Buying, selling and renting property in Dubai

Yes. Non-GCC nationals can buy freehold in Dubai's designated freehold areas, which cover most of the communities buyers ask for, including Dubai Marina, Downtown Dubai, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Hills Estate and Jumeirah Village Circle. Outside those areas ownership is leasehold, usually for a term of up to 99 years. GCC nationals can buy anywhere in the emirate. You do not need a UAE residence visa, or to live here at all, in order to own.

Outright. Freehold means the property, and for a villa the land it stands on, is registered in your name at the Dubai Land Department and the title deed is issued in your name. No local sponsor or partner is involved. The sponsorship rule people often remember applied to onshore company ownership, not to buying a home.

Yes, and at the upper end of the market a good share of purchases are structured that way. The Dubai Land Department recognises a defined set of corporate vehicles for freehold ownership, including certain UAE free zone and offshore companies; which vehicles qualify is set by the Land Department and it does change, so the current list matters more than what was true two years ago. The reasons to consider it are succession, joint ownership between family members, confidentiality and how a future sale is executed, and the reasons against it are cost and annual administration. Decide this before you make an offer rather than after: moving a property from personal to corporate ownership later is a transfer, with a transfer's fees.

This is the question overseas owners most often leave unanswered, and the one with the most expensive consequences. Without a will registered here, the succession of UAE assets can fall to be dealt with under local rules rather than under the assumptions you made at home, and the estate can be frozen while it is resolved. Non-Muslim owners have routes to certainty: a will registered through the DIFC Wills Service, which covers Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah assets and gives a clear probate path, and the federal personal status law for non-Muslims. Holding through a corporate vehicle changes the analysis again. We are a brokerage and not a law firm, so we will not tell you which route fits your estate, but we will tell you not to buy without asking a UAE-qualified lawyer the question.

The Dubai Land Department transfer fee is 4% of the purchase price, plus an administrative fee of AED 580. On top of that sits a trustee registration fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT on properties above AED 500,000, and agency commission of 2% plus VAT. If you are borrowing, mortgage registration adds 0.25% of the loan amount plus AED 290. For a cash purchase the total lands a little over 6% of the price. Every listing on this site carries a calculator that works the figure out for that specific property.

Central Bank of the UAE rules cap the loan-to-value. An expatriate buying their first home in Dubai can borrow up to 80% of the price where that price is AED 5 million or below, and up to 70% above it. Off-plan purchases are capped lower. There is no legal minimum salary to buy property, and none at all if you are paying cash. For a mortgage, the income requirement is set by the individual bank rather than by the regulator, and it varies between lenders.

There are two routes. A property valued at AED 2 million or more qualifies the owner for the 10-year Golden Visa. From AED 750,000 there is a shorter renewable property investor visa. Both carry conditions, particularly around mortgaged and off-plan purchases, and the thresholds are set by the authorities and do change. Treat these as the starting point of a conversation rather than a guarantee, and confirm the current position before you buy on that basis alone.

There is no annual property tax in Dubai, and no capital gains tax for individuals holding property in their own name. The costs that recur are service charges, billed per square foot per year by the building or the community, and these vary considerably between developments. We will give you the service charge for a specific property before you make an offer on it, because on some buildings it changes the arithmetic.

Possibly, and it is the part of the arithmetic that most often gets left out. Dubai does not tax the rental income or the gain, but your country of tax residence may do so regardless of where the property sits, and many jurisdictions also require foreign property and foreign accounts to be reported whether or not tax falls due. Holding through a company raises a further set of questions in both jurisdictions. We are not tax advisers and will not pretend otherwise: take advice where you are tax resident before you commit, because the structure is far easier to get right at the outset than to unwind after a title deed exists.

More than most buyers expect, and it is the most common reason a transaction runs late rather than a sign that anything is wrong. Brokerages, conveyancers and the Land Department all operate under the UAE anti-money-laundering regime, so identification and evidence of source of funds are standard on every purchase, and transactions funded in cash or in virtual assets carry additional reporting obligations. Nothing about it is personal or negotiable. The practical answer is to have the documents assembled before you offer rather than after your offer is accepted: bank statements showing the accumulation, the sale contract or dividend record behind a lump sum, and clean lines between the named buyer and the paying account.

