Property guide · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Guides to buying property in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Guides for foreign buyers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: who may own freehold, the fees on a purchase, off-plan escrow and payment plans, service charges, golden visa.
- Checked2026-09-08
Guides
How buying works in Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Each guide starts with the answer, then the costs with the document behind each rate, then the rules and what is not yet published.
Buying property in Dubai from abroad
Buying in Dubai without living in the UAE: freehold on a passport, a foreign power of attorney and its attestation, and how much a UAE bank may lend you.
Buying property in Abu Dhabi
Buying in Abu Dhabi as a foreigner: freehold in the investment zones, the registration fee and who pays it, no income or capital-gains tax, and off-plan escrow.
The cost of buying property in Dubai
What buying in Dubai costs on top of the price: the Land Department fee and how buyer and seller split it, the trustee and title-deed fees, and mortgage fees.
The DLD calculator: what a Dubai purchase costs
Enter a price and how you pay, ready or off-plan, cash or mortgage: the Dubai Land Department fee, trustee, title deed and mortgage costs, added up for you.
The golden visa through property in Dubai
The Dubai golden visa through property: the value that qualifies, what the application costs, whether off-plan and mortgaged homes count, and how long it lasts.
Payment plans for off-plan property in Dubai
How off-plan payment plans work in Dubai: instalments paid into escrow, the Oqood fee, what a bank will lend, and what you lose or get back if payments stop.
Oqood, escrow and how to check a Dubai project
Check a Dubai off-plan project before you pay: what Oqood registration is, the escrow account your money goes into, and the public search that shows both.
Service charges in Dubai
How Dubai service charges are set: your share of an audited budget by registered area, what RERA must approve first, and where to look up a building's rate.
A question not covered here
Ask it. We answer in writing, with the document behind each figure, or tell you that no document states it.
How we work
Every rate with the law that sets it
No fee, threshold or cap is printed without the instrument that sets it and the date it was read.
The fee schedule, the escrow law, the visa threshold, the mortgage cap: each of these is the kind of number that walks into a text by itself. On these pages a rate is printed only with the instrument that states it and the date it was read; where the official sources disagree, both are named and neither is chosen.
Questions
Ask about fees, rules or visas
Name your question or the property; we reply in writing with the rate or rule that answers it and the document that sets it.