CRESCO INSIGHTS · CRESCO RESEARCH
Every brochure quotes the price. Almost none quote the annual cost of holding the thing. We read 58 developer project briefs and pulled the service charge out of 13 verified projects, then converted them to dollars on real unit sizes. The spread is more than six to one, and the result is not what most buyers expect.
When an American buys a condo in Miami or Los Angeles, the HOA is part of the conversation from the first showing. It is on the listing sheet. Buyers ask about it before they ask about the view.
Dubai does not work that way. The service charge is real, it is annual, and it is frequently absent from the marketing entirely. Buyers find out after they have signed.
So we went and got the numbers. Over the past week our research team read the official project collateral for 58 developments and extracted the anticipated service charge wherever the developer published one. Thirteen projects had a clearly stated figure. Those are below.
That is deliberate, and it is the most useful part of the method.
Every project in this table is by Ellington Properties. If we mixed developers, the numbers would tell you as much about finish standards and management quality as about location. By holding the developer constant, the main variable left is where the building is and what type of building it is.
The tradeoff is that these figures describe one developer's cost base. Another developer in the same community may sit higher or lower. Use this as a map of the terrain, not as a price list.
All figures are the anticipated annual service charge per square foot as published by the developer. The UAE dirham is pegged to the US dollar at 3.6725, so these dollar figures carry no currency risk.
| Project | Community | AED / sq ft | USD / sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Sanctuary (villas) | District 11, MBR City | 4 | $1.09 |
| Porto Playa | Hayat Island, Ras Al Khaimah | 12 | $3.27 |
| Cala Del Mar | Al Marjan Island, Ras Al Khaimah | 14 | $3.81 |
| Ellington Views I | Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah | 14 | $3.81 |
| Arbor View | Arjan, Dubai | 16 | $4.36 |
| Soto Grande | Al Hamra Village, Ras Al Khaimah | 16 | $4.36 |
| Portside Square | Mina Rashid, Dubai | 17 | $4.63 |
| Ellington Sands | Dubai Islands | 18 | $4.90 |
| The Quayside | Business Bay, Dubai | 18 | $4.90 |
| Eltiera Heights | Jumeirah Islands, Dubai | 21 | $5.72 |
| Eltiera Views | Jumeirah Islands, Dubai | 21 | $5.72 |
| Ellington Beach House | Palm Jumeirah, Dubai | 22 | $5.99 |
| Ocean House | Palm Jumeirah, Dubai | 25 | $6.81 |
Run those rates against the actual unit sizes and something counterintuitive falls out.
A five bedroom villa at The Sanctuary has a built up area of 7,610 square feet. At AED 4 per square foot, holding it costs roughly AED 30,440 a year, about $8,290.
The smallest two bedroom apartment at Ocean House is 1,642 square feet. At AED 25 per square foot, holding it costs roughly AED 41,050 a year, about $11,180.
The villa is 4.6 times larger and costs 26 percent less per year to hold.
That is not a quirk of one project. It is the structural logic of service charges. You are paying for shared systems, and a tower has far more of them than a villa community: lifts, chilled water plant, podium amenities, lobbies staffed around the clock, pools, gyms, security for hundreds of units. A villa has a gate, some landscaping and a road.
Annual service charge on the smallest and largest units we could verify at each end of the range.
| Unit | Size | Rate | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cala Del Mar studio | 398 sq ft | AED 14 | AED 5,572 · $1,517 |
| Arbor View studio | 451 sq ft | AED 16 | AED 7,216 · $1,965 |
| Eltiera Heights 1 bed | 820 sq ft | AED 21 | AED 17,220 · $4,689 |
| The Sanctuary 4 bed villa | 6,310 sq ft | AED 4 | AED 25,239 · $6,873 |
| Ocean House 2 bed | 1,642 sq ft | AED 25 | AED 41,050 · $11,180 |
| Ocean House 4 bed | 9,917 sq ft | AED 25 | AED 247,925 · $67,510 |
That last line is the one to sit with. A buyer comparing two Palm Jumeirah apartments on price alone, without checking square footage against the rate, can be off by tens of thousands of dollars a year.
