Zero-interest DLD service expected in September would have banks pay landlords upfront
Dubai is preparing to launch a “Rent Now, Pay Later” service that would allow tenants to spread their annual rent across up to 12 monthly instalments without interest, in what could become one of the most significant changes to how residents pay for housing in the emirate.
According to Gulf News, the service is being developed by the Dubai Land Department (DLD) in partnership with a local bank and is expected to launch in September 2026. It is aimed at easing the pressure of large upfront rental payments while giving landlords the certainty of receiving their full annual rent at the start of a tenancy.
Under the proposed mechanism, a tenant would choose a residential property, and the participating bank would pay the landlord the full annual rent in advance. The tenant would then repay the bank in flexible instalments over a period of up to 12 months, with no interest charged. In practical terms, tenants would repay the bank rather than paying the landlord directly, a shift that changes the financial relationship at the heart of a tenancy.
The arrangement is designed to address a long-standing feature of Dubai’s rental market, where tenants have traditionally been required to hand over a full year’s rent through one or several cheques before moving in. For many residents, the difficulty has been one of cash flow rather than affordability. Even those who can comfortably manage the monthly cost of a home have often struggled to produce the full annual sum in a single lump payment, and the scheme is intended to align rent more closely with the way people actually earn and budget.
The service builds on the DLD’s Flexi Rent initiative, launched in June, which expanded rental payment options to include monthly, quarterly, and semi-annual instalments. That programme was rolled out with a group of participating real estate companies, among them Wasl Properties, Deyaar, Dubai World Real Estate, and Rocky Real Estate, and allowed participating firms to offer additional incentives and packages to tenants. The proposed Rent Now, Pay Later service goes a step further by bringing a bank into the arrangement, shifting the tenant’s repayment relationship away from the landlord and toward a financial institution.
For landlords, the model is intended to preserve the predictability of upfront annual income while allowing tenants greater flexibility. Because owners receive the full year’s rent at the start of the tenancy, they are spared the risk and administrative effort of collecting monthly payments themselves. For tenants, spreading the cost could make moving home or renewing a lease considerably less daunting, particularly when renewals come with steep increases. For the wider market, easing the burden of lump-sum payments could improve housing accessibility and encourage longer, more stable tenancies.
Several details of the scheme have yet to be confirmed. The DLD has not published the full framework covering eligibility requirements, the application process, the participating bank or banks, or the documentation involved, and it has not indicated whether any administrative or service fee will apply alongside the interest-free repayments. It is also not yet clear which properties will qualify or whether landlords will be able to opt out. Until those rules are announced, the service remains a planned initiative rather than an option tenants can currently use, and industry observers have cautioned against treating it as a guaranteed feature of every rental agreement.
The scheme forms part of a broader push by Dubai authorities to modernise the rental market and move away from the traditional cheque-based system, a shift that has gathered pace through 2026 as digital payment options and instalment-based plans have become more widely available across the emirate. Some reports suggest the initiative could make Dubai one of the first cities in the world to implement such a model at scale within its rental system.
Residents will need to wait for the DLD’s official announcement, expected closer to the September launch window, for confirmation of who can apply, which properties will qualify, and exactly how the repayment arrangement will work.
