Getting hired with no experience
The short answer
Yes, if you bring something a brokerage can use from the start: languages that match buyers, a network you can describe, sales or client-facing experience, and savings to fund months without commission. The broker licence asks for no property background. Be wary of a firm that asks about none of this, because it has little to lose if you fail.
The licence to broker property in Dubai does not ask for a track record, so the question is not whether you may start without one. It is whether a firm will back you, what it expects you to bring instead, and whether what it gives you in return is training or a phone and a list of numbers.
By House Of Orange editorial. A licensed Dubai real estate brokerage, ORN 49865, at The Opal Tower, Business Bay. About the firm
Key points
- What the licence asks
- The qualification course and exam, a Dubai Police good conduct certificate and residency on a licensed firm. No property track record. DLD, checked 14 Oct 2026
- What replaces experience
- Languages, a network, sales or client-facing experience, a funded runway and willingness to prospect
- What to bring to interview
- Your runway in months, a description of your network, evidence of selling, and a view on where you would start
- Marketing calls are regulated
- Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024 sets who may make them, from which numbers, to whom and at what hours
Will a brokerage hire you with no property experience?
Some will, and the licence does not stand in the way. The conditions the Dubai Land Department lists for a broker card include a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police, the qualification course and a pass in the annual test for the profession. None asks for a record in property. Who is eligible in the first place has its own piece in this section.
So the real question is not whether you are allowed in. It is whether a firm believes you will produce business before your savings run out, and each firm answers that differently. A firm paying a base salary carries a cost for every hire, which gives it a reason to be selective. A firm paying commission only carries far less, which may be why some hire freely, and why being offered a place by one tells you less than it feels like it does.
Without experience, the interview becomes a test of substitutes. The firm is looking for whatever makes a new agent likely to transact: who you can talk to, what you have sold before, how long you can last, and whether you will pick up the phone to strangers. Come prepared to evidence each one rather than to describe your enthusiasm for it.
What do firms weigh instead of experience?
None of the five decides a hire alone, and firms trade one against another. A candidate with three languages and no sales history can be a better hire than a seasoned salesperson with no network and two months of savings. What sinks a candidate is having none of them, or having them and being unable to show it.
Two of the five deserve more care than they usually get. A network is only worth something when it is specific: "I know a lot of people" is not an answer, and "I worked ten years in hospitality and know the managers of six hotel groups" is. And runway is the one an interviewer is doing you a favour by asking about. The piece on savings in this section works through how to arrive at the number.
| What they weigh | Why it matters to a firm | How to show it |
|---|---|---|
| Languages | Buyers and sellers in Dubai come from everywhere, and a client served in their own language is easier to win and keep | Name the languages you can negotiate in, not only converse in |
| A network | People who already know you are the one source of business that does not depend on the firm | A description of who you know and why they might buy, sell or rent in Dubai |
| Sales or client-facing experience | Targets, objections and follow-up carry over from other industries; property knowledge can be taught | The numbers you were measured on, and what you did when you missed them |
| A funded runway | Commission can arrive late and irregularly at the start, and an agent who runs out of money leaves before the work pays | The number of months you can fund with no income, worked out before the interview |
| Willingness to prospect | Without performance to weigh, a new joiner may receive few firm enquiries, so business has to be generated | Say how you would find your first ten conversations, specifically |
What should you bring to the interview?
A hiring manager with no property record to read needs something else to read. Give it to them on paper, so the conversation is about your evidence rather than your confidence.
Your runway, in months
Living costs plus the costs of doing the job, against the savings you will arrive with. A number, not a feeling, and one you can explain.
A description of your network
Who you know, by nationality, language, profession or community, and why they might transact in Dubai. A description only, never anyone's contact details: those are not yours to hand over.
Evidence of selling
Targets and results, a reference from a manager, and why you left. Target-based or commission-based work counts for more than a job title.
A view on where you would start
Sales or rentals, and one or two communities you have read about, with a reason. It shows you have thought about the work rather than the city.
What will you be asked, and what should you ask back?
Expect the interview to circle the five things above. The wording differs from firm to firm, but be ready for questions such as: why property and why Dubai, how long you can fund yourself, who you know, and what happened the last time a sale fell through. The first is listening for a reason that survives a slow quarter. The last is listening for what you did next, because rejection is most of the job.
Answer the money question with a number of months, not with optimism. An interviewer who hears "I'll be fine" has learned that you have not done the sum, which is the one thing they asked.
Then ask your own. The questions every candidate should put to a brokerage, on the split, the leads, the visa and the exit, have their own piece in this guide and are not repeated here. A candidate without experience has four more, all about the gap between being hired and being able to sell.
