Decree No. 43 of 2013 on Determining the Increase in the Real-Estate Rentals in the Emirate of Dubai. https://dubailand.gov.ae/media/z2dn3gtr/rental-increase-decree-43-in-dubai.pdf
- Government of Dubai, Dubai Legal Affairs Department. Dubai Real Estate Legislation compendium, including Law No. 26 of 2007 Regulating the Relationship between Landlords and Tenants and Law No. 33 of 2008 amending it. https://dubailand.gov.ae/media/gkbnktpa/legislation_en.pdf
- Dubai Land Department. Rental Index e-service. https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/rental-index/
- Dubai Land Department. Dubai REST app. https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/dubai-rest/
- Dubai Land Department. Landlord is prohibited from claiming lease renewal fee. https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/news-media/landlord-is-prohibited-from-claiming-lease-renewal-fee/
- Rental Disputes Center (RDC), Dubai. https://rdc.gov.ae/en