No. Viewings can run on video, and the transfer itself can be handled through a power of attorney. A good number of our owners see the property in person for the first time after handover. We will also tell you plainly when a trip is worth making, because for some purchases it is.

For a completed property bought in cash, commonly around a month from signed contract to title deed, most of which is spent waiting for the developer to issue the no-objection certificate. A mortgage adds time for valuation and the final offer. Off-plan works differently: rather than one transfer, you pay across the construction schedule.

A project escrow account. A developer selling off-plan in Dubai has to register the project with the regulator and pay buyer instalments into an escrow account tied to that project, so the money is released against construction progress rather than into the developer's working capital. The sale is registered against your name on the interim register at the Land Department, which is what makes your interest a matter of record before there is a title deed to issue. None of that removes the risks that matter most in practice, which are delay, a specification that quietly changes, and a handover market weaker than the launch market. Those are questions about the developer's record rather than about the paperwork, and they are the ones worth asking us.

It is a Trakheesi permit, issued through the Dubai Land Department. Every property advertised in Dubai is required to carry one, and it ties that advertisement to a real listed property and a licensed broker. You will find a permit number on every listing on this site. A property advertised anywhere without one is worth asking about.

That depends on what you buy and why, and anyone who answers it with a single percentage is selling you something. What we can do is show you the real numbers for a specific property: what comparable units in that building are actually renting for, the service charge, and the full cost of ownership. The yield calculator on each listing is built from our own rental comparables rather than from an assumed rate of return.

You are buying a property that is not built yet, directly from the developer or from someone reselling their contract before handover. You sign a sale agreement, pay a deposit, and then pay the balance in instalments tied to construction milestones or to fixed dates, with a final payment at handover. Until the building is completed and the title deed issued, what you own is a registered contractual interest in the unit rather than a finished home. That is a different asset from a completed property, and it should be judged differently.

A project escrow account. A developer selling off-plan in Dubai has to register the project with the regulator and pay buyer instalments into an escrow account tied to that project, so money is released against construction progress rather than into the developer's general working capital. Your purchase is also recorded on the Land Department's interim register, which is what makes your interest a matter of record before a title deed exists. What none of that protects against is delay, a specification that quietly changes, or a handover market weaker than the launch market. Those are questions about the developer's track record, not about the paperwork.

A ready property can be inspected, valued against a real neighbouring sale, mortgaged conventionally and either lived in or rented out from the day you own it. An off-plan property cannot be inspected, is valued against the developer's own price list and comparable launches rather than completed sales, and produces no rent until it is handed over. In exchange you spread the payments over the construction period instead of funding the whole purchase at once. Which is better depends entirely on whether you need the property to be doing something for you in the meantime.

Sometimes, and on different terms from a completed home. Fewer lenders offer it, they generally lend only on projects they have approved, and the loan is usually released in stages against construction rather than in full at the start. Until then the payment plan is the finance, and it is an obligation rather than an option. Assume you are funding the instalments yourself and treat mortgage availability as a bonus rather than the plan, and confirm the current position with a lender before you commit, because appetite for off-plan lending moves with the market.

Miss instalments and the developer can begin a termination process, which in Dubai runs through the regulator rather than being at the developer's sole discretion. How much you get back depends on how far the construction has progressed and on the contract, and it can be a substantial deduction from what you have already paid rather than a clean refund. This is the single most common way an off-plan purchase goes wrong, and it is entirely avoidable: work out whether you can service the whole plan from money you will actually have, not from a resale you are assuming will happen first.

Usually yes, and it is common enough that it has its own name here: assignment, or resale before handover. Most of the off-plan listings on this page are exactly that. What you need to check first is the developer's own condition, since many require a minimum percentage of the price to be paid before they will permit a transfer, and there is normally a transfer fee payable to the developer on top of the government fee. Whether you can sell at a profit is a separate question from whether you are allowed to sell, and depends on what else is completing in the same community at the same time.

