Buy, renovate, sell — but does it actually pay? Move the sliders to see the round-trip profit, ROI and annualised ROI after every cost of a Dubai flip.
Buy-side costs cover the 4% DLD fee, agency and mortgage-registration fees; holding costs cover renovation, service charges, finance and utilities while you hold; sell-side costs cover agency and clearance.
+AED 150,000profit
9.6% ROI on AED 1,555,000 invested · 6.3% annualised
Indicative only. Flips live or die on the sale price and the time to sell — stress-test a lower sale price and a longer hold, and remember an off-plan resale may carry developer NOC and transfer restrictions.
A flip's true cost is more than the purchase price. It includes the 4% DLD transfer fee and other buy-side costs, plus everything you spend while holding — renovation, service charges, finance and utilities. The calculator sums these into the total you actually have at risk.
What you walk away with on exit is the sale price minus the sell-side costs — agency commission, mortgage clearance and transfer admin. The profit is this net figure minus your all-in cost, and it can be negative on a deal that looked fine on the headline spread.
ROI is the profit over the total invested. Annualised ROI spreads that return across your holding period, so a 20% gain in six months is far better than the same 20% over three years. Use the annualised figure to compare flips with different timelines.
A AED 350k gap between buy and sell price does not mean AED 350k profit. By the time you add ~6–7% in round-trip transaction costs plus renovation and holding, a lot of that spread is gone — model the costs honestly before committing.
Every extra month holding adds service charges, finance and risk while your capital is locked up. A flip that takes a year longer than planned can turn a healthy annualised return into a poor one even if the headline profit holds. Stress-test a longer hold.
Reselling before handover often needs the developer's NOC, a minimum percentage paid, and may carry assignment fees or restrictions. Factor those into both the cost and the timeline before banking on an off-plan flip.