The RERA rental index is Dubai Land Department's official benchmark for what similar homes in your area rent for, and it is the figure the free Rental Index calculator uses to tell you the increase your landlord may legally apply. Dubai Land Department runs it on building classification, not on area averages alone.
Most Dubai tenants meet the rental index in the worst possible order. The renewal notice arrives first, with a number on it. Then comes the scramble — a group chat, a property blog, a friend who heard something — and by the time anyone opens the official calculator the conversation has already been framed by the landlord's figure.
Reverse that order and the whole negotiation changes. The index is free, it is public, and it takes about a minute. The page below explains what the index actually measures, what changed when Dubai Land Department rebuilt it around building classification, and exactly how to query it for your own home before anybody sends you a number.
What is the RERA rental index in Dubai?
The RERA rental index is the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's record of market rents in Dubai, maintained inside Dubai Land Department and used as the reference point for rent at renewal. The index itself is a dataset; what a tenant or landlord interacts with is the Rental Index e-service that queries it.
Dubai Land Department describes that service in one sentence on its own page: it "allows a customer to calculate the rental increase and the average rental in the real estate market by entering data for the required area." Two outputs, then — the permitted increase for your contract, and the market average for homes like yours.
The market average is the output most Dubai tenants never look at, and the one that matters in a negotiation. Knowing the permitted ceiling tells you what your landlord can do. Knowing the market average for your area, property type and room count tells you whether they should, and gives you something to say when the answer is no.
Dubai Land Department states the service time as "Immediate" and the eligible residency status as "All" — tenant, landlord, resident or not, the lookup is the same and it costs nothing to run.
What is the Dubai Smart Rental Index, and what changed?
The Dubai Smart Rental Index is the current version of the RERA rental index, launched by Dubai Land Department on 2 January 2025. Dubai Land Department's own announcement says it covers all residential areas in Dubai, "including key areas, special development zones, and free zones," and that it relies on artificial intelligence and a building classification system.
What changed is the unit of measurement. The older index was read as an area average, which is why a tenant in a twenty-year-old walk-up and a tenant in a new tower on the same street were quoted the same benchmark. Dubai Land Department set out the new inputs in a February 2025 statement on the Smart Rent Index: the index "calculates the applicable increase based on data drawn from multiple factors, including rental contract values in the building, the average rental values in the area, and the building classification."
The table below sets out the three data factors Dubai Land Department names in that statement, and what each one brings to the valuation of your home.
What does the index read when it values your home?
Dubai Land Department's launch announcement lists what the building classification system weighs: "technical and structural characteristics, the quality of finishes and maintenance, the building's strategic location and its spatial value, as well as the level of services and facilities available, such as maintenance, cleanliness, and parking management."
Read that list again as a tenant and it becomes a practical argument rather than a policy note. Lift maintenance, the state of the common areas, how the parking is run, how the finishes have held up — Dubai Land Department has put all of it inside the rent benchmark for your building. A tower that has let its services slide is, by Dubai Land Department's own criteria, carrying a lower classification than the one next door that has not.
Reporting at launch went further than Dubai Land Department's published text. The National, on 2 January 2025, reported that residential buildings are rated from one to five stars on "more than 60 criteria including its location, sustainability factors, building security, age and amenities," and that officials expected the index to cut landlord–tenant disputes by more than 20 per cent. Dubai Land Department's own announcement names the criteria categories but does not publish a star scale or a criteria count, so treat the five-star framing as press reporting rather than as regulation.
How do you check the rental index for your own building in Dubai?
Run the Rental Index e-service on the Dubai Land Department website and the figure comes back immediately. Dubai Land Department lists the five pieces of information a customer enters, shown in the table below, and names no fee for the lookup.
Dubai Land Department publishes the service on four channels: the Land Department website through the Ejari system, the Land Department website itself, the Dubai REST app and the DubaiNow app. Pick whichever you already have an account on.
Which Dubai rent figure are you actually looking at?
Dubai Land Department publishes more than one rent number, and the two get confused constantly — including by property blogs quoting one and labelling it the other. The table below separates the two instruments a Dubai tenant is likely to meet.
The distinction is not academic, and Dubai Land Department makes it explicitly. The Residential Rental Performance Index page carries its own disclaimer: the series "should not be used for any commercial purposes, including pricing and investment decision making or performance measurement." Quote the performance index at a renewal meeting and you are quoting a research series against Dubai Land Department's own instruction.
For a renewal conversation there is one correct source, and the Rental Index e-service is it.
What is RERA in the UAE?
RERA is the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, the regulatory arm of Dubai Land Department, and its remit is Dubai — not the UAE as a whole. The name turns up on rent calculators, broker licences and tenancy paperwork across the Emirates, which is where the confusion starts.
