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Free Dubai service charge calculator built on RERA-approved Mollak filings from 1,500+ buildings. Pick your building or area, enter unit sqft, and see expected AED per year, AED per square foot, and where the building sits against the Dubai-wide distribution.
| Building | Type | AED/sqft/yr |
|---|---|---|
| One Palm by Omniyat | apartment | 47.50 |
| Atlantis The Royal Residences | apartment | 38.00 |
| FIVE Palm Jumeirah Residences | apartment | 32.50 |
| Shoreline Apartments | apartment | 18.50 |
Every freehold building in Dubai sits under an Owners Association (OA) registered with RERA. The OA proposes an annual operating budget covering security, insurance, lift maintenance, chiller charges on common areas, pool plant, landscaping, concierge, and a reserve-fund contribution for the 10-year facade and lift overhaul cycle. RERA reviews the budget line by line, audits the prior year's actuals, and approves a service charge expressed as AED per square foot of unit area. The number is published through the Mollak escrow platform, which routes every dirham collected from owners into a regulated trust account.
The Mollak disclosure is what makes this calculator possible. Every building has a public approved rate, refreshed annually, and Oliva ingests the file each quarter. That gives the calculator a real distribution to draw from, rather than a marketing-grade average.
The Dubai-wide median service charge sits at roughly 17 AED per sqft per year. The distribution is wide. Mid-rise communities without on-site chiller plant (JVC, Dubai Sports City, International City, Damac Hills 2) print at 8-13 AED per sqft. Mainstream high-rise in Business Bay, JLT, and parts of Dubai Marina cluster at 15-20 AED. Premium waterfront and supertall stock in Downtown, Marina, and Dubai Hills Estate runs 18-25 AED. Branded residences on Palm Jumeirah and beachfront Jumeirah Bay push 25-35 AED. A small ultra-luxury tail (One Palm, Bulgari, select Atlantis stock) clears 45-50 AED once master community and beach club access are included.
Two factors explain most of the variance. First, district cooling. Buildings on Empower or Tabreed pass the chiller capacity charge through service charge, while buildings with on-site cooling plant book the maintenance cost inside the OA budget. Second, amenity depth. A 24/7 concierge, four pools, a spa, and a private beach cost roughly three times what a single rooftop pool with a part- time gym attendant costs to operate per square foot.
The service charge covers everything the OA contracts directly: security guards, cleaning, lift maintenance, landscaping, common- area lighting, common-area chiller, insurance, audit fees, the management fee paid to the OA manager, and the reserve fund. The charge does not cover DEWA on the unit, Empower or district cooling on the unit, internet, parking-bay registration, or master community fees in some integrated developments (Dubai Hills Estate, Arabian Ranches). On those integrated plots, you pay two line items: the building OA charge and a master community charge, both billed through Mollak.
1. Trusting the developer brochure. Off-plan brochures quote a launch-year estimate that excludes the reserve-fund contribution. Real-life service charge after handover typically lands 20-40% above the brochure once the OA is fully constituted and the first audit closes.
2. Ignoring master community fees. On Dubai Hills Estate, MBR City, and parts of Arabian Ranches, the master community charge can add 4-8 AED per sqft on top of the OA fee. Always pull both line items from Mollak.
3. Using the wrong sqft. The fee is billed on the suite area in the title deed, not the brochure built-up area. The two numbers can differ by 5-10%. Always use the title deed.
4. Skipping the reserve-fund review. A building with a thin reserve fund and a facade overhaul due in two years will land owners with a special levy. Ask for the 10-year reserve study before transacting.
Mollak is the RERA-mandated escrow platform that every Dubai OA must use. Owners pay service charges into a Mollak trust account held by an approved bank. The OA manager can only draw down against RERA-approved budget lines, with every invoice digitally stamped. The system was launched in 2018 to fix the pre-2018 problem of OA managers spending operating cash without oversight. Since rollout, owner default rates have fallen and audit disclosures have become public, which is why the data behind this calculator exists. Every figure below was disclosed through Mollak.
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Source: RERA Mollak disclosures, refreshed quarterly. The distribution covers 1,500+ Mollak-registered buildings active in the most recent annual budget cycle. Where a building publishes both a base service charge and a separate master community charge, both line items are summed before percentile ranking. AED-per-sqft uses the title-deed suite area as the denominator, consistent with the way OA managers invoice in practice. Off-plan stock without an approved Mollak budget falls back to the area median.
A Dubai service charge is the annual fee unit owners pay the Owners Association to fund building maintenance, security, insurance, chiller plant, swimming pool upkeep, and the Mollak escrow account. RERA approves the budget every year and the fee is billed in AED per square foot of unit area.
Across 1,500+ Mollak-registered buildings, the median Dubai service charge is around 17 AED per sqft per year. Mid-market towers in JVC and Dubai Sports City sit at 11-15 AED. Branded waterfront on Palm Jumeirah and Downtown often clears 25-35 AED. Ultra-luxury can pass 50 AED.
Service charge equals AED per sqft multiplied by the unit suite area as recorded in the title deed. Master community fees and district cooling are billed separately on most freehold plots, so check the Mollak quote rather than relying on the headline number.
RERA (the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, a Dubai Land Department arm) approves every Owners Association budget through the Mollak escrow system. Every Mollak-registered building publishes its approved AED/sqft figure, and that disclosure is the source for this calculator.
Service charges reflect the asset, not the postcode. Two towers on the same street can differ by 10 AED/sqft if one has a chiller plant on site and the other buys from Empower, or if one runs a 24/7 concierge and the other does not. Pool count, lift count, glass facade ratio, and developer-vs-third-party operator all move the number.
No. The service charge covers common-area utilities, security, insurance, and maintenance. DEWA (in-unit electricity and water), Empower or district cooling for the unit, and internet are all billed directly to the tenant or owner on top.
Yes. The Owners Association proposes a new budget every year and RERA approves it. Year-over-year increases of 3-8% are typical to track inflation, insurance, and chiller costs. A reserve-fund top-up after a 10-year facade or lift overhaul can push the increase higher in a single year.
Request the latest Mollak invoice from the seller or the Owners Association manager. Also request the audited financials and the 10-year reserve study. Then run this calculator with the disclosed AED/sqft number and your title-deed sqft to confirm the annual figure matches the invoice.
Branded residences and waterfront on Palm Jumeirah top the chart at 25-35 AED/sqft. Downtown supertalls and Dubai Marina superyacht-frontage buildings come next at 20-28 AED. Some ultra-luxury exceptions (One Palm, Bulgari) clear 45-50 AED once master community and beach access are added.
JVC, Dubai Sports City, International City, and parts of Damac Hills 2 print at 8-13 AED/sqft. These are mid-rise communities with no district cooling on-site and a simpler amenity stack, so the budget per square foot stays low.
Estimates based on RERA-disclosed Mollak data. Service charges change annually; verify with your building OA before transacting.