Dubai now treats shared housing as a licensed activity. The rule is Law No. 4 of 2026, and it took effect on 26 August. So any property used as shared accommodation needs a permit first. Private companies can still house staff this way, but only in licensed accommodation that meets approved standards. Fines run from AED 500 to AED 500,000. And where the same offence is repeated within a year, the fine can double, up to AED 1 million.

Only property owners and licensed operators may let shared accommodation. So an occupant cannot sublet a room, or any part of one. Dubai Municipality issues the permits and sets how many people a property can hold. Permits last a year, though an owner can ask for two years instead. The authorities can cut utilities, cancel a licence, or suspend an operator for up to six months. Existing owners and businesses have one year from 26 August to comply. No permit fee has been published yet.

From September, private employers must pay their own share of pension contributions for Emirati staff enrolled in Nafis. Nafis is the federal programme that tops up Emirati salaries in private-sector jobs. So that contribution now sits on the employer's payroll. Salary support is also being capped by qualification. A bachelor's degree draws up to AED 6,000 a month. A diploma draws AED 5,000, and a secondary certificate AED 4,000. Support applies only where the monthly salary is AED 20,000 or less.

Staff already receiving more than the new caps do not drop to the new level at once. Instead, their support falls by AED 500 every six months until it reaches the new level. Child support stays at AED 600 a month for each qualifying child. But the old limit on the number of children covered has gone. The minimum salary for eligibility is now AED 6,000 a month. No day in September has been published for any of it.

Dubai airport handled 31.5 million passengers in the first half of this year. So the total is down 31.3 percent on the same months last year. The second quarter carried 13 million of that total. But the monthly figures climb as that quarter goes on. April brought 3.5 million passengers, then May 4.5 million, and June 5 million. Cargo also fell, by 28.7 percent, to 751,340 tonnes. And bags handled fell 28 percent, to 30.3 million.

Airline capacity explains the shape of the recovery. Almost 50 international carriers were flying to the airport again by the end of June. Paul Griffiths, chief executive of Dubai Airports, said: “As capacity steadily returns across the board, demand is responding immediately.” So arrivals come back route by route, rather than all at once. The airport now serves 217 destinations in 99 countries. June was its strongest month of the half year, at 5 million passengers.