Each emirate runs its own system. Dubai registers tenancy contracts through Ejari under Dubai Land Department and RERA. Abu Dhabi uses Tawtheeq. Ajman attests contracts through Tasdeeq at the Municipality and Planning Department. A RERA rental index figure describes Dubai, and carries no authority over a contract in Sharjah, Ajman or Abu Dhabi.
Dubai Land Department is also the body publishing the market-wide numbers. For the first quarter of 2026 it reported rental contracts worth AED 32.2 billion, 118,385 new rental contracts alongside 135,607 renewal contracts, and a 25 per cent fall in cancelled contracts. Renewals outnumbering new contracts is the context for everything on this page: in Dubai, the renewal negotiation is the common transaction, and the index is the only neutral number in the room.
One more scope limit worth knowing. Dubai Land Department's announcement covers residential areas, and The National reported at launch that the classification applied to residential buildings with commercial, retail and industrial property planned for later. A shop or an office is not what this index values today.
What does the rental index not settle?
The index gives you a benchmark and a permitted increase. The index does not tell you how much notice your landlord owes you, which increase band your contract falls into, or what to do when a landlord ignores the answer entirely. Notice periods and increase bands are rules in Dubai's rent legislation rather than outputs of the calculator, and they have their own page: how much a landlord can increase rent in Dubai sets out the increase bands, the notice requirement and the escalation route.
Service charges are a separate bill again, calculated and approved on a different system, and a landlord folding them into a rent argument is comparing two unrelated numbers. Our guide to Mollak and service charges in Dubai covers how to check the approved rate for your building.
And when the two sides cannot agree, the Rental Disputes Settlement Centre decides. Dubai Land Department's index is evidence you bring to that process, not a verdict in itself. A printed index result, your Ejari certificate and your current contract are the three documents worth having in hand before any renewal conversation starts.
✓ Run the Rental Index e-service and save or print the result
✓ Note the market average, not only the permitted increase
✓ Check your Ejari certificate matches the contract you are renewing
✓ Photograph the common areas, lifts and parking if building services have slipped
✓ Confirm what your service charge actually covers before it enters the argument
✓ Put your counter-position in writing, with the index result attached
Your rent is settled. Your move is not.
There are two ways a renewal ends. Either the index backs you up and you stay, or the number does not work and you move — and the second outcome is where the real money goes. Movers quoted in a panic on a 30-day deadline are the most expensive movers in Dubai, every time.
So do the arithmetic in the order that favours you. Run the index first. Decide second. And if the decision is to move, get real prices from verified movers before the notice period starts eating your options, not after.
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Frequently asked questions about the Dubai rental index
How do I check the rental index for my property in Dubai?
Run Dubai Land Department's Rental Index e-service and enter five details: your tenancy contract expiry date, the property type, the region, the number of rooms and your current annual rent. Dubai Land Department states the service time as immediate and offers it on its website through Ejari, on the Dubai REST app and on DubaiNow.
What is the Dubai Smart Rental Index?
The Dubai Smart Rental Index is the current RERA rental index, launched by Dubai Land Department on 2 January 2025 and covering all residential areas in Dubai including special development zones and free zones. Dubai Land Department says the index uses artificial intelligence plus a building classification system to value rents.
Does the Dubai rental index show my building's star rating?
Dubai Land Department's Rental Index service asks for your area, property type and room count, and the building is not one of the five fields. The classification feeds the valuation on Dubai Land Department's side. A one-to-five-star scale was reported by The National at launch, but Dubai Land Department's own announcement publishes no star scale.
Is the RERA rental index the same as the rent increase calculator?
The RERA rental index in Dubai is the underlying dataset of market rents; the rent increase calculator is the Rental Index e-service that queries it. Dubai Land Department's page says the service calculates both the rental increase and the average market rent, so one lookup returns the ceiling and the benchmark together.
Does the Dubai rental index cover villas and commercial property?
Dubai Land Department's Rental Index service asks you to specify the property type, so villas are inside the residential scope the Smart Rental Index covers. Commercial property is not. The National reported at launch that the classification applied to residential buildings, with commercial, retail and industrial property planned as a later expansion.
What do Dubai's latest rental contract numbers show?
Dubai Land Department reported rental contracts worth AED 32.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026, made up of 118,385 new rental contracts and 135,607 renewals, with cancelled contracts down 25 per cent. Renewals outnumbering new contracts means the index is being used in the majority transaction, not an edge case.
Related reading:
- How much can a landlord increase rent in Dubai? — the increase bands, the notice requirement and what to do if they are ignored
- Mollak and service charges in Dubai — how to check the approved service charge for your building
- What is Ejari in Dubai? — registering the contract the index calculation depends on
- Verified movers across the UAE