The Dubai Land Department transfer fee of 4% plus an admin charge applies to off-plan just as it does to a completed sale, and on a new launch it is normally paid early rather than at handover. Registering the purchase on the interim register carries its own fee. Then budget for what arrives after the keys: the developer's handover charges, service charges from the day the building is handed over whether or not you have moved in or found a tenant, and the cost of making the property rentable if that is the plan. The service charge is the figure most often left out of a projection and the one that varies most between buildings.

That depends on the specific project and the price, and anyone answering it with a yes has not looked at either. The way to judge it is to work out what the unit has to be worth at handover to beat simply buying something completed today and renting it out, then ask how likely that is given what else is being built in the same community and what the developer has delivered before. We will run that calculation with you on any project on this page, including when it says the launch is not worth the wait.

Valuation first, then paperwork, then market. A broker values the property against real transactions, you sign RERA's Form A listing agreement, and the property is advertised under a Trakheesi permit. Offers are negotiated, both sides sign the sale contract known as Form F and the buyer pays a deposit, the developer issues a no-objection certificate, and the transfer is registered at the Dubai Land Department, where the price is handed over. From accepted offer to transfer is commonly around a month for a cash buyer, longer where the buyer is financing.

Less than it costs to buy one. The agency commission is 2% plus VAT, paid on completion. The Dubai Land Department transfer fee of 4% is customarily borne by the buyer, though it is ultimately whatever the contract says. Your own costs beyond commission are the developer's no-objection certificate fee, which varies by developer, and, if the property is mortgaged, the bank's discharge charges. We set the exact figure out in writing before you sign the listing agreement, so nothing appears for the first time at the transfer appointment.

We value against what has actually transferred, using the Dubai Land Department's transaction record and our own sales in the area, not against portal asking prices, which are a record of hope rather than of money. You can ask any price you like, and it is your property and your decision, but overpricing is not free: buyers search in price bands, so a property listed at 3.2 million is invisible to everyone searching up to 3 million, and a listing that sits gets fewer viewings with every week it ages. We show you the comparables and the price we can defend, and we put both in writing.

Form A is the listing agreement RERA requires between a seller and a broker before a property in Dubai can be marketed at all: the Trakheesi advertising permit is issued against it. It protects you as much as it regulates us, because it records the agreed price, the commission and who is actually authorised to sell your property. A broker willing to advertise without one is telling you how the rest of the sale will be run.

No. The transfer can be completed through a power of attorney, and everything before it, from valuation to negotiation, runs over video and phone. A good share of our owners are overseas, which is also why the team works in nine languages. If a step genuinely goes better in person, we will tell you so rather than have you book a flight you did not need.

Yes, it is routine. Your bank issues a liability letter stating the amount outstanding, the buyer or the buyer's bank settles it directly, the mortgage is discharged at the Dubai Land Department, and the transfer follows. It adds steps and some weeks compared with an unencumbered sale, and the sequence matters, which is why we manage it rather than leaving the two banks to find each other.

Yes. The tenancy survives the sale: the buyer steps into your position as landlord under the same contract until it ends. That makes a tenanted property harder to sell to someone who wants to live in it, because recovering possession takes twelve months' notice served through a notary or by registered post, and easier to sell to an investor, who is buying the income and the tenant with it. We market it to the audience it actually suits, with the tenancy stated up front.

Listing everywhere feels like more exposure, but look at it from the buyer's side: the same property appearing five times, with different photographs, slightly different prices and agents who each know they will probably not be the one to sell it, reads as a distressed listing, and buyers negotiate accordingly. One accountable broker, one set of professional photography and one defensible price is how the strongest properties are sold. That is also why we ask for the instruction rather than a place in the crowd.

