Blank ruled paper and a blank phone beside a photo of an empty room — The issued holiday-home permit is the paper this unit folder still does not hold.

How to Keep a Holiday Home Permit File for a Dubai Unit

Keep one holiday-home permit file for a Dubai unit: the issued permit, the papers this portal asked for, and a reminder from the end date on that permit.

7 October 2026•3 min read•Article•IziRento Editorial

Rental operations notes from the IziRento team. Not legal advice.

Key takeaways

A holiday-home permit file is the folder for one Dubai unit. It holds the permit issued for that furnished unit, the papers this application asked for, and a reminder taken from the end date printed on the permit. Read the sale agreement before any application. If it explicitly forbids this use, the file stops. A long-term tenancy registration, a building move paper, and an operator licence are other documents. Any payment amount stays on the payment screen.

Short stays have started, or they are about to start. The unit folder holds a long-term registration, a utility screenshot, or a building move paper. The issued holiday-home permit for this unit is the paper that is missing. This unit file holds the sale agreement, checked for a ban on this use, the papers this portal actually asked for, the management letter when this case needs it, and the issued permit with a reminder taken from the date on that permit.

Disclaimer: IziRento is operations software, not legal advice. Local tenancy rules vary; check a qualified adviser for binding decisions.

The issued permit is the missing paper

The apply page of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) says every apartment and villa must be registered and approved before it is listed. A new permit is the approval of one residential unit so it can be run as a Holiday Home. The permit is the document that says a furnished unit is approved as a Holiday Home.

Decree No. 41 of 2013 describes the activity as letting holiday homes regularly, including by renting a unit in order to let it to guests. The decree says that activity needs a licence from the authority it calls DTCM. In the decree, a holiday home is a furnished unit set aside for the activity, and a guest is a person who stays overnight for a fee. The licensee lets the whole unit by the day, the week, the month, or the year. Rooms and beds are not offered on their own.

Ejari, Dubai’s tenancy registration, belongs in its own file. The decree and Administrative Resolution No. 1 of 2020 do not treat that registration as the holiday-home permit. The Ejari document list is the long-term pack.

A building move paper is the building’s permission for a house move. The move-permit checklist is that other file. An operator licence allows a person or a company to run holiday homes, and that licence keeps its own end date. A PDF from a chat belongs in this folder only when that PDF is the issued unit permit.

Comparison rows for one residential unit approved as a holiday home, each with a blank line — That approval covers the whole unit by the day or the week, and rooms stay off the listing.

Fill the unit file in this order

Administrative Resolution No. 1 of 2020 sets the permit conditions in Article 8. The department’s news page gives the date as 7 January 2020. The application goes through the electronic portal with the Article 8 documents. The department may visit the unit and ask for further papers. After approval, the applicant pays the prescribed fees, and the permit is issued. The English text is a translation; where it differs from the Arabic, the Arabic prevails.

Article 8 also requires an area where the activity is allowed, and a unit in one of the stated forms: an apartment in a building designated for the activity, an apartment in a residential building, a house or villa in a complex, or a standalone villa. The decree names two categories, deluxe and standard. If the issued permit shows one of them, the folder keeps that label.

A private individual or a professional operator can register the apartment or villa. The person who files for this unit may be the owner or an operator. The operator registration page describes an account, an online form, the upload, submission, and payment.

Workflow cards from the sale agreement to the end date, beside a blank clipboard and an empty folder — The sale agreement comes first. If it forbids this use, the file stops before the later lines.

Order for this unit folder

Sale agreement first
Open the sale agreement before any application. Article 8 makes it a condition of the permit that the agreement does not explicitly forbid use of the unit as a Holiday Home. If that ban is in the agreement, the file stops. Article 17 requires the developer, the owners of the common property, and the manager to let the licensee operate under the licence and the permit. Article 17 leaves the ban in place.
Name the applicant
Record who files this unit: the owner, or an operator who runs it. The operator licence stays a separate document.
Identity and the right to deal with the unit
Article 8 asks for a copy of the passport or Emirates ID of the owner or the tenant, and for proof of the right to deal with the unit. Emirates ID is the UAE identity card. A title deed or the sale agreement is added as an upload when this portal asks for that paper. The long-term registration does not stand in for those papers.
Developer consent when this building asks
Developer consent is added when this building or this form asks for it. Article 8 does not name a developer no-objection certificate as a paper for every unit.
The utility number the screen asks for
A DEWA bill is added when the form asks for it. DEWA is Dubai’s electricity and water utility. Copy the number into the field as the screen labels it.
The management letter for this case
The property management letter stays in this folder when an operator runs the unit, or when the portal supplies the letter. An owner who files alone leaves it out when the screen does not ask for it. Dates are copied only when the screen shows them. The letter is a separate paper from the unit permit and from the building move paper.
The issued permit and the date on it
After approval, store the issued permit. Set the reminder from the end date printed on that permit. The payment figure stays on the payment screen.
The board and the guest records stay outside
This folder holds the permit and the papers this application used. Decree No. 41 of 2013 calls for a board, in a visible place, with the licensee’s details in Arabic and English and the classification category. That board is a notice inside the unit. Guest records remain the licensee’s duty under Article 14 of the resolution, and they sit outside this folder.

The renewal page says a holiday-home permit in Dubai must be renewed before it expires if the unit is to keep being let. It lists the Holiday Homes portal, the renewal icon, supporting documents, review and submit, a self-classification of the unit, and payment.

The amount stays on the payment screen

Approval and renewal both finish on a payment screen. The figure for this application is the one on that screen.

Reminder cards with an empty end-date line and no payment figure copied onto the page — Renew from the end date printed on the permit, and leave the amount on the payment screen.

No amount is copied onto this page

The DET service pages for a new holiday-home permit and for renewal do not name an amount in dirhams, so this page does not name one either. Prices quoted by holiday-home operators are left off the page. An older fee schedule is not the figure on this year’s payment screen. Do not add operator prices to it. The permit runs until the end date printed on it. The licence runs until the end date printed on the licence. The reminder is set from the permit’s end date.

The file is ready when it shows the issued holiday-home permit, the papers this portal asked for on this application, the management letter where an operator runs the unit or the portal supplied the letter, and a reminder taken from the end date on the permit. Do not write a dirham amount into the folder. IziRento can store a copy of that file beside the unit. It does not submit the permit, enter the portal, or make the landlord compliant. Keep your own copies of the papers. Open a workspace if you want the copy next to the unit.

Keep one holiday-home permit file for a Dubai unit: the issued permit, the papers this portal asked for, and a reminder from the end date on that permit.

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