A real estate website in Dubai starts from about AED 3,000 for a single-broker site, and a full Bayut-style portal costs considerably more, with the right number depending entirely on whether you need a listings site or a marketplace [1]. But the cost is the question everyone asks, and the two that actually matter get skipped: do you even need your own site when the portals dominate, and do you know your own website has to carry a Trakheesi permit number on every listing? This guide answers all three.
We build property sites for Dubai agencies and developers from our Dubai and Bengaluru teams, in a market that did AED 917 billion across 270,000-plus transactions in 2025, its fifth straight record year [3]. The agencies winning in that market are the ones that own their lead generation instead of renting all of it. Here is how the website fits in.
How much does a real estate website cost in Dubai?
A single-broker site starts from AED 3,000, an agency site with CRM and search from AED 8,000, a developer or off-plan site from AED 15,000, and a custom portal from AED 30,000, with the exact figure confirmed during discovery [1]. Here is the 2026 picture by type. These are our own figures, not a market survey:
| Site type | Starts from (AED) | Build time |
|---|---|---|
| Single broker / solo agent | 3,000 | 2 to 4 weeks |
| Agency (IDX, CRM, multilingual) | 8,000 | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Off-plan developer site | 15,000 | 6 to 12 weeks |
| Custom portal MVP | 30,000 | 8 to 12 weeks |
| Full marketplace portal | 65,000, scoped in discovery | 18 to 28 weeks |
These are starting points, not fixed quotes. Final pricing depends on scope and is confirmed during discovery. Straight talk: the biggest source of confusion in this market is that two very different things are both called "a custom real estate website". In the quotes we see, one kind of "custom" agency site is capped around AED 25,000, because it means a WordPress build on the Houzez theme. The other kind of "custom" platform starts from AED 35,000, because it means a bespoke Next.js application, and larger multi-agency platforms cost more from there [2]. Most agencies need the first. Only a multi-agency portal or an unusual developer needs the second. For the general cost picture, see our Dubai website cost guide.
Do you even need your own site if you are on the portals?
You do not need one to reach buyers, because Bayut and Property Finder dominate listing search in Dubai. You need one to own your leads, build your brand, and stop renting all your visibility forever [2]. This is the honest answer the industry rarely gives straight.
Think about what you are actually buying. A portal subscription costs tens of thousands of dirhams a year and produces leads only while you keep paying. The day you stop, it all stops, and you are left with nothing you own. A one-time AED 8,000 to 35,000 website is an asset that keeps generating leads, ranks for community searches for years, and carries your brand instead of the portal's.
In the projects we run, self-generated leads from an agency's own site convert far better than bought portal leads, because the buyer found you rather than being resold to five agents [2]. The smart play is not either-or. It is portals for reach today, your own site for owned leads and brand over time.
The compliance nobody mentions: Trakheesi on your own site
Every property listing on your own website needs a valid Trakheesi permit number before you publish it, exactly like listings on the portals [4]. This is the most overlooked rule when an agency builds its first site, and it is not optional.
Under RERA Law No. 7 of 2013, your own website counts as electronic advertising. That means each advert must carry:
- The Trakheesi permit number, which costs AED 1,000 plus a AED 20 knowledge fee per advert for a brokerage [5].
- The Madmoun QR code, mandatory on every property advert since April 2023.
- Your broker BRN and agency ORN.
Advertise without a valid permit and you breach RERA rules, and the penalties run from fines to cancellation of your licence [6]. The practical fix is to build the permit number, QR, and broker details into your listing template, and to handle permit generation through your CRM workflow so nothing publishes without one. A builder who does not know this rule will hand you a site that is a compliance liability the day it goes live.
How listings and leads actually flow
Most Dubai agencies do not wire the portals directly into their website. They run a CRM as the hub, which both syndicates listings out to the portals and feeds them into the website through an XML or IDX feed [7]. Enter a property once in the CRM, and it appears on Property Finder, Bayut, Dubizzle, and your own site, in sync.
The operational pain, and the thing nobody warns you about before you build, is the sync itself. Many setups rely on Zapier middleware that adds a 5 to 10 minute delay and breaks whenever a portal changes its form fields [2]. Without deduplication, the same buyer who enquires on three of your listings becomes three separate leads assigned to three different agents. A proper direct integration fixes both.
Common mistake: treating lead speed as a nice-to-have. In this market, most buyers sign with whichever agent responds first, often within minutes [2]. A lead that sits for an hour is usually already gone. The point of feeding your site and the portals into one CRM is not tidiness, it is being the first to call.