Because the work starts before the property is advertised. We establish the service charge position, the developer's no-objection requirements and, where there is a mortgage, the lender's settlement timeline, so that nothing appears for the first time at the transfer appointment. Our consultants specialise by community rather than covering the whole city, which is what allows a price to be argued from evidence in your own building rather than from a city-wide average. The team advises in nine languages and a substantial share of our buyers purchase from overseas without flying in, which widens the audience your property is shown to. Leasing and management are in-house, so where the evidence favours renting the property out now and selling into a stronger market, we can run that for you instead of pushing the sale. Licensed in Dubai under ORN 1484735 and RERA 49865.

Shortlist and view, agree the rent and the number of cheques, then sign the tenancy contract. On signing you hand over the security deposit, the agency commission and the first cheque. After that come three steps people rarely plan for: registering the tenancy on Ejari, opening a DEWA account for water and electricity, and obtaining a move-in permit from the building management, which most towers require before they will release the service lift. Allow a few days between signing and having keys that work.

Yes. Unlike buying, renting carries no restriction by nationality or by area: anyone can rent anywhere in the city. The practical constraint is documentation rather than eligibility. Ejari registration and most landlords will want a UAE residence visa and an Emirates ID, and post-dated cheques need a UAE bank account. If your residency is still being processed, say so when you make the offer. Some landlords will hold a property for a few weeks and others will not, and it is much better to know which you are dealing with early.

A passport copy, your UAE residence visa copy, and your Emirates ID front and back. Post-dated cheques drawn on a UAE account for the rent. Many landlords also ask for a salary certificate or employment letter and recent bank statements, particularly for a first tenancy in the country. If a company is taking the lease, add the trade licence and an authorisation letter or board resolution for whoever signs.

By post-dated cheques covering the year, most commonly split into one to four payments. The number is negotiable, and it moves the price: fewer cheques generally secures a lower rent, because the landlord has the money sooner. If you are able to pay in one or two, use that in the negotiation rather than treating the advertised rent as fixed.

A refundable security deposit, commonly 5% of the annual rent for an unfurnished property and 10% for a furnished one, returned at the end of the tenancy less any damage beyond fair wear. Then agency commission, a DEWA deposit and connection charge, Ejari registration, and in many buildings a separate chiller or district cooling account which can carry a deposit of its own. Where the tenancy is on a single cheque, the full year is also due at signing. We set the whole figure out before you commit: the deposit is the number people plan for, and the rest is the number that catches them.

Ejari is the Dubai Land Department's tenancy registration system, and every residential lease in Dubai has to be registered on it. You will need the certificate to open a DEWA account, to sponsor family visas, and for most school applications. It is done at the start of the tenancy, and we handle it for tenants in properties we manage.

Not freely. Permitted increases are governed by Dubai's rent index, which measures your rent against the market rate for comparable properties in the same area, and the landlord must give at least 90 days' written notice before the renewal date to change any term of the tenancy, including the rent. The Dubai Land Department publishes a rental increase calculator that shows what, if anything, is allowed on a given property. Where you are already paying at or above the market rate, the answer is frequently nothing.

Twelve months, served through a notary public or by registered post, and only for the specific reasons set out in Dubai's tenancy law, such as the owner selling the property or moving into it themselves. A landlord cannot end a tenancy early simply in order to rent it out again at a higher rent. Notice given informally, in a message or a conversation, does not start the clock.

The commute decides it more than anything else, because Dubai is long and its traffic runs in one direction at a time. If you work in DIFC or Downtown, Business Bay and Downtown put you minutes away. Families tend towards Dubai Hills Estate, Arabian Ranches and Town Square, where the schools and parks sit inside the community. For beach access it is Dubai Marina, Jumeirah Beach Residence and Palm Jumeirah. The newer inland communities generally cost less per square foot than the waterfront for a comparable specification. Tell us where you work and where the children go to school and we will narrow it faster than a filter will.

Rents vary more by community and by building here than in most cities, so a citywide average tells you very little. Two things move the figure as much as the address does: the number of cheques, and the age of the building. What surprises people is rarely the rent itself but the amount due on day one, once the deposit, commission, DEWA and cooling accounts are added to the first cheque. We would rather show you that total on a specific property than quote you an average.

