What a Dubai purchase
actually costs.

Where foreigners can own, and what that means

Dubai separates land into freehold and leasehold areas. In designated freehold areas any nationality can own the property outright, with the title registered at the Dubai Land Department in your own name or in the name of a company. That covers most of the communities international buyers know: Downtown, Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah, Business Bay, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Hills and many more.

Outside those areas, foreign ownership is generally leasehold — a long lease, commonly up to 99 years, rather than ownership of the land. It is a legitimate structure but a different asset, and it should be priced differently.

There is no residence requirement to buy. You do not need a visa, a UAE bank account or a local partner to own freehold property, and ownership can be in a personal name, in joint names, or through certain company structures. The company route has consequences for transfer costs and for the Golden Visa route, so decide it before the purchase rather than after.

The costs above the price

The purchase price is the number everyone quotes. It is roughly 93% of what leaves your account.

Line by line

• Dubai Land Department transfer fee — 4% of the purchase price, plus a small fixed admin charge. This is the unavoidable one. It is conventionally paid by the buyer, though the contract governs.
• Registration trustee fee — a few thousand dirhams, scaled to the price, paid at the trustee office where the transfer completes.
• Agency commission — typically 2% plus VAT on a resale.
• Developer or community NOC — required to transfer a resale, and priced by the developer. It varies widely and is worth asking about early.
• Mortgage registration — 0.25% of the loan amount plus a fixed fee, only if you are financing.
• Service charges — annual, charged per square foot, and the number that determines your actual net yield. Ask for the current rate and the last three years of it.

Off-plan is a different shape: the Land Department fee is still payable, commission is usually paid by the developer rather than by you, and the money goes out over a payment plan into a project escrow account rather than in one movement.

Financing as a non-resident

Non-residents can borrow from UAE banks, on tighter terms than residents. Loan-to-value for a non-resident is commonly capped around 50%, against up to 80% for a resident buying a first home under the value threshold, so the deposit is the constraint rather than the rate.

Expect the bank to want passport, proof of address, six months of personal bank statements and evidence of income in your home country, and expect the file to take longer than a resident's because the income verification is cross-border. A pre-approval before you make offers is worth the effort: it sets your real budget and it makes your offer more credible.

Note the interaction with the visa route: mortgaged property can still qualify for the property investor visa, but the assessment may look at your equity rather than the headline value. If the visa is part of the plan, model the financing with that in mind.

From offer to title deed

A ready, cash purchase completes in about a month. The sequence is standardised and the Land Department controls the last step.

1. Offer and Form F. The memorandum of understanding between buyer and seller, with the price, the deposit and the timeline. A deposit of 10% is conventional, held by the agent or trustee.
2. NOC from the developer. The seller applies; the developer confirms service charges are settled and there is no objection to the transfer.
3. Mortgage settlement, if the seller has one. The buyer's funds or a bank settle the seller's outstanding loan and the charge is released.
4. Transfer at the trustee office. Both parties attend or send a representative under power of attorney. Manager's cheques change hands and the fee is paid.
5. Title deed issued in your name, usually the same day.

You do not have to be in Dubai for any of it. A properly drafted and attested power of attorney lets a representative sign and attend the transfer, which is how a large share of international purchases are completed.

What to check before you sign

The transaction mechanics are reliable. The variables are in the asset.

• Service charges per square foot, and their history. A high charge can take a meaningful bite out of a headline yield, and towers with amenity-heavy common areas carry more.
• The developer's delivery record on off-plan, not their brochure. Ask which of their last three projects handed over on the original date.
• Escrow. For off-plan, confirm the project is registered and that payments go to the escrow account, not to a company account.
• Rental status. A tenanted unit comes with the tenancy. Dubai's tenant protections mean you may not be able to take possession or raise the rent as quickly as you assume.
• The real rent, from the rental index and from comparable listings, rather than the yield on the sales brochure.

We act on the buy side through /en/real-estate/buy/, and manage the asset afterwards through /en/real-estate/property-management/. French-speaking buyers looking for community-level research will find more of it on https://dubaiimmobilier.fr/.