Real Estate Brokerage License in Oman: Company Setup, Broker Cards and Requirements

A real estate brokerage business in Oman needs more than a Commercial Registration. The company must have the relevant commercial activity and obtain sector approval from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning before it carries on regulated brokerage work involving property sales, leases or marketing.

At a glance

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning is the sector regulator for real estate brokerage licensing.
• The commercial activity must first appear on the company's Commercial Registration.
• At least 80% of employees working in the brokerage profession must be Omani under the current government service requirements.
• Individual brokers require a separate broker card and are subject to nationality and professional conditions.
• A suitable office or private premises in Oman is part of the published licensing criteria.
• Operating without the required licence can lead to criminal penalties under the 2025 Real Estate Regulation Law.

What does the Oman real estate brokerage licence cover?

The licence applies to businesses acting for remuneration as intermediaries in property transactions. The Real Estate Regulation Law covers intermediation in sales, leases and other dealings involving built or unbuilt real estate, including marketing.

Article 57 of the law prohibits the practice of real estate brokerage or real estate valuation without a licence from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. A Commercial Registration containing a property-related activity is therefore not, by itself, the final authority to begin brokerage operations.

Who can establish or operate a brokerage?

There are two separate regulatory questions: whether a legal entity can hold the brokerage activity and whether an individual can obtain a broker card. Foreign investors should not treat these as the same approval.

Brokerage company

The official brokerage registration service requires a legal entity to be an Omani establishment or company licensed for real estate brokerage, registered in the Commercial Register and affiliated with the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It must also have suitable headquarters or a private office in Oman.

The current government wording does not expressly resolve whether an Oman-incorporated company with 100% foreign ownership falls within that condition for this activity. Foreign investors should therefore verify activity eligibility and ownership structure before committing to the company setup or premises.

Individual broker card

The individual broker card is a separate professional credential. The broker card service lists a minimum age of 21, Commercial Registration, Oman Chamber membership, suitable premises, a clean qualifying record and completion of a specialised real estate training course accredited by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

The same service refers to Omani nationals or GCC citizens ordinarily resident in Oman in its special conditions. Another part of the page describes the card as being issued exclusively to Omani brokers. Because of that inconsistency, there is no sound basis to state that a non-GCC expatriate can obtain the individual broker card.

How to set up a real estate brokerage company in Oman

The practical sequence has two regulatory layers: company formation and sector licensing. The Ministry service guide describes this as first adding the brokerage activity to the Commercial Registration and then proceeding with the Ministry's brokerage approval.

1. Confirm activity eligibility. Check whether the proposed ownership and legal structure can hold the real estate brokerage activity.
2. Register or amend the Commercial Registration. The brokerage activity must be formally recorded before the sector licence process is completed.
3. Maintain Oman Chamber membership. The official service includes valid Chamber affiliation among the required conditions.
4. Secure suitable premises. The company needs a suitable headquarters or private office, supported by a lease agreement.
5. Plan the brokerage workforce. Staffing must comply with the current 80% Omanisation requirement for employees working in brokerage.
6. Arrange qualified broker cards. Individuals performing licensed brokerage functions must meet the applicable card conditions.
7. Submit the Ministry application. The Ministry reviews the registration and supporting documents and issues the approval electronically once the requirements are satisfied.
8. Implement AML controls. Customer identification, beneficial ownership checks, record retention and suspicious transaction procedures should be in place before operations begin.

Documents and licensing requirements

The application combines corporate, premises and professional documentation. The exact file set should be checked against the live service at the time of submission.

• Commercial Registration documents showing the relevant brokerage activity
• Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry affiliation certificate
• Lease agreement for suitable business premises
• Non-conviction certificate where required by the service
• Accredited specialised real estate training certificate for the broker
• Personal photograph for individual broker-card applications
• Identity card
• Any related licences required for the specific file

Omanisation requirement

The current government licensing conditions state that at least 80% of employees working in the brokerage profession must be Omani. Those brokers must also hold at least a General Education Diploma or equivalent.

This wording concerns employees engaged in brokerage, not necessarily every employee in the company. Workforce planning should therefore be based on actual job functions rather than applying the percentage indiscriminately across unrelated administrative roles.

Does a virtual office qualify?

The published requirements call for suitable headquarters or a private office and include a lease contract among the required documents. The official material reviewed does not establish that a virtual address alone satisfies this licensing condition.

