Madhmoun permits in Abu Dhabi and the other five emirates

Abu Dhabi has required an ADREC Madhmoun permit through DARI since 7 July 2025. Published fees, the ADGM rule for Al Reem and Al Maryah, and where the record ends.

8 min readLast verified: 2026-09-02العربية

Madhmoun permits in Abu Dhabi and the other five emirates

Since 7 July 2025 a property advertisement in Abu Dhabi needs a Madhmoun permit issued by the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre through the DARI platform before it is published. A unit on Al Maryah Island or Al Reem Island sits inside ADGM instead, and ADGM launched its own Real Estate Advertising Permit on AccessRP on 21 August 2025. In the five other emirates the published record is much thinner, and in two of them it is genuinely unclear what a listing agent has to do.

What changed in Abu Dhabi on 7 July 2025?

ADREC put it in one sentence. Obtaining the prior Madhmoun permit through the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre's portal "is mandatory as of 07/07/2025 for all types of real estate advertisements within the emirate". The permit comes before publication, so the sequence is permit first and listing second, and a listing that went live on 6 July under the old habits is not grandfathered by anything ADREC published.

Three features of the system change how a mandate actually works. A maximum of three approved brokers may advertise the same listing, which ends the pattern of the same villa appearing eleven times with three different prices. The owner sits inside the flow, because a broker's request runs through the DARI system and the owner is notified and can authorise the broker. And ADREC framed Madhmoun as the country's first multiple listing service rather than as a permit counter, which tells you the direction of travel: one verified record per unit, with the advertisement hanging off it.

There are carve outs. ADGM property is outside the ADREC permit, and reporting on the launch also put certain hotel apartments and holiday homes outside it. Confirm your own case with ADREC before deciding you are exempt, because the exemption you are relying on may be narrower than the summary you read. ADREC's own warning is that breaching the regulations brings legal and administrative measures.

What does a Madhmoun permit cost and how long does it run?

DARI publishes the price list on the service page for "Issue Real Estate Advertisement Permits (Madhmoun)", and unlike Dubai the durations are printed against the fees.

Permit type	Duration	Published fee
Listing, sale	1 month per property	AED 125 plus 5 percent VAT
Listing, sale	3 months per property	AED 250 plus 5 percent VAT
Listing, rent	1 month per property	AED 50 plus 5 percent VAT
Listing, rent	3 months per property	AED 115 plus 5 percent VAT
Full project, social media	1 year per broker	AED 25,000 plus 5 percent VAT
Full project, road billboard	1 month	AED 1,200 plus 5 percent VAT

The economics are worth reading twice. A three month sale permit costs the same as a two month one, so there is no reason to buy two months. A rental permit is cheaper than a sale permit at every duration. DARI lists the eligible initiators as owner, property management company, broker, employee and developer, records that no documents are required at submission, and sets the business rules around a valid trade licence, no financial block, and at least one licensed broker employed by a management company.

Which listings go to ADGM instead of ADREC?

Al Maryah Island and Al Reem Island. ADGM announced its Real Estate Advertising Permit on 21 August 2025, delivered with the Department of Municipalities and Transport and ADREC, and issued through the AccessRP platform. It applies to advertisements for property inside ADGM's jurisdiction, and ADGM described the purpose as reducing fake listings and strengthening oversight.

Al Reem is the one that catches people out, because it is a large residential island full of ordinary two bedroom apartments and it does not feel like a financial free zone from the leasing desk. If your unit is on Al Reem or Al Maryah, the permit route is AccessRP and the reference you print is the ADGM permit. There is no BRN or ORN here either. Those are Dubai instruments, and the Abu Dhabi equivalents are the ADREC licences, which is worth knowing before you copy a Dubai template across, as our guide to the Trakheesi permit sets out.

What do the northern emirates require?

Honestly, less is settled than the market pretends, and the useful answer names which parts are proven.

