Property guide · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Buying property in Abu Dhabi: rules and fees
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.
- Registration of an off-plan sale2%ADREC
- Residency thresholdAED 2MADREC
- Checked2026-09-08
Who may buy
Freehold for foreigners in Abu Dhabi's investment zones
Since 2019 a foreign buyer can hold full freehold inside the designated investment zones; outside them the same buyer is offered a long lease, with a different set of rights.
The instrument is Law 13/2019, amending Law 19/2005. Saadiyat Island is one of those zones, and so is most of the waterfront a buyer is shown. Check an address against the list, not the brochure: two addresses a few minutes apart can sit on opposite sides of it.
Inside a zone: full title for a buyer from outside the UAE and the GCC. Outside: a long lease, offered to the same buyer, with a different set of rights.
Costs and tax
One registration fee, and no tax on owning
Registration is the one cost on a purchase; there is no income, capital-gains or inheritance tax for an individual, and the municipal charge sits on rent, not on ownership.
Each rate below names the document that sets it. Service charges and mortgage terms are not listed: no official document for them has been found yet.
- Registration of an off-plan sale2%ADREC
Of the price, split down the middle between seller and buyer — Administrative Decision 247/2015 §34.
- Personal income taxnone
Federal government portal.
- Annual tax on owning a homenone
Federal government portal.
- Capital gains, inheritance (individuals)none
Federal government portal.
- Municipal charge on rentfive per cent of the rent, paid by the expatriate tenant
Resolution 49/2018 §4 — on rent, not on ownership.
- Residency thresholdAED 2MADREC
Confirmed by three official sources; for the visa term, see below.
Off-plan money
Off-plan payments go into a project escrow account
Money for a project still being built goes to an escrow account, not to the developer's own; the regulator publishes the account number of every registered project.
The order of the articles is the order of the money: it goes in, it may not come out early, and some things may never come out of it.
- Law 3/2015 art. 18The buyer pays into the project's escrow account at a bank, never to the developer directly.
- Law 3/2015 art. 19The developer may not draw on it before a fifth of the works are done.
- Law 2/2025Land payments and broker commissions may not come out of that account at all.
- Regulator's portalThe account number of any registered project is published — something a buyer can check rather than something a seller asserts.
Not yet published
The visa term: two official sources disagree
The residency threshold is confirmed by three official sources, but two of them state different terms for the visa.
A mortgaged purchase and an off-plan purchase both count towards the threshold, measured on what has actually been paid. The Abu Dhabi Residents Office and the federal portal state different terms for the visa, and the third source that could settle it is unreachable. Ask, and we send the current rules as the department states them on the day you apply.
Buyers of 116ADREC nationalities registered non-resident purchases in Abu Dhabi in the first half of 2026, according to ADREC's own release. Published transaction data is broken down by continent, not by country; when a page tells you which nationality bought what percentage, ask it for the document.
- Visa term—
two departments state different terms
- Procedure from abroad—
no official page describes it yet
- Service charge, mortgage terms—
not yet sourced to an official document
Checked 2026-09-08
Sources
Abu Dhabi law, ADREC and the federal portal
The ownership and escrow laws, ADREC for the fee and the residency threshold, and the federal portal for tax.
- Laws
Law 19/2005 as amended by Law 13/2019; Law 3/2015; Law 2/2025
Ownership zones and the escrow rules, from the text of the laws.
- Regulator
ADREC
The registration fee, the residency threshold, the nationality count.
- Federal
The federal government portal
The absence of income, capital-gains and inheritance tax for individuals.
- DocumentsGet the documents
The source documents
We send the laws and the regulator's pages in their current version, with the articles this guide uses marked.
Questions
Ask about buying in Abu Dhabi
Leave a name and a number: we reply in writing with the fees, the escrow account number and the current visa rules for the project you ask about, and phone only if you ask.