How Streetmarket works
A marketplace for used things in the UAE. No endless haggling threads, no bidding wars — a real Buy button, or one clear offer the seller accepts or declines.
Buying
Find something
Search, or browse by tag. There are no nested categories to dig through — every item is tagged with the words people actually use, and sold items stay online forever so you can always find what something went for.
Buy it, or make one offer
Buy takes it at the asking price. Make an offer sends the seller one number below asking — they accept or decline. There are no counter-offers and no back-and-forth: one offer, one answer. You can change your offer by withdrawing it and sending a new one while it's still pending.
Agree the handover
If the seller accepts, a private chat opens for 24 hours and the item is marked Reserved for you. Use it to agree where and when to meet. This is the only chat on Streetmarket — it exists to arrange the handover, not to negotiate the price again.
Meet, pay, confirm
You pay the seller directly, in person. Streetmarket never handles your money and never takes a cut from you. When you've both got what you came for, you each tap Confirm deal — that's what marks it sold and unlocks ratings.
Selling
List it — free
Six fields and a few photos. If you'd rather not type, record a short voice note or let us read your photos, and we'll draft the description from what you actually said or showed. Listing costs nothing, and there is no limit and no listing fee.
Answer offers
You'll see every offer with the buyer's rating. Accept one, or decline. If a better offer arrives while a deal is in progress, you can switch to it — the first buyer is told honestly that you took another offer, and it never counts against their rating.
Meet and confirm
Agree a handover in the 24-hour chat, meet, take payment however you both prefer, and confirm. The sale completes when you've both confirmed.
Pay commission at the end of the month
Only now does anything cost you anything — see below.
Fees — 5% on completed sales, nothing else
| Creating an account | Free |
| Browsing and searching | Free |
| Buying anything, at any price | Free — buyers never pay a fee |
| Listing an item | Free — no listing fee, no limit |
| Keeping a listing up | Free — we don't charge to renew or bump |
| A sale that completes | 5% of the agreed price, charged to the seller |
| A sale that's cancelled | Nothing — commission is waived in full |
| An offer that's declined, withdrawn, or expires | Nothing |
When you pay
Not at the moment of sale. Commission accrues over the calendar month the sale completed in (UAE time) and becomes payable once that month closes. You can see exactly what's building up at any time under My listings.
What it's charged on
The price the two of you actually agreed — the accepted offer, or the asking price if it was bought outright. Not the original listing price, if you accepted less.
What happens if the deal falls apart
You are never charged for a transaction that didn't happen. If a completed sale is cancelled — the buyer agrees it fell through, or the response window passes without a reply — the commission on it is waived in full and disappears from what you owe. If a cancellation is disputed, nothing is collected while it's under review.
A worked example
You list a phone at AED 1,000. A buyer offers AED 900 and you accept. You meet, they pay you AED 900 in full, in person — Streetmarket is not involved in that payment. Commission is 5% of AED 900 = AED 45, which you settle after the month ends. You keep AED 855.
Ratings and trust
After a completed sale, both sides can rate each other once. Ratings show on your public profile with the comment.
A rating is only ever possible on a deal that actually completed. If an offer was declined, expired, was withdrawn, or the seller took a different offer, nobody can rate anybody — so making an offer or being outbid can never put your reputation at risk. If a completed sale is later cancelled, the ratings for it are removed too.
Safety
- Meet in a public place. Many UAE malls and police stations have safe-exchange areas.
- Inspect the item before you hand over any money.
- Keep the conversation on Streetmarket until you've agreed to meet — contact details are only exchanged once a deal is confirmed.
- Nobody from Streetmarket will ever ask you to pay us, or to pay a seller through us. We never handle payments. Some items may not be listed at all.
The binding version of all of this is in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This page is the plain-language summary.