Leasing and management are in-house rather than handed to a third party, so the person who shows you the property is the one you deal with afterwards. For an owner that means a single point of contact through tenant vetting, Ejari, renewals and maintenance. For a tenant it means a managing agent who answers, which is not a given in this market. We are licensed in Dubai under ORN 1484735 and RERA 49865.

Valuation first, then the permit, then the market. We price the property against what comparable units in your building are actually leasing for, list it under a Trakheesi advertising permit, and market it. Once terms are agreed with a tenant we vet them, draw the tenancy contract, collect the cheques and the deposit, register the tenancy on Ejari and run the move-in handover against a signed inventory. How long the marketing takes depends on the price, the season and the condition of the property far more than on anything else, and we tell you where it stands every week rather than when something happens.

A copy of the title deed, your passport, and your Emirates ID if you hold one. The DEWA premise number, and in many buildings the chiller or district cooling account details. If someone is signing for you, a power of attorney. If the property is mortgaged, check your loan terms, as some lenders require notice before it is rented out. We tell you what is missing before the listing goes live rather than at the point a tenant is waiting to sign.

Yes, and many of our landlords do. The tenancy can be signed on your behalf under a power of attorney, Ejari registration and the move-in handover happen here, and rent is transferred to the account you nominate. The team works in nine languages, which is usually how overseas owners end up with us. What makes it work is not the paperwork but the reporting, so you know what is happening in a building you cannot walk into.

Two things set it: what comparable units in your building and community are actually leasing for, and the Dubai Land Department's rental index, which also governs what you can do at renewal. We price against completed leases rather than against other listings, because asking prices are a record of hope. If the figure you have in mind is above what the evidence supports, we will show you the comparables and say so, rather than take the instruction and watch the property sit until you lower it yourself.

It is the most underrated decision you will make. Fewer cheques means the money reaches you sooner and is worth more, but it narrows the pool to tenants who can pay that way. More cheques widens the pool and usually supports a higher headline rent, at the cost of more administration and more exposure if one bounces. There is no universally correct answer, only the one that suits your property and the demand in your community at that moment, and we will tell you which way it is currently pointing.

Ejari is the Dubai Land Department's tenancy registration system, and every residential lease in Dubai must be registered on it. The obligation sits with the landlord, though in practice the agent does it. Without it your tenant cannot open a DEWA account or sponsor family visas, and you have no registered record of the tenancy if a dispute ever reaches the rental committee. We register it on every property we rent out.

You pay the service charge to the building or community, and the cost of major maintenance: air conditioning plant, water heaters, structural items, anything that belongs to the property rather than to the person living in it. The tenant pays DEWA, cooling, internet, and the Dubai municipality housing fee, which is collected through their DEWA bill. Minor repairs are usually the tenant's up to a threshold written into the contract. We put that threshold in the tenancy in writing, rather than leaving it to be argued about the first August the air conditioning fails.

Only within what Dubai's rental index permits, and only with at least 90 days' written notice before the renewal date. The index measures the current rent against the market rate for comparable properties in the same area, and the Dubai Land Department publishes a calculator showing what, if anything, is allowed. Where a tenant is already paying at market rate the answer is frequently nothing. Pushing for an increase you are not entitled to is also the most reliable way to lose a tenant who was paying on time.

You must serve twelve months' notice, through a notary public or by registered post, and only on the grounds set out in Dubai's tenancy law, such as selling the property or moving into it yourself. Notice given in a message or a conversation does not start the clock, and neither does wanting to rent it out again at a higher rent. If there is any chance you will want the property back, tell us before we market it, because it changes the tenancy we should be signing.

There is no personal income tax in Dubai, so rental income to an individual owner is not taxed, and there is no annual property tax. Your recurring cost is the service charge, billed per square foot per year, which varies considerably between developments and is worth knowing precisely before you set a rent. You may still have a liability where you are tax resident, and that is a question for an adviser in that country rather than for us.

Leasing and management are in-house rather than passed to a third party, so the person who rents out your property is the person who answers when something happens inside it. A substantial share of our landlords are overseas owners, which only works when the reporting is honest and somebody on the ground actually picks up the phone. Our rental and management terms are set out in writing before you instruct us, so there is no percentage you discover later. We are licensed in Dubai under ORN 1484735 and RERA 49865.

