RERA broker cards, BRN and ORN in Dubai: what they are and how to track them

The ORN is the brokerage's office registration number with the Dubai Land Department (DLD). It comes from registering your trade licence in Trakheesi, which DLD says issues office registration certificates and professional practice cards (DLD/RERA Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide, Nov 2024).

There is one ORN per office, and it belongs to the company, not to any agent. The office registration comes first: DLD's guide says the licence must be registered in Trakheesi before a broker card can be applied for. If you are still opening the office, start with how to open a real estate brokerage in Dubai.

The BRN is the individual broker's registration number, shown on their broker card. DLD calls the card a real estate activity practice card, and says nobody may practise a licensed activity until they have registered and obtained it (DLD, practice card issue).

Portals use it too. Bayut, for example, says Dubai agents need a valid BRN to earn its TruBroker badges (Bayut support).

The brokerage's licence must be registered in Trakheesi, and the card is then applied for in Trakheesi. DLD lists these conditions:

• A good conduct certificate from Dubai Police.
• A pass in the broker exam, the annual test to practise the profession. DLD exempts people over 55, brokers with five consecutive years in the same office, and start-up licence holders.
• A personal photo and an Emirates ID copy, uploaded with the application.

Once the application is approved and the fee is paid, the e-card can be printed from the system. DLD lists the service time as five minutes (DLD).

Renewal is also online, through Trakheesi or the Dubai REST app. The agent attaches an Emirates ID copy and a valid passport copy, submits, pays and prints the renewed card. DLD says approval is automatic (DLD, practice card renewal).

DLD's renewal conditions say the applicant must have passed the annual test, and that all sales personnel must be registered with cards issued. DLD also ties the card's validity to the validity of the trade licence, so a licence renewal date matters to every agent on it.

DLD lists the broker card at AED 500 to issue and AED 500 to renew, plus a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee. The broker exam is AED 700, plus the same two small fees.

Sources: DLD card issue, DLD card renewal, DLD licence service. Fees change, so check DLD's pages before paying.

Because a lapsed card means an agent who should not be practising, and it is the kind of date that slips when a team grows. Each agent knows their own card; the owner has to know all of them.

A spreadsheet of BRNs works until someone joins, leaves or renews and nobody updates it. The safer pattern is one record per agent with the BRN, issue date and expiry date, and a warning well before the expiry, so renewal happens before the card lapses rather than after.

AIRA stores the brokerage's ORN in its settings and each agent's BRN, issue date and expiry on the team page. When a card is within 30 days of expiry, the manager sees a warning next to that agent, and an expired card is flagged as expired.

Agents can upload a photo of their RERA card and AIRA reads the BRN and dates from it for the agent to check and save, so nobody types numbers by hand. The BRN then goes onto that agent's RERA Form I, which AIRA fills from CRM data. AIRA also tracks Trakheesi permits on listings; see RERA compliance in your CRM.

Day to day, agents run their work from WhatsApp: adding leads, booking viewings and asking for brochures as PDFs, while managers see the whole team in the web CRM. AIRA talks only to agents and managers, never to clients. For the team view, see real estate team management in Dubai.

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