Who books and pays for the certified training and the exam, and is any of it recovered from me if I leave? What does the training cover beyond passing the exam: valuations, viewings, negotiation, the RERA forms? Whom will I shadow, and for how many weeks? And how many people who joined without experience in the last year are still here? A firm that answers the last one with a number knows its own record. One that answers with a story either does not, or would rather you did not.
What does good onboarding look like?
The version to be ready for is a login to a CRM full of numbers, a phone, and an instruction to start calling. It costs the firm nothing, it teaches nothing, and it can put a new agent on the wrong side of the rules on the first morning.
Marketing calls in the UAE are regulated by Cabinet Resolution No. 56 of 2024, which also covers marketing texts and messages through social media apps. The resolution states that a natural person may not make marketing calls for products or services they provide in their own name or their representative's, using a fixed or mobile number licensed in their own name. It requires companies to call from numbers registered under their commercial licence, not to call numbers listed on the Do Not Call Registry, and to call only between 9:00 am and 6:00 pm. Ask how the firm's calling meets those rules, and where its data came from, before you dial anything from your own phone. How they apply to a particular call is a question for the firm's compliance officer. The Dubai Land Department has separately suspended brokers for cold calling, and what it has announced is in the piece on what gets an agent fined or suspended; prospecting has its own piece too.
Good onboarding is the opposite of the phone and the list: a sequence with someone responsible for it. Ask to see it written down. A firm that has one should be able to show you the first four weeks. Be wary if the answer is only that it is very hands-on.
A licensing route
Who books the training and the exam, who pays, and what you do in the weeks before your card is issued, since you cannot broker without it.
Shadowing a named agent
Viewings, valuations and negotiations sat in on with a working agent, named in advance, before you run your own.
The paperwork, taught
Someone who walks you through the RERA forms, the advertising permit process and the firm's systems, so you are not learning them in the middle of a deal.
A starting supply and a review date
A stated allocation of enquiries for a new joiner, or a stated absence of one, and a date on which you and your manager review progress against something measurable.
How do you spot a firm that will hire anyone?
A firm that hires everyone is not necessarily dishonest. On commission only, an extra agent costs it very little, and some agents do well in that setting. The risk is that nobody there has a reason to care whether you in particular succeed, and that is worth knowing before you move countries for the job.
The general warning signs at interview, and how to tell a red flag from a business model, have their own piece in this guide. These are the ones specific to a firm with no hiring bar.
One question tests for all of them. Ask what the firm last turned a candidate down for. A firm with a hiring bar can tell you. A firm without one may struggle to answer.
Nobody asks about your runway
A firm that bears none of the cost of you running out of money has no reason to ask. One that asks is protecting its own investment, and yours.
The offer comes before the questions
An offer made in the first conversation, before anyone has asked what you have sold or whom you know, is likely an offer made to most people who ask.
Joining costs you money paid to the firm
A fee for a seat, a starter pack or the firm's own course is a different thing from a government fee. What the law says about that, and how to check it, is in the piece on checking a job offer from abroad.
Joiners are described as an intake to fill
A monthly cohort with a target number suggests a recruitment model rather than a choice about you, and training built for the batch.
What this page relies on
Government bodies and regulators only. Each link carries the date we last read it against the text above.
Questions about this
The ones that come up most often, answered without a pitch.
The licence does not require it: the Dubai Land Department's conditions for a broker card include a Dubai Police good conduct certificate, the qualification course and a pass in the annual test, and none asks for property experience. Whether a firm hires you depends on what you bring instead, chiefly languages, a network, sales experience and savings to fund the first months.
Substitutes for a property record: languages that match buyers and sellers, a network of people who may transact, sales or client-facing experience, a funded runway, and willingness to prospect. Bring evidence of each to the interview rather than describing it.
A licensing route with stated costs, shadowing a named agent on viewings and negotiations, instruction in the RERA forms, advertising permits and the firm's systems, and a stated starting supply of enquiries with a review date. A CRM login and a phone with no plan is not onboarding.
Treat any fee paid to the firm itself, as distinct from a published government fee, as a question to settle before paying. UAE labour law prohibits an employer from charging a worker the fees and costs of recruitment and employment; whether an agent arrangement is employment is a question for MOHRE. The piece on checking a job offer from abroad sets out what MOHRE publishes and how to confirm it.
On commission only, an extra agent costs a firm very little, so some firms hire freely and leave the outcome to the agent. That is a business model rather than a fraud, but it means nobody there loses anything if you fail. Ask what the firm last turned a candidate down for.
Read next
Written by House Of Orange, a licensed Dubai brokerage that also recruits agents
House Of Orange Real Estate is a licensed Dubai brokerage, ORN 49865. We publish this because we recruit, and we would rather you put the questions on these pages to us than take our word for anything. If a firm cannot answer them, that is the answer.