The apartment is priced well under everything else in the same building. The photos are lovely. The agent is friendly, slightly rushed, and would like a holding deposit today because someone else is viewing at six. You have seen this advert. There is a reasonable chance you are looking at it right now.
The good news is that Abu Dhabi gives you real tools here. Property adverts need a Madhmoun permit you can verify yourself. Brokers hold a licence you can look up. Off-plan purchase money belongs in a project escrow account. The rest depends on documents you have to ask for, which is worth knowing up front so you ask early rather than after the transfer.
Start with the advert and its Madhmoun permit
Advertising a property in Abu Dhabi requires a Madhmoun permit. ADREC made permits mandatory during 2025, and for mainland property the permit is issued through ADREC's DARI platform. Al Reem Island and Al Maryah Island sit in ADGM rather than mainland jurisdiction, so their adverts run through the ADGM advertising permit on AccessRP instead.
That split runs through everything below. For those two islands the equivalent permit, document, project and complaint routes sit with ADGM and AccessRP rather than ADREC and DARI, so use the ADGM equivalent of each check that follows.
The workflow is worth understanding. An owner, developer or property manager can start the permit and nominate a licensed broker, or a broker can start it and the owner approves. Either way a permit ties that unit to a named licensed broker with recorded owner authorisation.
On an accredited portal the permit details appear in the listing's regulatory information. Take the permit number and put it through ADREC's public Verify Document service at adrec.gov.ae/en/verify-document, then compare what comes back against the advert: the property, the dates, the broker, the licence number and the company.
Now the part that matters most. A valid permit tells you the property, the broker and the owner authorisation are real. It does not tell you that the person messaging you is that broker. Somebody can quote a genuine permit belonging to a real listing and a real agency, then ask you to pay them instead, so the check only works if you also confirm you are dealing with the broker named on it. A permit also says nothing about whether the price and availability in the advert are accurate. So keep going.
Then the person, not the photo of the card
Ask for the agent's full name, their broker licence number or broker card, and the brokerage. Then verify it yourself in ADREC's Directory under Professions, searching by name or profession licence number.
That step matters more than it sounds. A card image proves very little, since images can be borrowed, edited or simply belong to somebody who left the company last year. And if the name on the card is not the name of the person you have been talking to, that is the whole question right there.
Then the property, and what you genuinely cannot look up
Here is a limitation worth knowing before you start. You cannot search Abu Dhabi's records by unit to discover who owns a property. Ownership records are not a public directory, which is normal and sensible, but it does change how you verify.
What you can do is ask for the ownership document, then check that document. A title deed or ownership certificate you have been given can be put through the same Verify Document service. A full title search certificate is available to the owner, or to somebody with the owner's written consent or a court decision, so if you need one, that is the route.
The name that comes back should match whoever is selling, or whoever gave the broker the mandate. When a friend of the owner is handling everything and the paperwork never quite lines up, that is the moment to slow down rather than speed up.
Tenancy works the same way. You can verify a tenancy contract number you have been given, but you cannot search a unit to find a tenancy nobody told you about. So ask directly whether the property is currently let, and get the availability date in writing. A tenanted property is not automatically off the table either: a unit can be sold subject to its existing tenancy, or advertised now for a handover date later. It just needs to be stated rather than discovered.
If the property is on Al Reem or Al Maryah, our article on what the ADGM rules changed on those islands covers why the registration trail looks different there.
Off-plan adds the project and the escrow account
Buying off-plan brings two more checks. The project should be registered with ADREC, and the purchase price and any reservation amount belong in that project's escrow account. Not a personal account. Not a general company account that happens to have the developer's name in the email signature.
Separately invoiced items such as government fees, bank charges or brokerage commission can legitimately be paid elsewhere, so the rule is not that every dirham goes to escrow. The rule is that money towards the unit itself goes to the verified project escrow, and everything else arrives as its own invoice you can check. Our off-plan buying guide covers the wider process.
The money is where the story usually ends
A request to send money to an account that has nothing to do with the verified contract is a fraud warning sign. Abu Dhabi Police have warned that fake property adverts use unrealistically low prices to draw people in and then ask for a deposit, which is the shape of the thing in one sentence.
So pay only the recipient named in a contract or invoice you have verified, and satisfy yourself that the recipient is entitled to receive it. Inspect the property yourself, or send an independent representative you actually trust if you are abroad. A deposit paid to hold a property nobody has seen, to a person nobody has checked, is doing a lot of hoping.
When something fails the check
Do not argue and do not give them room to explain it away. Stop, then report it. Information about a suspicious advert can go to Abu Dhabi Police through Aman. If money has actually gone, that is a criminal report, which means the MOI app or your nearest police station, and it means calling your bank straight away to ask whether the transfer can be recalled, blocked or traced.
Where a broker, brokerage or listing is involved, raise it with ADREC through its contact channels, and use Taswea for a formal real estate dispute. For Al Reem and Al Maryah, complaints follow the ADGM route instead.
The short version
Verify the permit number through Verify Document. Look the agent and brokerage up in the ADREC Directory. Ask for the ownership document and verify it, since you cannot look ownership up yourself. Ask whether the unit is let and get the availability date in writing. For off-plan, confirm the project is registered and send purchase money only to the project escrow. See the property. Pay only a verified recipient.
The permit and licence checks are quick. The document checks take as long as it takes somebody to send you the documents, which is itself a useful signal.
Where we fit in
East Face is a licensed Abu Dhabi brokerage, and you are welcome to run every check above on us. Ask for our licence details and look us up in the Directory. Take the permit number from any listing of ours and put it through Verify Document.
And if you are looking at somebody else's advert and something feels slightly wrong, send it to us before you send them anything. We would rather spend ten minutes telling you a listing looks fine than read about the other outcome. If you are buying from overseas, our guide for foreign buyers covers doing this at a distance.