Dubai property transfer by phone: what UAE PASS Digital Sale really covers

A post doing the rounds on social media says Dubai property can now change hands entirely on a phone: no trustee office, no appointment and no power of attorney. That is accurate, but only for part of the market. The service behind it is the Dubai Land Department's Digital Sale, which DLD launched on the Dubai Now app at GITEX Global on 13 October 2025. Its terms leave out many common deals.

The seller opens a sale request in the Dubai Now app, which generates the Sale and Purchase Agreement electronically. Both parties sign it with UAE PASS, the national digital identity. The buyer then pays the purchase price and the fees into a DLD-approved escrow account, and DLD issues an electronic title deed and map in the buyer's name. DLD lists the service time as "instant" and says it runs 24/7.

Nobody visits a Real Estate Registration Trustee office, and nobody books a transfer slot. Each party signs with their own digital identity, so nobody needs to grant a power of attorney just so someone can attend the transfer on their behalf.

DLD's service page and launch announcement set out these conditions:

• Both buyer and seller are individuals holding a UAE ID (Emirates ID) with an active UAE PASS account. DLD lists the service for citizens and residents.
• The property is in a freehold area.
• It is a subdivided unit: an apartment, an office or a townhouse.
• It is free of any mortgage or other restriction.
• It has a single owner, per DLD's launch announcement.
• The parties have a UAE bank account, per the same announcement.

The 4% DLD transfer fee does not change. The saving is on the service fee. Instead of a trustee office fee of AED 4,000 + VAT, Digital Sale charges a service-partner fee of AED 1,000 + VAT, paid to Emirates Real Estate Solutions. The admin fees are slightly higher, because DLD's Digital Sale page lists knowledge and innovation fees of AED 30 each, against AED 10 each on its standard sale-registration page. For an AED 2,000,000 apartment, using the fee schedules on DLD's two service pages:

On that sale, Digital Sale costs AED 3,110 less in government and service fees. Below AED 500,000 the service-partner fee falls to AED 500 + VAT, against a trustee fee of AED 2,000 + VAT. Agency commission, if you use an agent, is unaffected either way; for the full list of buying costs, see DLD fees explained. Fee figures are from DLD's service pages, checked on 12 October 2026.

The service fits a simple case well: one resident selling a mortgage-free apartment or townhouse to another resident. That deal can now close without lining up both parties, the trustee and the manager's cheques in one room on one day.

It does not yet cover the more complex deals: buyers financing with a mortgage, sellers with an outstanding loan, villa sales, and investors buying from abroad. DLD called the October 2025 launch the first phase of the service. As of 12 October 2026 we have found no announcement of a later phase that widens it to those cases.

For the full process, from eligibility checks to the signing steps and a worked cost example, read our guide, How to transfer property in Dubai online with UAE PASS.