Dubai Land Department has rolled out an upgraded Ejari service on the DubaiNow app, letting tenants and landlords register, renew and cancel tenancy contracts in one digital journey. The move comes as Dubai’s rental contracts reached AED32.2 billion ($8.77 billion) in the first quarter of 2026.
For anyone renting or leasing property in Dubai, this changes how much time and paperwork a tenancy agreement actually takes. Landlords no longer need to juggle separate trips or platforms to register a contract, pay a DEWA security deposit and get an Ejari certificate. For businesses managing multiple units, or individual tenants dealing with a landlord abroad, fewer steps means fewer delays at a time when the rental market is handling well over 100,000 new contracts a quarter.
Key facts
- Dubai Land Department has introduced an integrated digital process for Ejari tenancy contracts through the DubaiNow app.
- Contract renewals and cancellations can now be completed digitally using UAE PASS.
- Ejari certificates are issued immediately after contract approval, within the same digital journey.
- Tenants and landlords can pay DEWA security deposits directly through DubaiNow as part of the process.
- Rental contracts totalled approximately AED32.2bn ($8.77bn) in the first quarter of 2026, with 118,385 new contracts and 135,607 renewals registered.
How the new Ejari process works on DubaiNow
Ejari is the Dubai Land Department system that formally registers a tenancy contract, a step required for utility connections, visa applications and resolving rental disputes in Dubai. Under the upgraded service, the whole process sits inside one digital journey on the DubaiNow app rather than being split across multiple stages or platforms.
A tenant and landlord can create and register the contract, and the Ejari certificate is issued as soon as the contract is approved. Renewals and cancellations are also handled digitally, authenticated through UAE PASS, the UAE’s national digital identity system. That removes a layer of separate procedures that previously applied each time a lease needed updating or ending.
The service also folds in the DEWA security deposit payment. Instead of making that payment through a different channel to activate electricity and water at a new property, tenants can do it inside the same DubaiNow process used to register the tenancy contract. For someone moving into a new rental, that means one app covers the paperwork and the utility deposit together, rather than two separate errands.
What it means for Dubai tenants and landlords
The timing matters. Dubai Land Department figures show rental contracts worth AED32.2bn were registered in the first quarter of 2026 alone, made up of 118,385 new contracts and 135,607 renewals. That is a high volume of paperwork moving through the system every quarter, and a faster digital process should cut down on the administrative back-and-forth that comes with it, whether someone is signing a lease for the first time or renewing one they already hold.
Landlords who manage several properties, including smaller investors with one or two units, stand to save time by handling registration, renewal, cancellation and deposit payment in a single digital flow instead of separate systems. Tenants benefit too, since an immediate Ejari certificate after approval means they are not waiting on paperwork to get electricity and water connected or to meet visa and residency requirements that depend on a registered tenancy contract.
The update also fits into the UAE’s wider push toward digitising government and utility services, a trend that has touched other parts of the property sector covered in TAI News’s emirates coverage. For Dubai’s rental market specifically, bringing Ejari, UAE PASS authentication and DEWA deposit payments into one app removes several of the manual steps that used to slow down moving in, renewing a lease or ending one.
What to watch next is how quickly landlords and tenants adopt the new DubaiNow process compared with older registration routes, and whether the volume of digital Ejari transactions grows in line with the rental contract activity recorded in the first quarter, according to Arabian Business.
