Dubai tenants must enter co-living persons' details for Ejari

Dubai: Tenants in Dubai signing up for their Ejari contracts need to be clear about one thing – enter all info about who else are residing in their apartments or villas. This is to ensure that these homes are not shared by anyone unauthorised to do so.

In case some tenant fails to mention these details, landlords or their representatives have been quick to get back and ensure the missing details are added.  

This comes as Dubai real estate authorities take a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to unlicensed shared apartments and those landlords who facilitate this.

They have stepped up inspections of buildings to see if the rules are being followed at the residential units – and hitting landlords with stiff penalties if discrepancies are found.

“No landlord wants to be found in breach of the tight enforcement of the co-living rules in Dubai,” said an industry source. “In our community of high-rises, we are seeing a stepping up of the inspections.”

Under the rules, only residential units where the landlord has got the license to offer co-living options can do so. As for everyone else who were doing it, the message is simple – STOP!

The Ejari contracts are registered with the Dubai Land Department in the name of either the principal tenant or the landlord.

All additional occupants residing for one month or longer must be registered in the DLD system using the REST app.

“The issuance of Ejari is limited to one tenancy contract per unit for a single tenant or entity,” said Vishal Tinani, corporate lawyer.

“As a result, not all occupants are listed on the Ejari. Instead, co-occupants are officially recorded through the Dubai Land Department’s DLD co-occupant registration service.

“If a landlord leases individual rooms directly (with the necessary approvals), the subleases can be documented separately but must still be connected to the primary Ejari registration for the unit.”

So far, the Dubai property market has not seen any rent spikes for licensed co-sharing apartments. Which continues to take many industry sources by surprise.

"A lot of evictions happened in buildings where landlords were allowing co-sharing or partitioning with a license," said a broker. "Everything changed after that fire in a Dubai Marina tower, which put this issue in the spotlight.

"But even as unlicensed co-sharing dropped, there has been no rental increases for licensed options."

According to data from the Rentify platform, in Al Barsha, basic shared rooms can be leased for around Dh800 to Dh2,500 a month.

In Deira, shared accommodations generally range from Dh1,100 to Dh2,500, with some studio-equivalent options priced at around Dh3,000 per month.

Co-living options are 'expanding faster' in central areas like Business Bay, Dubai Marina, Downtown, Jumeirah Lake Towers, and Al Barsha, according to Rentify. The market has been growing by around 25% annually 'driven by higher living costs and changing lifestyles'.