Snagging is a detailed inspection of a newly built property before you accept handover from the developer, recording every defect so the developer fixes it at their cost rather than yours. It matters because of when it happens: once you sign the handover documents, the defect list stops being theirs and starts being yours. A snagging report covers build quality and finishes, every electrical point, plumbing and drainage, the air conditioning run long enough to catch a unit that only fails after an hour, doors, windows and fitted items, and the common areas the unit is sold with access to. Developers in Dubai typically provide a defects liability period after handover, but the length and what it covers differ by developer and by contract, so read yours rather than assuming the standard.

Yes, and more buyers should. A snagging inspection on a resale purchase will not produce a list someone else has to fix, but it tells you precisely what condition you are buying in before you complete, which is worth knowing when the air conditioning or the water heater is the item in question. On a new build the report is leverage against the developer. On a resale it is information, and occasionally it is the reason to renegotiate.

Rent collected and transferred to you on the date the tenancy sets, maintenance logged, quoted, approved and invoiced with the paperwork attached, Ejari, DEWA, cooling and insurance kept current, periodic inspections reported with photographs, the tenant's calls at any hour coming to us rather than you, and the renewal opened ahead of the notice period rather than after it lapses. What stays with you as owner is the service charge to the building, major works such as air conditioning plant and water heaters, and the final call on any spend above a threshold you set. We put both lists in writing before you instruct us.

No. We take on properties that are already tenanted, whoever found the tenant. When we do, we start with a condition report and photographs, check the existing tenancy contract and Ejari registration and re-register either if it is wrong, and move DEWA, cooling and insurance onto our record so nothing depends on the previous agent still answering the phone. If the tenancy you already have was papered badly, it is better to find that out at onboarding than at the renewal.

Management is usually charged as a percentage of the annual rent, and the rate differs between agencies and with what the service actually includes, which is why a percentage on its own tells you very little. Ours is set out in writing before you instruct us, alongside exactly what it does and does not cover, so you can compare it against the property's real costs rather than against another firm's headline. What we would ask you to compare is not the fee but the net: what reaches your account after the service charge, the maintenance and any void.

The service charge is what the building or community bills the owner for maintaining shared areas, and it is paid by you as owner rather than by your tenant. It is calculated per square foot per year and approved by the Dubai Land Department's regulator, and it varies considerably between developments, which is exactly why it deserves checking before you buy rather than after. It is also the single largest gap between what a property is advertised to yield and what actually reaches you.

Yes, and most of the owners we manage for do. Rent is transferred to the account you nominate, maintenance is approved by you above a threshold you set and simply handled below it, and inspections come to you as reports with photographs rather than as a phone call when something has gone wrong. The team works in nine languages. What makes it work for an overseas owner is not the paperwork, it is that somebody on the ground actually picks up when the tenant calls.

We chase it, formally and on the record, and we tell you as it happens rather than at the point it has become a legal problem. Dubai's tenancy law routes disputes through the Rental Disputes Centre, and cases turn on documentation: the registered Ejari, the signed inventory from the move-in handover, the condition reports, and the written record of what was asked for and when. That is the real reason we insist on the inventory and the inspections. Recovering possession is measured in months rather than weeks here, so the work that avoids ever needing to is worth more than the work of doing it.

We arrange it, and you see the quote before we proceed on anything above the threshold you set. Every job comes back with the invoice and the paperwork rather than as a line on a statement, so you can see what was done and by whom. Below the threshold we simply handle it, because an owner in another time zone approving a twenty minute plumbing call is not a service, it is an inconvenience with extra steps.

Yes, and that is the right time to talk to us. We snag it before you accept handover so the defect list is drawn up while it is still the developer's to fix, collect the handover and record the condition with photographs, then either find a tenant or take over managing one you already have lined up. Coming to us at handover rather than afterwards is the difference between a defect list that costs the developer and one that costs you.