Arabic, features, and what buyers expect
A Dubai property site needs advanced search by community, type, price, and ready versus off-plan, a map search, a WhatsApp button per listing with a pre-filled reference, CRM integration, and a mortgage or payment-plan calculator [2]. For higher-value and off-plan stock, 360 tours are now expected, and in the projects we quote a Matterport-style scan costs roughly AED 990 for an apartment and AED 1,490 for commercial space [2].
Arabic matters from day one. Bilingual Arabic and English with genuine right-to-left design widens your reach, and many Dubai sites now add Russian for that buyer segment. The mistake is bolting on machine-translated Arabic later, which mirrors the text without mirroring the layout and reads as broken to native speakers. Build it in from the start. Our Arabic-first website guide covers how, and most agencies are best served by WordPress with a real estate theme rather than a custom build, which we explain in our platform comparison.
Getting leads without paying the portals forever
Win long-tail community searches, because most Dubai property research starts on Google, not just on the portals. You will not outrank Bayut for "Dubai apartments for sale", but you can outrank them for "3 bedroom villa for sale in Arabian Ranches 3" or a specific off-plan project, which is where the high-intent buyers are.
The strategy that works is deep area and community guides, lifestyle pages the portals do not write, area-tour videos, and individual property pages with proper schema. A community page ranks for years. A portal listing works only while you pay. For the full approach to competing in Dubai search, see our SEO company guide, which covers exactly this complement-don't-compete play for portals.
What it costs to run, not just build
The build is the first invoice, not the whole cost. Budget roughly AED 2,000 to 5,000 a year for hosting, domain, SSL, and basic maintenance on a standard agency site, plus your CRM, which is the real engine. PropSpace, the longest-running Dubai real estate CRM, runs around AED 176 per user per month with a minimum near AED 500, and it is what feeds both the portals and your website [7]. Pick the CRM alongside the site, not after, because retrofitting an integration to a CRM you chose later is more expensive than building it once.
Then there is SEO, which for a competitive market like Dubai real estate usually starts at AED 3,000 to 7,000 a month if you want the site to generate organic leads rather than sit there. That sounds like a lot until you compare it with portal economics: a qualified lead from your own site costs a fraction of a bought portal lead and converts several times better. The website is the cheapest lead source you will ever own, once it ranks. The running cost is what gets it there.
How this played out for three clients
Real situations from our property work. Names and details changed for privacy.
A Dubai Marina brokerage. They were spending around AED 90,000 a year on portal subscriptions and owned none of the leads. We built them an agency site with CRM feed integration and a community-guide content plan. Within eight months, a third of their leads came from their own site, at a fraction of the portal cost per lead. "The portals were renting us visibility," the principal says. "Now we own some of it."
An off-plan developer (Business Bay). Their first site launched without Trakheesi permit numbers on the project pages, and they got a compliance warning. We rebuilt the listing template to carry the permit number, Madmoun QR, and escrow disclosures automatically. "We did not know our own website needed the permit," the marketing lead says. "It is not just the portals."
A solo agent (JVC). He was losing leads because his portal enquiries took 20 minutes to reach his phone through a Zapier chain that kept breaking. We moved him to a direct CRM integration with instant WhatsApp alerts. His response time dropped to under two minutes, and his close rate rose. "First to respond wins here," he says. "The delay was costing me deals I never knew I had."
How SKIMBOX builds real estate sites
We build the listing template compliant from the start, with the Trakheesi permit number, Madmoun QR, and broker details handled automatically, then wire your CRM directly to the site and the portals so leads arrive in seconds, not minutes. The site is bilingual, mobile-first, and built around the long-tail community searches that win you owned leads. If you want a transparent, scope-first proposal, see our web development services and digital marketing services, or contact us.
References
[1] SKIMBOX - Our own pricing for real estate websites and portals built for Dubai brokerages, developers, and agents, covering price by site type and build time, 2026. skimbox.co
[2] SKIMBOX - Internal experience of the Dubai property market, covering portal economics and lead quality, CRM sync failures and duplicate leads, lead response times, the features buyers ask for, 3D scan costs, and what agencies mean when they say "custom", 2026. skimbox.co
[3] UAE Debt Management Office - Dubai real estate exceeded AED 917 billion in 2025. dmo.dof.gov.ae
[4] Dubai Land Department - Trakheesi real estate advertising permit. dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/real-estate-ad-permit
[5] Dubai Land Department - Trakheesi advertising permit fees. dubailand.gov.ae
[6] Dubai Land Department - Real estate advertising rules and violations under Law No. 7 of 2013. dubailand.gov.ae
[7] PropSpace - Dubai real estate CRM, Property Finder integration and portal syndication. propspace.com/real-estate-crm-dubai
