Advertising a property: Trakheesi permits and Madmoun

What is a Trakheesi permit, and what does it cover?

Trakheesi is the Dubai Land Department system that handles real estate licences, permits and practice cards. The advertising permit is one of its services. The legal footing is short: Law No. 4 of 2019, which now governs the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, gives it the power to approve the content of real estate advertisements in the emirate, free zones included, and to monitor that content.

The Department's own wording on who needs one is equally short. Its 2024 Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide says brokerages must obtain a permit for any real estate advertisement or marketing material through the Trakheesi system, and that the permit number must be displayed on the ad. A 2020 Department announcement put it from the other side: the advertiser bears the consequences of the legal procedures if the permit number is not placed in the advertisement.

The service page lists fourteen kinds of permit. Most are what you would expect: newspaper, SMS, outdoor, vehicle, printed, billboard and classified advertisements, promotional campaigns and open house events. Four are for larger events: exhibitions, project launches, promotion platforms and seminars. The one that covers most of an agent's working day is the plainest entry on the list, electronic advertisements.

What is the permit issued against?

For a sale, the listing agreement. The Practice Guide defines Contract A, which the market calls Form A, as an agreement to market a property between the seller and the real estate brokerage. The Department's 2025 Trakheesi user manual then says that for a ready property for sale in Dubai you must enter the number of the marketing contract A between the owner and the broker, and settle the fees, to obtain the permit.

That is why the order matters. Without a signed Form A there is nothing to enter, and the permit cannot be pulled. The service page states the same principle more broadly: where the applicant is a broker, a copy of the marketing contract with the property owner is required for every standard advertising permit type. Form A itself, and the other RERA forms, have their own piece in this guide.

For rentals and off-plan the published material is less specific, and the table below sets out what it does and does not say.

How do you get a permit?

Through Trakheesi, and usually through whoever at your brokerage holds the firm's access, because the system's accounts are linked to the company's licence. The Department's service page sets out the procedure in five steps, condensed here.

The stated service time is one working day. Payment is by credit card, e-Dirham or Noqodi wallet, and the issued document is a permit e-certificate. The manual shows each permit carrying a start and an expiry date, with separate requests for renewal and amendment. The Department lists the use of expired permits as a violation in its own right, and Trakheesi has a renewal request.

On the fee, the service page lists AED 5,000 for a project launch event permit, AED 1,000 for "other permits" and an AED 20 knowledge and innovation fee. It does not break those figures down for a single listing on a portal, and the per listing figures quoted on portal and brokerage blogs are not on the Department's page. The fee Trakheesi shows at the point of payment is the one that applies. Who pulls permits at a firm, and who pays for them, is one of the questions worth asking before you join one, covered in the section on choosing a brokerage.

1. 01

   Log in and choose the permit

   Sign in to Trakheesi and select the advertising permit type that matches the advert.

2. 02

   Enter the details and attach documents

   For a broker, that includes the marketing contract with the owner. For a ready sale in Dubai, the Form A number.

3. 03

   Wait for review

   A Department employee reviews and approves the request. The stated service time is one working day.

4. 04

   Pay and receive the e-certificate

   Pay through the system and the permit e-certificate is issued, with its number and its QR code.

What has to appear on the advert?

Two things, on the Department's own published material: the permit number, and since 24 April 2023 the Madmoun QR code. Madmoun is the Trakheesi service that issues a QR code for each advertising permit. The April 2023 announcement required it on print and audiovisual advertisements; the Department's April 2025 announcement put it as all real estate advertisements, whether visual or written.

Scanning the code takes a customer to the permit's details on the Department's website. The Department says that shows the advertising company, the advert information, its status and the property details, and whether the property has been sold or rented. In other words, an advert that has outlived its listing is visible as such to anyone with a phone.

The 2020 announcement adds a condition worth reading slowly: companies must display their advertisements according to the conditions approved in the permit. The permit is not only a number to print. It is the approved version of the advert, and the published inspection standards check the advert against it.

Those checks are not occasional. In April 2025 the Department reported that its AI governance platform, launched at GITEX 2024, had monitored over 279,000 real estate advertisements on Property Finder, Dubizzle and Bayut, and that 29% of the monitored listings had been automatically modified. It describes the monitoring as daily.

Does this apply to social media and your personal accounts?

Electronic advertisements are on the permit list, and the Department's 2020 announcement named fake and unlicensed adverts on electronic platforms and social media channels as the problem the permit service was built to address. The published material we read does not carve out social media, and it does not separately address a broker posting a permitted listing on a personal account. Ask your firm's compliance function how it handles that before you post, and keep the answer.

A second regulator sits alongside the first. On 30 July 2025 the UAE Media Council announced an Advertiser Permit for individuals who publish promotional content on social media platforms, paid or unpaid, coming into effect three months later; the Council later extended that deadline to 31 January 2026, as reported at the time. The announcement exempts an individual promoting a product or service of their own, or of a company they own, through their personal account. It requires the permit number to be shown on the account, and approval from the relevant authorities before publishing wherever the relevant legislation requires it.

Whether a licensed broker posting their brokerage's listing on a personal account needs the Media Council's permit as well as the Trakheesi one, the announcement does not say, and we found no Department guidance that answers it. That is a question for the Media Council and your compliance function, not for an article.

What are the penalties for advertising without a permit or with false details?

The Department has published the structure of the penalty as well as individual cases. Its October 2020 announcement said each fine is valued at a progressive AED 50,000, and said they may reach the stage of cancelling the licence of the violating company. It grouped the violations into three types: no advertising permit, manipulation of the use of permit numbers, and the use of expired permits. Only the first of those is about having no permit at all.

False details are caught by the same mechanism. The December 2023 standards check that the advertised data matches the code data, and the July 2024 announcement described control operations aimed at a QR code that meets the approved specification, is readable when scanned, and matches the advert's data. The same December 2023 announcement recorded five Madmoun violations at AED 50,000 each and 1,980 warnings, and said the Department would now enforce directly on non-compliant companies without issuing prior warnings.

The full record of what the regulator has fined and suspended brokers for, advertising and otherwise, has its own piece in this section. Members of the public can report an advert without a permit through the Department's Real Estate Violations System, which the 2020 announcement names.