Beginning May 2016, tenants in Dubai are allowed to sub-lease their accommodation, but, only based on new Dubai regulations.
The latest regulations have been issued by the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) last month, permitting homeowners and tenants to apply for a holiday home license, without having to go through an approved Dubai Tourism Operator.
When the tenants or homeowners apply for and receive license, they can sub-let the property, whether villa or apartment, to third parties, on a short-term basis. The Dubai Tourism Online Permitting System allows users to submit and update information, pay fees, schedule inspections, tract status of their application, and print their final record.
A Holiday Home is a furnished accommodation, which is rented as a whole unit on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis, without issuance of an Ejari regulated tenancy deal, but, should be registered with DTCM through licensed operators / individual homeowners / tenants.
Step-by-step procedure:
- Register at Dubai Tourism’s Holiday Homes Website. Choose ‘Home Owner’ tab in the registration type.
- In the next tab, click on Add New and submit contact details, including passport and Emirates ID numbers of the proposed Manager of the property. This may be the homeowner or other person appointed by the homeowner or his / her authorized personnel.
- Add scanned copy of the Emirates ID of the Manager.
- Review the application including all contact details and numbers of designated page, when the document has been uploaded.
- When the application is successfully submitted, a record number would be e-mailed as an acknowledgement along with username and password for your account. Thereafter, your account would be activated in two working days.
- Once activated, you can log on to the same website. Dubai Tourism will permit all e-commerce payments to be done digitally soon.
- Once the application is submitted successfully, you shall receive a record number and an e-mailed acknowledgement and username/password for your account. Further, your account will get activated within 2 working days.
Documents required to be submitted before sub-leasing include:
- Copy of Title Deed and DEWA bill (for homeowners)
- No Objection Certificate from homeowner, Authorisation Letter from homeowner, Ejari registration, DEWA bills (for tenants).
An annual registration fee of Dh.1500, apart from Dh.50 unit classification fee would be charged, apart from Relevant Knowledge Fee (Dh.10) and Innovation Fee (Dh.10), applicable to all government-related transaction.
Finally receive license depending on the number of rooms in the property, and the term you intend to let it out as holiday home.
Rules to be followed:
Tenants are not allowed to sublet more than one property.
Separate permit fee is charged for each unit in your portfolio. You will be paid Dh.300 annually for each bedroom, and maximum amount of Dh.1200 (for a six bedroom villa). A classification fee of Dh.50 per unit may be charged.
A Tourism Dirham fee of Dh.10 or Dh.15 per bedroom would be charged based on classification of standard or deluxe room, per night of occupancy. This should be paid to Dubai Tourism.
The holiday home establishment should pay total amount due for the current month, not later than 15th of the following month to avoid penalty for late payment.
For long-stay bookings, the Tourism Dirham Fee would be charged only for first 30 consecutive nights.
Dubai Tourism has signed deal with Airbnb, a community-driven hospitality company, to help promote responsible hosting and to grow and diversify tourism in the emirate. Airbnb will also assist Dubai Tourism in preventing breaches of regulation by informing all host members of Dubai Tourism regulations and the two parties will explore joint marketing and promotional activations for Dubai as tourist destination.
Airbnb will assist Dubai Tourism in preventing breaches of the regulation if any, by informing all host members of the Dubai Tourism regulations via its website and through email reminders of the rules. The two parties will also explore joint marketing and promotional activations for promoting Dubai as a tourism destination.
