The Arabic half of a UAE listing, and how to write it

Why does the Arabic description matter on a UAE portal?

Start with the government's own statement of fact. The UAE federal portal says plainly that Arabic is the official language of the UAE. Dubai Land Department publishes its Real Estate Ad Permit service in Arabic as well as English, and the Arabic page names the permit تصريح إعلانات عقارية and lists the fourteen advertisement categories in Arabic. ADREC's Abu Dhabi permit system is مضمون. The regulator you answer to works in Arabic first.

The portals followed. Property Finder's Arabic site carries the search filters, the property type selectors and the listing cards in Arabic, and Bayut's Arabic site does the same down to the currency label درهم and the area unit قدم مربع. Those are separate front doors with their own traffic. A buyer who arrives through the Arabic door and finds an English paragraph inside an Arabic listing card has been handed a listing that somebody could not be bothered to finish.

There is a commercial reading too. The buyer pool that reads Arabic first includes Emirati families, GCC investors and a large Levantine and North African professional population, and these are not marginal segments of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi market. An agency that publishes only in English is competing for a smaller pool than the one it thinks it is in.

What do the regulators actually call these things in Arabic?

Take the vocabulary from the authority rather than from a dictionary. When DLD names something on its own Arabic service page, that is the term a buyer has seen before.

English	Arabic the authorities use	Where it comes from
Real estate advertising permit	تصريح إعلانات عقارية	DLD Arabic service page
Classified advertisement	الإعلانات المبوبة	DLD Arabic service page
Electronic advertisement	إعلانات الكترونية	DLD Arabic service page
Real estate promotion platform	منصة ترويج عقاري	DLD Arabic service page
Trakheesi	تراخيصي	Dubai Land Department
Madhmoun	مضمون	Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre
Dubai Land Department	دائرة الأراضي والأملاك	Dubai Land Department
Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre	مركز أبوظبي العقاري	ADREC

Two habits follow from that table. Write the system names in Arabic rather than transliterating them into Latin script inside an Arabic sentence, because they are Arabic words to begin with. And keep the developer and project brand names in the form the developer markets them in, since a buyer searching for a named tower is searching for the name on the hoarding.

Where does machine translation break a property description?

At the words that carry money and risk. A general translator handles "spacious" and "sea view" without difficulty and then mangles the four terms a buyer actually decides on.

Tenure is the worst of them. Freehold is ملكية حرة and usufruct is حق الانتفاع, and these are different legal products with different registration consequences, so a translation that flattens both into a vague word about ownership has misdescribed the property. Service charges are رسوم الخدمة, and the phrase matters because a buyer comparing two towers is comparing that line. Off plan is على المخطط, and it changes which permit regime the marketing sits under. Title deed is سند الملكية, and a listing that gestures at it without naming it reads as evasive.

Then there is the mechanical damage. Automatic translation reverses digit and unit order, so an area lands as a number the reader has to reassemble. It renders Latin brand names phonetically and produces a tower nobody has heard of. It applies English sentence rhythm to Arabic, which produces long paragraphs where an Arabic reader expects shorter clauses. And it leaves the punctuation in the Latin direction, which is the visible tell that nobody read the file after the machine did.

How do you write Arabic copy that reads as though it started in Arabic?

Write it as a separate piece with the same facts rather than as a translation of a finished English paragraph. Open with the unit and the community. Give the area with the unit the portal uses, قدم مربع, and the price in درهم. State the tenure and the service charge position early, because that is the order an Arabic speaking buyer reads in and the order the questions arrive in on the phone.

Community naming is the judgement call. Some places have a settled Arabic form and look wrong in Latin script inside Arabic copy, so Downtown Dubai reads as وسط مدينة دبي. Others are marketed under a Latin brand and a buyer will search that string, so leave them in Latin inside the Arabic sentence and do not invent an Arabic rendering nobody uses. Get this wrong in either direction and the copy signals that it was assembled elsewhere.

Keep the register straight. Property copy in Arabic is formal without being ornate. Long chains of adjectives read as advertising noise in Arabic faster than they do in English, so cut them and let the specifics carry it. And read the finished file right to left on a phone before it goes out, because a mixed direction line with an English building name in the middle can render in an order that makes the address unreadable.

Does the Arabic asset need the same permit as the English one?

Yes, and this is the compliance point agencies miss when the Arabic version is produced separately. RERA's requirement covers any real estate advertisement or marketing material, so the Arabic brochure, the Arabic carousel and the Arabic portal description carry the same permit number as the English listing. In Abu Dhabi the ADREC requirement is written to cover all types of real estate advertisement within the emirate, with no language carve out. Our guide to Madhmoun permits and the other emirates sets out what that means per emirate, and the practical checks that stop a listing being pulled are in our guide to why UAE portals pull a listing.

Frequently asked questions

Should the Arabic description be a translation or a rewrite?

A rewrite with identical facts. Every number, every measurement, the tenure and the permit number have to match the English exactly, because a discrepancy between two language versions of the same advertisement is a misdescription in whichever one is wrong. The sentences, the order and the emphasis can differ.

Which numerals should the price use?

Follow the portal. Both major Arabic portal interfaces present prices and areas in Western numerals alongside Arabic labels, so a price written in Arabic-Indic numerals inside a portal description sits oddly against the interface around it. Consistency with the site the buyer is reading beats theoretical correctness.

Do I need Arabic for a listing in Sharjah or Ajman?

The portals carry Arabic across the country, so the commercial argument is the same everywhere. The permit position differs by emirate and is thinner outside Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and the honest answer for some of the northern emirates is that the advertising rules are not clearly published either way.

Can I reuse the same Arabic description across similar units?

Avoid it. Duplicate descriptions weaken both language versions in search and give a buyer comparing two units in the same tower no reason to prefer either. Change the floor, the aspect, the view and the service charge line, which are the details that differ anyway.

Sources

• The UAE Government portal, fact sheet, Arabic is the official language of the UAE
• Dubai Land Department, Real Estate Ad Permit, Arabic service page with the Arabic category names and fees
• Dubai Land Department, Real Estate Ad Permit, English service page
• DLD and RERA, Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide, second edition, November 2024
• Property Finder, Arabic site
• Bayut, Arabic site
• Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre

Last verified: 2026-09-02