Foreign ownership
Owning property in Dubai as a foreigner
Yes, you can own it outright, in your own name, without living here and without a local partner. There is no limit on how many. There is no property tax, no tax on the rent and no capital gains tax. The rest of this page is the detail, and the figures in it come from the Dubai Land Department’s registered record rather than from anybody’s brochure.
Can foreigners buy property in Dubai?
Yes. Foreign nationals can buy and hold full freehold title in the parts of Dubai designated for foreign ownership, with the deed in their own name. You do not need to live in the UAE, hold a residence visa, or have a local partner or sponsor to own one. Outside the designated freehold areas, ownership is restricted, which is why the area decides whether you can buy before the property does. Jumeirah Village Circle, Business Bay, Dubai Creek Harbour, Dubai Hills Estate, Downtown Dubai, Dubai Marina are among the freehold areas.
Can anyone buy property in Dubai?
Close to it. Dubai does not restrict freehold buyers by nationality, so the ordinary answer for someone from almost anywhere is yes, subject to the usual identity and source-of-funds checks that apply to any large payment. What limits you is not your passport but the area: freehold designation is a property-by-property fact, and a building outside it cannot be sold to a foreign buyer however willing both sides are.
How many properties can you own in Dubai?
There is no cap. Dubai does not limit the number of freehold properties a foreign national can own, and portfolios of several units in one building are ordinary. What changes with scale is the financing rather than the permission: mortgage terms tighten for a second and subsequent property, where the Central Bank's loan-to-value cap drops to 60%, so a buyer with two already needs 40% down on the third.
Can you live in Dubai if you own a property?
Owning property is grounds to apply for residency, not an automatic right to it. A property at or above AED 2 million qualifies the owner to apply for the ten-year Golden Visa, and a lower threshold applies to the shorter investor visa. The application is made on the strength of a registered title, so the purchase comes first and the visa follows it. Thresholds and conditions are government rules rather than figures we measure, and off-plan purchases have their own conditions, so confirm the current position with the Land Department or a licensed adviser before buying for that reason.
Does Dubai have property tax?
No annual property tax, no tax on rental income, and no capital gains tax on a sale. That is the genuine reason most overseas buyers look at Dubai. What you do pay is one-off and at purchase: a 4% Dubai Land Department transfer fee, agency commission of about 2%, and registration, trustee and admin charges of roughly 1%, so budget around 7% of the price in cash on the day. Service charges are then an annual cost per square foot and vary widely by building. Your own country may still tax the income or the gain, and that is between you and them.
What is the difference between freehold and leasehold in Dubai?
Freehold is outright ownership of the property and, for a villa, the land under it, held in your name on the register with no expiry. Leasehold is a long right to occupy, typically for a term of up to 99 years, after which it reverts. A foreign buyer looking for an asset to hold, let and eventually sell wants freehold, and it is the freehold areas that carry almost all the registered foreign-buyer activity.
Is buying property in Dubai a good investment?
That depends on what you are measuring, and the register answers it more honestly than any brochure. The median price per square foot has risen every year since 2021, from 1,017 to 1,715 dirhams. Over the same period the median price actually paid has barely moved, from 1,350,000 to 1,326,500, because the median home sold has shrunk from 1,202 square feet to 804. So values per foot are up and buyers are getting less space for the same money. Yields are real and gross yields in the stronger areas are among the highest of any major city, but gross is not net: service charges, management and vacancy all come out of it. The answer for one property is a question about that building, not about Dubai.
Can you get a mortgage in Dubai as a foreigner?
Yes, and the deposit is set by the Central Bank rather than by the bank you choose, so shopping around does not move it. An expatriate resident buying a first home to live in needs 20% down up to AED 5 million and 30% above it. A second or subsequent property needs 40%. Lending to a non-resident is capped materially lower again, so the same cash reaches a much smaller property if you are buying from abroad. Add the roughly 7% of purchase costs on top of whichever deposit applies.
Is it safe to buy property in Dubai?
The protections are real and worth knowing by name. Every sale is registered with the Dubai Land Department and any title deed can be verified online. Off-plan payments go into a project escrow account rather than to the developer directly. Every agent holds a personal broker registration number and every advertisement needs its own Trakheesi permit, both checkable in a minute on the Land Department's own services. The risks that remain are commercial rather than legal: overpaying against comparable registered sales, a developer with a poor delivery record, and service charges that quietly eat the yield.
What freehold areas actually cost
Registered prices, not asking prices. This is what changed hands in the last twelve months in the areas a foreign buyer can own in.
| Freehold area | Registered sales, 12m | Median per sqft |
|---|---|---|
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 12,043 | 1,486 |
| Business Bay | 5,333 | 2,385 |
| Dubai Creek Harbour | 3,935 | 2,560 |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 2,570 | 2,380 |
| Downtown Dubai | 2,530 | 2,996 |
| Dubai Marina | 2,126 | 1,920 |
| Jumeirah Lake Towers | 1,748 | 1,660 |
| DAMAC Hills | 1,560 | 1,655 |
| Palm Jumeirah | 1,199 | 3,656 |
| Arabian Ranches | 720 | 1,541 |
Registered sales to 2026-09-28 08:36:16.206586+00. Source: Dubai Land Department.
Before you talk to anyone
Found a property? Check the price against the register first.
Paste any listing you are considering, from anywhere. We compare the asking price against what comparable homes actually sold for on the Dubai Land Department register and tell you plainly whether it stacks up. Free, and you do not need an account.
Check a propertyBuying from your country specifically
The ownership rules above are the same for everyone. What differs is what you still owe at home, how you move the money, and whether your bank will lend. Those are country questions and each guide answers them for that market.
- Buying in Dubai from the United States
- Buying in Dubai from the United Kingdom
- Buying in Dubai from India
- Buying in Dubai from Russia
- Buying in Dubai from China
- Buying in Dubai from Pakistan
- Buying in Dubai from Canada
- Buying in Dubai from Germany
- Buying in Dubai from France
- Buying in Dubai from Nigeria
- Buying in Dubai from Saudi Arabia
- Buying in Dubai from Turkey
- Buying in Dubai from Egypt
Ownership rules, visa thresholds and the absence of property tax are government rules, stated here as rules and not as anything we measured; confirm the current position with the Dubai Land Department or a licensed adviser before you act on them. Prices, yields and freehold area figures are from the Dubai Land Department registered record. This page is general orientation, not financial, legal or tax advice.
