For owners
Apartment Management in Dubai for Owners
4 min read
Apartment management in Dubai means handing the day-to-day running of a rented apartment to a company, and what that company does depends on how the apartment is let: by the night as a licensed holiday home, by the month as a furnished stay, or by the year to a tenant.
Short answer
If you own an apartment in Dubai and do not want to run it yourself, an apartment management company can find the guests or tenants, look after the home, collect the rent and pay you. The first decision is not which company, but which way you want the apartment let, because that decides what management involves.
fäm Living manages apartments as licensed holiday homes and furnished monthly stays. The sections below explain all three options so you can see which fits your apartment.
Three ways to let a Dubai apartment
A yearly tenancy is the traditional route. One tenant signs a lease, registered with Ejari, and lives in the apartment for the year. Income is steady and the work is light, but the rent is fixed for the year and the apartment is usually let unfurnished or lightly furnished.
A holiday home lets the apartment by the night or the week to visitors. It needs a holiday home permit from Dubai's Department of Economy and Tourism, full furnishing, cleaning between every stay and someone answering guests at any hour. The rate can follow demand through the year, which is why many owners choose it, but the work is constant.
A furnished monthly stay sits between the two. Guests stay for a month or more, often people relocating, working on a project or between homes. Turnovers are fewer than with nightly stays, and the apartment is still furnished and managed rather than handed over for a year.
Many managed apartments mix the last two: nightly stays in the busy months, longer stays in the quieter ones.
What an apartment management company does
For a holiday home or monthly stay, a full-service manager handles the permit and registration, prepares and photographs the apartment, writes and runs the listings, sets the price for each night, answers enquiries, checks guests in, registers them as the rules require, cleans and restocks between stays, deals with repairs, collects payment and sends you a statement and payout.
For a yearly tenancy the work is different: finding and vetting a tenant, the lease and Ejari, rent collection, renewals, maintenance requests and the handover at the end of the lease.
Whichever route you take, ask the company to show you exactly which of these tasks it does itself, which it passes to someone else, and which are left to you.
How to choose the right route for your apartment
Look first at the building and the area. Apartments near the places visitors want to be, such as the Burj Khalifa, the beach or the canal, tend to suit nightly and monthly stays. Some buildings do not allow holiday homes at all, so check your building's rules before anything else.
Then look at how you want to use it. If you want to stay in the apartment yourself for a few weeks a year, a yearly lease rules that out, while a holiday home lets you block your own dates.
Finally, be honest about risk. A yearly lease gives a known figure. Nightly and monthly stays give a figure that moves with the season. A good manager will show you how your apartment's income is estimated rather than promise a number.
What to check before you sign
Read the management agreement for the length of the term, the notice period, how the fee is calculated and what is charged on top, such as cleaning, linen or repairs. Ask who holds the holiday home permit and what happens to it if you leave.
Ask to see a sample owner statement. You should be able to see every booking, every deduction and every payout, not just a monthly total.
Ask who you will speak to. A named person who answers is worth more than a long list of services.
Apartment management with fäm Living
fäm Living is a licensed holiday home operator in Dubai and the holiday homes company of fäm Properties. We manage apartments as holiday homes and furnished monthly stays: the permit, the listings, the guests, the cleaning, the repairs and the payouts, with our own team on the ground.
You keep the ownership and the income, see every booking and statement in the owner portal, and can block dates for your own stays. Tell us about your apartment and we will tell you honestly whether nightly, monthly or a mix suits it.