Read the service charge before you read the brochure

The line every overseas buyer hears first is that Dubai has no annual property tax. It is accurate. What it leaves out is that every apartment and most villas carry a service charge, levied per square foot of the unit and set per building or community, and that this charge is the number which will actually determine whether a yield calculation survives contact with reality.

The spread is wide. A well-run mid-market tower in an outer community may charge a fraction of what a Downtown or beachfront building charges, and the difference is not always explained by the quality of the lobby. Chiller infrastructure, the size of the common areas, the amenity offering, the age of the plant and the insurance premium on a tall building all feed into it. Two apartments of the same size in the same emirate can differ by a multiple on this line alone.

Ask for the approved budget for the specific building, not a community average and not the figure the seller remembers from three years ago. Read the reserve fund provision, which is the pot set aside for major works — lift replacement, facade repair, chiller overhaul. A building with a thin reserve fund and ageing plant is a building where an owner will one day receive a special assessment, and the buyer who did not ask is the one who pays it.

The second thing to check is whether cooling is billed inside the service charge or separately by a district cooling provider. Where it is separate, there may be a registration fee and a standing capacity charge that continues whether the unit is occupied or empty. On a small apartment held as an investment, that standing charge is a meaningful share of the annual running cost, and it does not appear anywhere in the listing.

None of this argues against buying. It argues for asking two questions before the offer rather than after the transfer: what is the approved charge per square foot for this building this year, and what does the reserve fund look like against the age of the plant.