Register · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Buying property in Dubai as a foreigner
Freehold for non-nationals, a passport at the counter, the power of attorney and its attestation, and what the Central Bank lets a bank lend.
- Checked2026-09-12
- Documentslisted at the foot of the page
The short answer
Freehold, in the designated plots, 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.
The costs
What a buyer abroad needs, and what a bank will lend
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.
The rules
The instruments, in the order a purchase meets them
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, and we could not find them — that is a dash below, not a summary of somebody's summary.
- 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.
What we do not print
Four things everyone states about non-residents
A non-resident lending cap, a maximum borrower age, a documented remote purchase and the validity of a power of attorney: none of the four is in the instruments we hold.
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—
the Central Bank's article knows nationals and expatriates and no third category; the lower ceilings quoted for non-residents are individual banks' policy
- A maximum borrower age—
the regulation hands this to the lenders' own policies by name; the ages in circulation are bank practice printed as though they were the rule
- The Land Department circular said to govern powers of attorney—
we found no text on the Department's own host, only law firms' summaries of it, so we print no requirement we cannot quote
- Registering a purchase remotely, as a service—
no Department page describes one; a power of attorney is the mechanism and Dubai REST is the channel, and the two do not add up to a documented «buy without coming»
- How long a power of attorney stays valid—
no official host states a period; the figure repeated by agents has no instrument behind it
Checked 2026-09-12
Documents
What this page rests on
One regulation, two service pages, the federal portal, the Central Bank rulebook and the attestation page — read on the day this page was built.
- 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.
- As filesSend the documents
The instruments, as they stand today
The list of freehold plots is the Regulation's own, extended by later acts; we describe it as such rather than presenting any list as complete.
Talk to us
Ask from wherever you are
Tell us the address you are weighing up and the country you are buying from. We answer in writing first, and by telephone only if you ask us to.