A new agreement between the Department of Economic Development and Dubai's Real Estate Regulatory Authority will stamp out freelance operators.
Anyone opening a real estate brokerage will need to apply for a licence and meet new criteria to operate. Previously anyone who was a national of the United Arab Emirates or GCC could operate as an estate agent.
They must also under going training and attend courses run by RERA. The aim of the new system is to make licensing more transparent and easier for all those involved in the real estate sector.
'Operators will need to be over 18, to have a good conduct certificate by CID, must pass the Rera training course and the manager must be certified and trained by Rera. It will all be embedded within the system. There will be no more freelancers in the market,' said Marwan Bin Galita, chief executive of Rera.
The DED will use its own licence and business registration system for issuing licences related to real estate activities, according to procedures applied by Rera.
Rera is now set to train a number of DED staff on how to use these new licensing procedures.
And from January 1 all tenancy agreements in Dubai must be registered, starting in January, so that the final rental index may be prepared by Rera.
The rental index will mean that zones are created in Dubai and each zone will have an average rental rate to act as a guideline for landlords and for newcomers to Dubai.
