Buying property in Dubai from the Netherlands

The short version

If you live in the Netherlands, a Dubai apartment is part of your box 3 wealth, and the tax treaty between the Netherlands and the UAE can cancel the box 3 tax on it. What remains is mostly inheritance tax, the paperwork and the currency.

• Box 3 counts the apartment at its value if sold empty, without tenants, on 1 January of the year before — for 2026, on 1 January 2025. It does not tax the rent you actually receive.
• Under the treaty, the Netherlands exempts the apartment by reducing your box 3 tax, although the UAE charges none; you claim the reduction in your tax return. If the apartment is finished and is all you have in box 3, you pay no box 3 tax. With savings as well, you pay a little more on those.
• The relief has limits. Rent you keep in a bank account counts as ordinary savings, and interest on a loan against your Dutch home used for the apartment is not deductible.
• Before handover, it is not settled whether the relief covers your purchase contract. Letting with services such as linen, or selling contracts one after another, can make the income taxable in box 1 instead.
• Box 3 is due to change, probably not before 2028. The plan taxes property on its rent and on the gain when you sell. It is not yet law, and how the treaty relief would then be worked out is not yet known.
• Dutch inheritance and gift tax apply to the apartment in full while you live in the Netherlands. If you are a Dutch national, they continue for ten years after you leave; if you are not, inheritance tax stops when you leave and gift tax a year later. There is no treaty and no UAE tax to reduce them.
• Under EU rules, Dutch law governs your estate, the Dubai apartment included, while Dubai applies its own rules. A will registered in Dubai settles it there.
• Moving to Dubai takes the apartment out of Dutch box 3 only once you no longer live in the Netherlands, and that is judged on all the facts.
• You may not need to fly in. For off-plan, the developer registers the purchase; ask whether you can sign remotely. For a finished property, someone can sign for you on a Dutch power of attorney. It needs a notary, a district court, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attestation by the UAE Embassy in The Hague with the UAE foreign ministry, and an Arabic translation. Dubai also checks its wording and age.
• Your price is in dirhams and your money in euros. In every three-year stretch since 2015, the euro’s highest month-end rate was at least 12% above its lowest.

Figures are those for 2026, in force on the date this page was last reviewed. The Dutch tax plans for 2027 can change several of them from 1 January.

Box 3 counts the apartment. The treaty can cancel the tax.

Box 3 taxes your wealth, not your rent. If you live in the Netherlands, a Dubai apartment that is neither your home nor part of a business belongs to box 3, “savings and investments” (sparen en beleggen). Box 3 does not look at the rent you actually receive. It assumes a fixed return on what you own on 1 January and taxes that at 36%. For 2026, the assumed return on “investments and other assets”, the category for a second home abroad or a let property, is 6.00%, and it is final; the rates for bank balances (1.28%) and debts (2.70%) are still provisional. Wealth up to €59,357 is free of tax, €118,714 for fiscal partners together, and debts count only above €3,800 per person.

The value is a year old. For a home abroad, box 3 uses its market value as if it were sold empty, without tenants (vrij opleverbare staat), on 1 January of the year before the tax year: for 2026, its value on 1 January 2025. A let home can count at a lower percentage of that value — abroad, only if the country’s tenancy law protects tenants in a way comparable to Dutch law, and never for temporary lettings. No official text says whether Dubai’s tenancy law qualifies. Amounts in another currency are converted into euros at the exchange rate of 1 January of the tax year; no official text says whether that also applies to the apartment’s value from the year before. See The currency.

The treaty then cancels the box 3 tax on a finished apartment. The Netherlands and the UAE signed a tax treaty in Abu Dhabi on 8 May 2007, in force since 2 June 2010. It lets the UAE tax income from property in the UAE, including income from letting it or using it yourself, and for such income “the Netherlands shall exempt such items of income by allowing a reduction of its tax”. For property in box 3, the Belastingdienst says, this exemption method always applies. The treaty does not make the reduction depend on the UAE actually taxing the income; the Dutch rules for countries without a treaty do. So although the UAE “does not levy income tax on individuals”, the Netherlands takes the apartment’s share off your box 3 tax. If the apartment is all you have in box 3, your box 3 tax is nil. You claim the reduction in your tax return, as the deduction to prevent double taxation (aftrek ter voorkoming van dubbele belasting).

Before handover, the relief is not settled. Until the building is finished, what you own is a purchase contract registered with the Land Department, not yet an apartment. It still counts in box 3, at its market value. The treaty relief applies to “immovable property” as UAE law defines it, and we found no official Dutch text on whether an off-plan contract counts. If it does not, there is no relief, and the contract is taxed like any other investment: for a contract worth €150,000 and nothing else in box 3, about €1,960 for 2026. Ask your adviser before you rely on the relief for the construction years.

What the relief does not cover.

