RERA Calculator Index: How Dubai Rent Hikes Actually Work

If you're a tenant who just got a renewal notice with a 20% increase, or a landlord wondering how much you can legally bump the rent, the RERA calculator index is the only number that matters. It's the official benchmark the Dubai Land Department uses to decide who's right when rent disputes land at the Rental Disputes Centre. And honestly, most people misread it.

Quick answer

The RERA calculator index (also called the Dubai Rental Index) is a tool published by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, part of the Dubai Land Department (DLD), that shows the average market rent for properties in each Dubai community. Under Decree No. 43 of 2013, your landlord can only raise the rent if your current rent sits below market — and only by a capped percentage tied to how far below market it is. No gap, no increase. The calculator on the Dubai REST app or DLD website is the final word.

What the RERA calculator index actually is

RERA — the Real Estate Regulatory Agency — is the regulator inside the Dubai Land Department that supervises landlords, brokers, and the rental market. The rera calculator index is its rent benchmarking tool. You enter your community, property type, number of bedrooms, and current annual rent. It spits out whether you're below market, at market, or above market — and the maximum legal increase your landlord can demand at renewal.

The index pulls from registered Ejari contracts. Ejari is the mandatory tenancy registration system run by DLD; every legal tenancy in Dubai gets a unique Ejari number. So the index is essentially a moving average of what people are actually paying, community by community, updated as new contracts get registered.

A few things to know up front. It's binding. The Rental Disputes Centre (RDC) uses this exact tool when deciding rent increase cases. It doesn't care about your landlord's "market research" or what the unit next door advertised on Bayut.

The five-tier increase cap under Decree 43 of 2013

This is the part most clients get wrong. Decree No. 43 of 2013 doesn't let landlords increase rent freely just because the market moved. The increase is tied to how far your current rent sits below the average market rent for similar units in your community:

If your rent is up to 10% below market average: no increase allowed.
11% to 20% below market: maximum 5% increase.
21% to 30% below market: maximum 10% increase.
31% to 40% below market: maximum 15% increase.
More than 40% below market: maximum 20% increase.

That's it. Five tiers. No negotiation, no exceptions for "renovation costs" or "new service charges." If the calculator says zero, the answer is zero.

And one more thing landlords forget: under Article 13 and 14 of Law No. 26 of 2007 (as amended), they must give you 90 days' written notice before the renewal date if they want to change any term — rent, duration, anything. Miss the 90 days and the contract renews on identical terms. Frankly, I've seen landlords lose entire years of rent increases over this one mistake.

Watch out: A WhatsApp message at month 11 saying "rent's going up 15%" is not 90 days' notice in the legal sense. The RDC wants documented notice — registered letter, notarised, or courier with proof of delivery. Email is grey territory.

How to use the rera calculator index yourself

Download the Dubai REST app (free, on iOS and Android) or go to the DLD website. Open the Rental Index / Rent Calculator section. You'll need:

Your community name (e.g., Dubai Marina, JVC, Al Barsha 1 — be specific)
Property type (apartment, villa, townhouse)
Number of bedrooms
Your current annual rent in AED

The tool returns the average market rent range and the maximum legal increase. Print the result or screenshot it with the date visible. If this ends up at the RDC, you'll want that printout.

One caveat. The index works by community, not by tower or street. So a 1-bedroom in a premium tower on Marina walk gets benchmarked against a 1-bedroom in an older Marina building. The average can feel rough on either side. Sometimes it favours the tenant, sometimes the landlord. That's the trade-off for having a fixed rule instead of case-by-case fights.

When the landlord ignores the rera calculator index

This happens often. The landlord sends a renewal at +20%, the calculator says 0%, and now what?

Pay the legal amount, not the demanded amount. Specifically, pay your existing rent on the existing schedule. Don't pay the increase. Then file a case at the Rental Disputes Centre in Deira (Al Kifaf building, near Max Metro Station). Filing fees are 3.5% of the annual rent, minimum AED 500, capped at AED 20,000.

Bring:

Your Ejari certificate
The existing tenancy contract
The landlord's renewal notice (with date of receipt)
Screenshot of the RERA calculator result
Proof of rent payments (cheque copies, bank transfers)

The RDC typically issues a first-instance judgment within 30 to 45 days. If you've documented everything and the calculator backs you, you'll win. The landlord cannot evict you mid-contract just for refusing an illegal increase — eviction grounds are narrow and listed in Article 25 of Law 26/2007 as amended by Law 33/2008.

The harder scenario: the landlord serves a 12-month eviction notice under Article 25(2) claiming they want to sell or move family in. That's legal if done correctly (notarised, 12 full months, genuine reason). Some landlords abuse this to force out tenants paying below market. If you suspect bad faith — say, the unit goes back on the market two months later — you can sue for compensation. The RDC has awarded tenants up to 12 months' rent in damages for sham eviction notices.

Costs to budget if you go to RDC:
- Filing fee: 3.5% of annual rent (AED 500 min, AED 20,000 max)
- Knowledge & innovation fees: AED 20 combined
- Translation if your contract isn't in Arabic: AED 200–500
- Lawyer (optional for rental disputes): AED 5,000–15,000 typical

For more on tenant rights and the eviction notice rules, see our tenancy law guides.

What the rera calculator index doesn't cover

A few blind spots worth knowing:

Free zones and special communities. Some areas like DIFC have their own rules. DIFC tenancies fall under DIFC Leasing Law (DIFC Law No. 1 of 2020) and the rera calculator index doesn't strictly apply, though parties often reference it as market evidence.

Short-term holiday rentals. Properties licensed under DTCM (Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing) for short stays operate outside the standard tenancy law. No 90-day notice, no rent cap.

Commercial leases. The index is residential. Commercial rent disputes go through different reasoning, though Decree 43 principles can be argued analogously.

New buildings with no history. If a tower is brand new and has no Ejari data yet, the calculator may return "no data." Landlords sometimes exploit this. Push back by asking RERA for a manual valuation or by referencing comparable nearby buildings.

The first-year tenancy. The rent you initially agree at signing is whatever you and the landlord agree — the calculator only governs renewals. So negotiate hard upfront.

A quick sanity check before you sign anything

Before renewing, before signing, before paying that fat increase your landlord just demanded — open the calculator. Takes two minutes. If the number doesn't match what's being asked, you have leverage. Real leverage, the legal kind, not the "I'll complain on Twitter" kind.

The rera calculator index exists exactly so that tenants and landlords don't have to argue from feelings. Use it.

Citations

[1] Dubai Decree No. 43 of 2013 — Determining Rent Increases for Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai. [2] Dubai Law No. 26 of 2007 (as amended by Law No. 33 of 2008) — Regulating Relationship between Landlords and Tenants. [3] Dubai Land Department, Rental Index / Rent Calculator — dubailand.gov.ae and Dubai REST app. [4] Rental Disputes Centre (RDC), Dubai Land Department — filing fees and procedure. [5] DIFC Leasing Law, DIFC Law No. 1 of 2020.

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