How do you get a holiday home permit in Ras Al Khaimah?

· Editor: George Vanous (editorial policy)

An artist's rendering of a bedroom in Cala Del Mar on Al Marjan Island at dusk, with a white bed and blue cushions, a slim wall-hung dressing table with a round mirror, two lounge chairs on the balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows onto the sea
Image: Cala Del Mar by Ellington

To rent a home in Ras Al Khaimah to guests for short stays, you need a holiday home permit from the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), issued through its online portal at holidayhomesrak.com. The owner, or a tenant with the landlord's written approval, registers on the portal for AED 100, uploads ID, the title deed and a utility bill for each home, and the home is inspected. The permit fee is set by bedrooms, from AED 300 for one bedroom to AED 1,200 for four or more, according to RAKTDA's user manual for the Holiday Homes system. You then collect the Tourism Dirham and the destination fee from guests every night and pay them to RAKTDA each month.

This is a summary for owners, not legal, tax or financial advice. RAKTDA can change its requirements and fees at any time, so check the current rules on the portal, or with RAKTDA, before you apply.

Which rules apply?

Holiday homes in the emirate are regulated by RAKTDA under its Regulatory Policies and Procedures Guide related to holiday homes rental, issued on Dec 25, 2017 under a directive of the Ruler dated Jul 18, 2017. The guide says RAKTDA may update it at any time, and that the current version is on holidayhomesrak.com.

Three later documents on the same portal fill in the details:

Everything below comes from these documents unless another source is named. Where the 2017 guide and the newer manual differ, we say so.

Which homes can be holiday homes?

Almost any home. Under Section 2.1.4 of the guide, a holiday home can be an apartment in a residential or mixed-use building, a townhouse, an independent villa, or a room within a home: unlike Abu Dhabi, Ras Al Khaimah allows room sharing. Farms are licensed too, under their own classification.

Location is wide open as well. Section 2.1.3 says holiday homes may be licensed throughout Ras Al Khaimah, including free zones and real estate communities, and that developers, communities and building managers must not impose contract terms or community rules that forbid licensing a home as a holiday home: the guide says such provisions "lack legality". Guests and owners must still follow the rules on shared areas in the building or community.

The home must already be yours, or rented to you: the documents start with a title deed. If you are a foreign buyer, check first that the home is in one of the emirate's freehold areas, which our post on whether foreigners can buy property in Ras Al Khaimah explains.

Who can apply?

The guide allows three kinds of applicant:

What documents do you need?

The user manual lists the documents for each home. Every home needs its own permit.

The 2017 guide lets an owner who is not a UAE resident use a passport copy instead of an Emirates ID (Section 2.2.1), and asks operators for a FEWA bill no more than 90 days old (Section 2.2.3).

How do you apply?

The manual sets out the steps on holidayhomesrak.com:

  1. Create an account as an individual owner or a professional operator, and fill in your details.
  2. Pay the AED 100 registration fee. Registration is complete once it is paid, and you receive a link by email to add your homes.
  3. Add each home and upload its documents.
  4. Wait for the review. RAKTDA checks the documents within 48 hours (two working days), then assigns the home to its inspection team.
  5. Pass the inspection. If the application succeeds, you get an email with a link to pay the permit fee. Once it is paid, you can download or print the permit. If it is rejected, RAKTDA tells you why, and you can ask for a re-inspection from your dashboard.

The same dashboard handles renewals, changes of classification and cancellations. A cancellation is approved only once RAKTDA's finance department confirms that no payments or fines are due on the home.

How much does the permit cost?

These are the fees in the user manual:

Fee Amount
Registration on the portal (once) AED 100
Permit, one bedroom AED 300
Permit, two bedrooms AED 600
Permit, three bedrooms AED 900
Permit, four bedrooms or more AED 1,200
Classification, Standard or Luxury AED 50

So a two-bedroom apartment would come to AED 750 the first time: AED 100 to register, AED 600 for the permit and AED 50 for its classification. The same permit fees appear in Table 5 of the 2017 guide, which also lists an "activity fee for holiday home rental" of AED 1,000 that the newer manual does not mention. Neither document says plainly how long a permit lasts or what a renewal costs, so confirm both with RAKTDA before you budget.

What standards must the home meet?

The classification guide grades apartments and villas as Standard or Luxury, and lists what each needs. Among the requirements for every home:

The 2017 guide adds recommended standards for homes run by professional operators, such as a minimum bedroom of 12 square meters and a studio of 17 square meters (Table 1), and building conditions such as a night guard or security camera, an elevator in a building of three or more floors, and parking for one car (Table 2). Individual owners are exempt from Table 2.

What are the Tourism Dirham and the destination fee?

Two charges that guests pay and you pass on. The user manual says the permit holder must collect the Tourism Dirham and the destination fee for each occupied home, per night, on RAKTDA's behalf, and pay them to RAKTDA by the 14th of the following month. Missing that leads to violations and fines.

What else must you do once guests arrive?

The 2017 guide's terms and house rules (Tables 3 and 4) and the undertaking you sign set out the main duties:

Break the undertaking and RAKTDA first gives a final warning, then cancels the permit, and will not accept a new application from you for six months. For a first violation found in an inspection, Section 2.2.4 gives an owner who runs the home at least 15 days to put it right.

What does this mean if you buy off-plan?

You cannot license a home before you own it. Every list of documents starts with the title deed, so an off-plan home can be licensed only after it is finished and the title is in your name. Ras Al Khaimah's off-plan law asks the developer to transfer title within 30 days of the completion certificate to buyers who have paid in full, as our post on how off-plan buyers are protected in Ras Al Khaimah explains.

Before you buy with short stays in mind:

  1. Ask the developer for its NOC process and what the service charges cover; you need the NOC if the developer manages the area.
  2. Budget the running costs: the permit, cleaning between stays, furnishing to RAKTDA's standards, and the safety equipment.
  3. Plan who will run it. An operator needs its own DED license, a signed agreement with you and a permit for your home.
  4. Do not count on a return. Nobody can promise how often a holiday home will be booked, or at what price.

Our catalog held 58 Ras Al Khaimah projects at its import on Nov 1, 2026, 35 of them on Al Marjan Island and 14 in Mina Al Arab. You can browse every Ras Al Khaimah project, add up purchase costs with our tools, or ask the advisor which projects fit your budget. We list what developers publish and do not recommend any purchase.

How is this different from Dubai and Abu Dhabi?

All three emirates require a permit for each home and a tourism charge on every stay. The differences that stand out: Ras Al Khaimah's permit fee depends on the number of bedrooms, it allows renting a single room, and its guide bars communities from banning holiday homes. Abu Dhabi licenses whole homes only, caps an individual at six licenses and requires holiday home insurance. Our guides to holiday home permits in Dubai and holiday home licenses in Abu Dhabi cover those emirates.

In short

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