Four of the five lowest apartment rates in our table are in Ras Al Khaimah: Porto Playa at AED 12, Cala Del Mar and Ellington Views I at 14, Soto Grande at 16.
Against Palm Jumeirah at 22 to 25, a Ras Al Khaimah beachfront apartment costs roughly half as much per square foot to hold each year. On a ten year hold on a 1,200 square foot apartment, that difference alone is in the region of $30,000. Service charge is a direct deduction from net yield, which is why we treat it as part of the return calculation in our Dubai versus US rental yield study.
This matters more now than it did two years ago. Al Marjan Island is where the Wynn resort is being built, the first property in the UAE licensed for a gaming floor, and the emirate has moved from a quiet second home market to the fastest repricing coastline in the country. Buyers looking at it purely on entry price are missing half the arithmetic.
This is where American buyers most often get caught, because the boundaries are drawn differently from a US HOA.
Chilled water is usually separate. District cooling in Dubai is frequently billed by a third party such as Empower or Emicool, with both a consumption charge and a fixed capacity charge that you pay whether the unit is occupied or not.
Your own utilities are separate. DEWA for electricity and water, billed to the unit.
Contents and interior insurance are separate. The building insurance in the service charge covers the structure and common areas.
Transfer costs are not an annual item but people forget them. The Dubai Land Department charges 4 percent of the purchase price on transfer, plus registration fees.
And for Americans specifically: owning Dubai property does not remove you from US tax reporting. Rental income is reportable on your US return regardless of the fact that the UAE levies no personal income tax, and foreign account and asset reporting obligations may apply. We cover that in detail in our guide on buying Dubai real estate from the USA.
Four questions, in this order.
Ask for the rate in writing. Not the brochure figure, the figure on the SPA or in a letter from the developer. Every number in this article is described by the developer as anticipated, not committed.
Ask which area it is charged on. Service charge is levied on built up area. On villas, built up area and plot area are different numbers and can differ by thousands of square feet. We have seen developer collateral where a five bedroom villa sits on a smaller plot than a four bedroom, so the two figures cannot be used interchangeably.
Ask whether cooling is inside or outside the charge. This single line can move the annual total by a large margin.
Ask what the charge has actually been for the last three years if the building is completed. For off plan, ask what the developer's comparable completed building is charging today. That tells you far more than the anticipated figure in a launch document.
What is a service charge on Dubai property? An annual per square foot charge covering building maintenance, security, common area cooling, insurance and the reserve fund. It is billed annually rather than monthly, and it is regulated through the Mollak system administered by Dubai Land Department.
How much are Dubai service charges per square foot? Across the 13 projects in this study the range was AED 4 to AED 25 per square foot per year, which is $1.09 to $6.81. Villas sit at the bottom and Palm Jumeirah apartments at the top.
Are Dubai service charges cheaper than a US condo HOA? They are structured differently and a headline comparison is misleading. A US HOA is normally quoted per month and often bundles items a Dubai service charge excludes, chilled water being the main one. Compare the annual total for the same square footage, with cooling treated the same way on both sides.
Can the service charge increase after I buy? Yes. Published figures are anticipated, not committed. The actual charge is set annually and requires approval through Mollak.
Is the charge based on built up area or plot area? Built up area. On villas that distinction is significant and worth confirming in writing.
Which Dubai communities have the lowest service charges? In this dataset, villa communities are dramatically cheaper than towers, and Ras Al Khaimah apartments are roughly half the rate of Palm Jumeirah apartments.
Figures were extracted from official developer project briefs and factsheets, not from portals or listing sites. All 13 projects are by Ellington Properties, which holds finish standard and management approach constant so that location and building type are the main variables. Unit sizes are as published by the developer. Dirham to dollar conversions use the pegged rate of 3.6725.
Every service charge quoted is described by the developer as anticipated. None are contractually committed, and none should be treated as a guarantee. This article is general information, not tax or investment advice. We are not a tax advisor and we are not a licensed financial adviser. Speak to your own CPA about the US reporting side before you buy.
Cresco Real Estate LLC, RERA ORN 34288. Research current as of 16 August 2026.
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