Sharjah is the clearest of the five in principle. The Sharjah Real Estate Registration Department regulates project marketing and sales under Executive Council Resolution No. 34 of 2018 and the 2024 reforms around it, and agents and brokers are expected to obtain the department's prior approval for advertisements. What is not established is a permit number that belongs on the advertisement face. None of the portals runs a Sharjah permit field. So get the approval, keep it on file, and do not print a permit number or a system name that nobody has published. What the department does run, and how its standing broker registration differs from a per advertisement permit, is set out in advertising property in Sharjah.

Ajman does issue a per advertisement permit. The Department of Land and Real Estate Regulation lists "Issuance of a Real Estate Advertising Permit" as service 3221, covering five categories that include leasing and selling property units, leasing an entire building, selling vacant land and selling in development projects. It is valid for three months, requires a copy of the advertising content and a no objection letter from the owner or a certified power of attorney, and the published delivery time is five minutes. Nothing published says the number goes on the advertisement, so print it only where the broker actually holds one.

Ras Al Khaimah runs its Real Estate Regulatory Administration inside RAK Municipality, and the written rule on the record is aimed at developers: they are not to advertise in local or foreign media or take part in exhibitions to promote units or schemes without written permission from the administration. Whether an ordinary resale or lease listing by a brokerage is inside the same instrument is not clearly published. Treat project marketing as needing permission and ask the administration about a single unit rather than assuming either way.

Umm Al Quwain publishes a full service catalogue through its Department of Land and Property and there is no advertising permit anywhere in it. The credentials that exist there are the realtor card and the real estate office licence. An absence from a published list is weaker evidence than a regulator saying no, so treat it as probably nothing to obtain rather than certainly nothing.

Fujairah is a blank. The municipality publishes land, tenancy, licence and building services and no real estate advertising permit, and no broker register surfaced either. That is a gap in the published record and not a confirmed exemption.

How should you handle a listing where the rule is unclear?

Work to three habits and you will be defensible in all seven emirates. Print a permit number on the advertisement wherever you hold one, whatever the emirate, because a real number never hurts you. Hold written owner authorisation to market on file for every mandate, since every regime that does exist is built on it and it is the first document a regulator asks for. And name only the systems that exist. Writing "Permit pending" under a Fujairah listing invents an obligation, and inventing one is its own kind of misdescription. What you put on the advertisement after the permit is settled is a separate craft, covered in our guide to Property Finder and Bayut listing standards.

Paste the listing, get the whole kit

Throw in whatever you already have, the text and the photographs, exactly as they are. A full marketing kit comes back in English and Arabic, formatted for Property Finder, Bayut and Dubizzle, permit aware across all 7 emirates, in under two hours. The first one is free.

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Frequently asked questions

Does a Dubai Trakheesi number work for an Abu Dhabi listing?

No. Trakheesi is a Dubai Land Department system and issues Dubai permits. Abu Dhabi mainland runs on ADREC through DARI, and the portals hold the two numbers in separate fields. An agency working both markets needs both permits for the same reason it needs two sets of paperwork.

Who pays for the Madhmoun permit, the broker or the owner?

DARI lists the owner, a property management company, a broker, an employee and a developer as eligible initiators, so the permit can be raised from either side and the fee follows whoever raises it. Most agencies absorb it and price it into the mandate, at AED 250 plus VAT for a three month sale permit.

What counts as an advertisement in Abu Dhabi?

ADREC wrote the requirement as covering all types of real estate advertisement within the emirate, and the DARI fee card prices listings, social media project campaigns, road billboards and building billboards separately. A portal listing and a paid social campaign are both priced, which is a clear signal that both are in scope.

Is there a permit to obtain in Sharjah, Ajman or Fujairah before I advertise?

Ajman, yes, a three month advertising permit per advertisement. Sharjah, prior approval from the Real Estate Registration Department, with no published number to display. Fujairah, nothing is published either way, which is a gap rather than permission. Ask the emirate's authority directly and keep the answer in writing.

Sources

Last verified: 2026-09-02