Start with the building, not a neighbourhood average
A home can have the right asking price and still need a closer look at its running costs. Before choosing between buildings, create a separate line for service charges in your comparison. An advertised sale price, rental quote or neighbourhood average does not establish the charge for a particular property.
Dubai Land Department provides a Service Charge Index for checking the official reference against the documents for the specific home. You can use the following checklist to gather comparable records, with a clear question ready for anything that still needs confirming.
Official references:DLD: Service Charge Index
Prepare a small verification folder
Write down the exact project name, tower or phase and the use of the unit. A similarly named development can contain more than one building, and a residential apartment should not be compared with a different type of premises. Keep the unit information in a private folder rather than publishing ownership documents in a listing.
Ask the owner or authorised representative for the applicable budget year, current statement and the area used to calculate the charge. Store each document with the date you received it. If a page in the portal has a recorded service-charge figure, use it to frame a question and verify the underlying document before relying on it.