Real estate brokerage licence fees in Oman

Two official sources currently present different fee layers. They should not be merged into a single headline figure because the legal fee schedule and the live government service pages do not clearly explain how the charges relate to each other.

Item	Published amount	Source context
Issue or renewal of brokerage company/office licence	OMR 50	Ministerial fee schedule, Decision 570/2025
Issue or renewal of individual broker card	OMR 15	Ministerial fee schedule
First brokerage registration in Muscat	OMR 200 + OMR 5 submission fee	Live government service
First brokerage registration outside Muscat	OMR 150 + OMR 5 submission fee	Live government service
First broker card in Muscat	OMR 25 + OMR 5 submission fee	Live broker-card service
First broker card outside Muscat	OMR 15 + OMR 5 submission fee	Live broker-card service
Annual broker-card renewal in Muscat	OMR 15 + OMR 5 submission fee	Broker-card renewal service
Annual broker-card renewal outside Muscat	OMR 10 + OMR 5 submission fee	Live renewal service

The difference may reflect separate licence, registration-card or service charges, but the reviewed official sources do not reconcile them explicitly. These figures also do not represent the total cost of establishing the company, leasing premises or completing other corporate registrations.

How long does licensing take?

The government pages publish short service-processing times, but they are not full business-setup timelines. The company brokerage registration service shows 20 minutes, while the first-time individual broker-card service shows 15 minutes.

Those figures assume the underlying requirements are already ready for submission. Company registration, activity approval, premises, training, staffing and correction of any incomplete documentation occur outside those narrow service-processing estimates, and no official end-to-end setup period is published in the reviewed material.

AML and compliance obligations for brokerage firms

Real estate brokerage businesses in Oman have formal anti-money laundering obligations. The real estate AML regulation requires customer and beneficial-owner identification, risk classification, due diligence procedures and internal compliance controls.

Identification standards vary by customer type. The regulation refers to Omani ID for Omani nationals, resident cards for non-Omani residents, passports for non-residents and Commercial Registration and constitutional documents for corporate customers.

Customer due-diligence records, transaction records, suspicious transaction reports and risk assessments must be kept for at least 10 years. Brokerage firms must also maintain internal AML policies and appoint a suitably qualified compliance officer at senior-management level.

Where the applicable suspicion threshold is met, a suspicious transaction or attempted transaction must be reported to the National Centre for Financial Information within a maximum of 48 hours.

Important operating restrictions

The 2025 law creates clear limits around the scope of the profession. Brokerage must be licensed, the broker must contract with the beneficiary, and brokerage cannot be combined with real estate valuation.

Article 59 requires a contract between the broker and the beneficiary. The executive regulation is expected to set the required contract data, the parties' rights and obligations and the controls governing brokerage remuneration.

Article 61 prohibits combining the professions of real estate brokerage and real estate valuation. A business model intending to offer both should therefore not assume that one licence can cover both services.

Penalties for unlicensed brokerage

Unlicensed brokerage can trigger criminal penalties rather than a simple administrative warning. Article 64 provides for imprisonment from 10 days to 6 months and a fine from OMR 1,000 to OMR 10,000, or either penalty, for practising brokerage or valuation without a licence.

This is why a Commercial Registration, office lease or marketing website should not be treated as authority to start brokerage before the sector licence is in place.

Common setup mistakes

The highest-risk mistakes come from treating company registration and professional licensing as one step. They need to be planned separately but in the correct order.

• Assuming the Commercial Registration is the licence: Ministry approval is still required for regulated brokerage.
• Promising broker cards to all expatriates: current official material does not support general eligibility for non-GCC expatriates.
• Ignoring the 80% Omanisation condition: it directly applies to employees working in brokerage.
• Leasing premises before confirming activity eligibility: this can create a fixed cost before the legal structure is settled.
• Quoting one all-inclusive government fee: current official fee sources show different layers.
• Combining brokerage with valuation: the 2025 law expressly separates the professions.
• Starting sales without AML procedures: brokerage firms are subject to customer due diligence and reporting duties.

Frequently asked questions

Next step

Before committing to premises or hiring a sales team, confirm the activity, ownership structure, broker-card plan and Omanisation position for the proposed company. You can submit the proposed structure through the Connsect assessment form for a licensing review.