Property guide · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Buying property in Dubai as a foreigner
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.
- Leasehold or usufruct instead, yearsup to 99Dubai law
- First home below the value threshold, expatriateup to 80%Central Bank
- First home above that thresholdup to 70%Central Bank
- Checked2026-09-12
Who may buy
Foreigners can own Dubai freehold on a passport
A foreigner who has never lived in the UAE may own a Dubai property outright in the plots the 2006 Regulation designates, and is identified at registration by a valid passport rather than by any residence permit.
The instrument is Regulation 3/2006. It grants non-nationals freehold without time restriction over named land plots, or usufruct and leasehold of up to 99Dubai law years elsewhere. The list has grown since 2006 through further acts, so the right question about an address is which plot it sits on, not which brochure describes it as freehold.
The federal portal states the same rule in plain words and adds that there is no age limit on owning property in Dubai. Ownership is not tied to residency: the visa, if it comes at all, comes afterwards — see the golden visa through property.
Paperwork and loans
Same fees as residents, different paperwork and loans
Ownership itself costs a foreigner no more than it costs a resident; the difference is in the paperwork and in the mortgage.
The registration fees are the same for everybody — they are set out in the cost of buying. What is different is identification, the developer's electronic no-objection certificate, and, for a company buyer, an Arabic translation of the constitutional documents ratified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The lending ceilings below are the Central Bank's, and they are set by category of buyer and by value, not by where the buyer lives. An individual bank may lend less; it may not lend more.
- Freehold for a buyer who is not a UAE nationalavailable, in the designated plots
Regulation 3/2006 art. (3): freehold without time restriction over the land plots the Regulation lists, extended since by further acts.
- Leasehold or usufruct instead, yearsup to 99Dubai law
Regulation 3/2006 art. (3); the federal portal states the same in its own words.
- Age limit on owning propertynone
The federal government portal, «Expatriates buying a property in the UAE»: «There is no age limit to own property in Dubai».
- Identification for a non-resident at the trusteea valid passport
DLD e-service «Property Sale Registration», required documents — an Emirates ID for those who have one, a passport for those who do not.
- First home below the value threshold, expatriateup to 80%Central Bank
Central Bank Circular 31/2013 art. (3) item 2.B.a; the threshold is AED 5MCentral Bank.
- First home above that thresholdup to 70%Central Bank
Same article, item 2.B.b.
- Second or investment property, any valueup to 60%Central Bank
Same article, item 2.B.
- Off-plan, whoever is buyingup to 50%Central Bank
Same article, item 2.C — «regardless of purpose, value, or category of purchaser».
- Longest term of the loan, years25Central Bank
Same article, item 3.
- Income a loan may be sized on, years of itup to 7Central Bank
Same article, item 4, for expatriates.
Step by step
Ownership, registration, attestation, loan: the rules in order
The Regulation for the right to own, the federal portal for the plain statement of it, the Department for the counter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the foreign document, and the Central Bank for the loan.
A power of attorney is the ordinary answer to buying from a distance: the documents behind a company's attorney are set out on the Department's own initial-sale page, translated into Arabic and ratified. For an individual's power of attorney the Department is said to publish detailed requirements, but they could not be found on its own site, so they are listed below as not yet published.
- Regulation 3/2006 art. (3)Non-UAE nationals may acquire freehold ownership without time restriction, usufruct or long leasehold, over the land plots the Regulation designates by name.
- Federal portal, «Expatriates buying a property in the UAE»The government states the same in plain words: foreigners who do not live in the UAE, as well as expatriate residents, may acquire freehold — and there is no age limit.
- DLD, «Property Sale Registration»A non-resident is identified by a valid passport, and in the freehold areas the seller provides the developer's no-objection certificate electronically through Dubai REST.
- DLD, «Request to register the initial sale»For a company buying, the memorandum of association must be translated into Arabic and ratified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the power of attorney where one is used.
- MoFA, attestation of documentsAttestation certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals on documents issued inside or outside the country — the step a foreign power of attorney passes through.
- Circular 31/2013 art. (3) item 3The maximum age at the last repayment is to be determined by the lenders themselves, in line with their own risk and lending policies — it is bank policy, not a rule of the regulator.
Not yet published
Four non-resident rules with no official source
A separate lending cap for non-residents, a maximum borrower age, a documented remote purchase and a validity period for a power of attorney: none of the four is fixed by an official rule.
The Central Bank's article recognises nationals and expatriates. There is no non-resident row in it, so a lower ceiling quoted for non-residents is one bank's credit policy — worth knowing, but not a rule, and it changes from bank to bank.
The same goes for the borrower's age at the last repayment: the regulation explicitly leaves it to the lenders. Where a figure is printed as the regulator's, the regulator has said the opposite.
- A separate lending ceiling for a non-resident—
set by individual banks, not by the Central Bank
- A maximum borrower age—
the regulation leaves it to each lender's own policy
- The Land Department circular said to govern powers of attorney—
its text is not on the Department's own site, only in law firms' summaries
- Registering a purchase remotely, as a service—
no Department page describes it as a service
- How long a power of attorney stays valid—
no official source states a period
Checked 2026-09-12
Sources
Dubai law, DLD, the Central Bank and MoFA
The ownership regulation, the Land Department's service pages, the federal portal, the Central Bank rulebook and the Foreign Ministry's attestation page.
- Regulation
Regulation No. (3) of 2006 determining the areas for ownership by non-UAE nationals in Dubai, 7 June 2006
Article (3) and its list of plots — the instrument the word «freehold» rests on.
- Federal portal
The federal government portal, «Expatriates buying a property in the UAE», updated 30 December 2024
The government's own statement of who may own, and the absence of an age limit.
- Service pages
DLD e-services «Property Sale Registration» and «Request to register the initial sale», read 12 September 2026
The passport, the electronic no-objection certificate, and what a company buyer files.
- Regulation
Central Bank of the UAE, Circular No. 31/2013 on mortgage loans, article (3), In-Force
The lending ceilings by category and value, the term of the loan, and the age question the regulator declines to answer.
- Federal
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attestation of official documents and certificates
What attestation certifies — the step a foreign document passes on its way into a Dubai file.
- DocumentsGet the documents
The source documents
The list of freehold plots is the Regulation's own, extended by later acts, so no single list of them should be taken as complete.
Questions
Ask about buying in Dubai from abroad
Send the address and the country you are buying from: we reply in writing with the documents, the attestation steps and the lending limits that apply to you, and phone only if you ask.