• Your tax-free allowance. It is spread over everything you own in box 3, the apartment included. So the apartment takes up part of it, and the tax on your savings and investments can rise, while the apartment itself stays relieved.
• Money in the bank. Rent you have collected, or the proceeds of a sale, count on 1 January as bank balances like any others, in Dubai or in the Netherlands, without relief.
• Loans. A loan for the apartment is a box 3 debt. Because it is connected with the apartment, it also shrinks the relief, which then covers only the apartment’s assumed return less the loan’s.
• Your Dutch mortgage. If you borrow against your Dutch home to pay for the apartment, that part of the loan is not home-ownership debt (eigenwoningschuld). Its interest is not deductible in box 1, and you declare the loan as a debt in box 3.
• Benefits. The apartment counts towards the wealth limits for benefits (toeslagen). For the healthcare allowance (zorgtoeslag), the limit on 1 January 2026 is €146,011, or €184,633 with a partner.

If you let it with services. The Belastingdienst says that letting a second home with services, such as breakfast or linen, can make the rent taxable as income in box 1. The treaty covers that income too, but the Dutch reduction is then worked out differently. Take that to your adviser.

If your actual return was lower. Under the counter-evidence scheme (tegenbewijsregeling), you can be taxed on the actual return on all your box 3 wealth if it was lower than the assumed return you would be taxed on after the tax-free allowance. The actual return includes changes in value, even before you sell, and costs cannot be deducted. The relief for the apartment is then worked out on actual figures too. Whether it is worth claiming depends on the rest of your wealth; ask your adviser.

The UAE side. The UAE “does not levy income tax on individuals”. Its corporate tax leaves out an individual’s income from selling, leasing or renting out property in the UAE, as long as this is not done, and does not have to be done, under a licence. Using a letting agent does not change that. Letting a holiday home under a permit in your own name does: that counts as a licensed business, and UAE corporate tax can apply once your business turnover in the UAE exceeds AED 1 million in a calendar year. Rent from an office or a shop also carries UAE VAT at 5%. Your tenant pays it, and it is not a tax on your income, but you may have to register for VAT in the UAE. A property held through a company, a holiday home under your own permit and commercial property are different cases in both countries: take them to your tax adviser before you buy, not after.

Box 3 is due to change

The plan is to tax actual returns, probably not before 2028. On 12 February 2026, the lower house of parliament passed a bill to tax actual returns in box 3. For property, it taxes rent in the year you receive it and the increase in value when you sell, instead of an assumed return. The Senate has postponed its vote until it has dealt with an amending bill the government promised. The government set out the changes on 29 September 2026 and still aims at 1 January 2028. Until a new law is passed, box 3 works as described above.

The treaty covers both rent from property in the UAE and gains on selling it, and both are on the list of income the Netherlands exempts. How a new Dutch law would work out that relief is not yet known.

For 2027, the government has proposed lowering the tax-free allowance to €30,846, its level in 2020, and raising the assumed return on investments and other assets by 1.5 percentage points. Neither is law yet.

Selling: no separate tax on the gain, for now

Box 3 taxes what you own on 1 January, not what you make when you sell. So under today’s rules there is no Dutch tax on the gain as such. What counts after a sale is what you hold on the next 1 January: money in a bank account is savings, without the treaty relief.

If your buying and selling goes beyond normal management of your own wealth — selling off-plan contracts before handover, one after another, for example — the profit can be taxed as income in box 1 instead. The treaty relief is then worked out differently, and there is none if a contract does not count as immovable property. Ask your adviser before you sign. Under the planned reform, the gain would be taxed when you sell; see Box 3 is due to change.

What you report in the Netherlands

No Dutch transfer tax. Dutch transfer tax (overdrachtsbelasting) applies only to property in the Netherlands.

A bank transfer to Dubai needs no permission. EU law prohibits restrictions on moving capital, also to countries outside the EU. Cash is different: if you carry cash or gold worth €10,000 or more on a direct journey between the Netherlands and a country outside the EU, a flight from Amsterdam to Dubai for example, you must declare it to Dutch Customs (Douane), whether the money is yours or someone else’s. Your bank, the receiving UAE bank and your broker will want to see where your money came from — see Proving where your money came from.

The apartment goes in your tax return. In the box 3 part you declare its value and any debts for it, and you claim the deduction to prevent double taxation. Your return is due by the date in the letter inviting you to file, often 1 May of the following year; an extension gives you four more months. If you receive no letter but owe tax, you must file anyway. For anything held abroad, the Belastingdienst can raise an additional assessment for up to twelve years.

A bank account in the UAE counts in box 3 at its value on 1 January, converted into euros. Under the Common Reporting Standard, financial institutions pass account data to the Belastingdienst.

Fiscal partners can split their joint box 3 base between them in any proportion they choose each year, whoever is named on the Dubai title deed. Co-owners who are not partners each declare the value of their own share.

On the 30% ruling? Being treated as a non-resident for box 2 and box 3, which kept foreign wealth out of Dutch box 3, has not been available since 1 January 2025. Transitional rules keep it until the end of 2026 at the latest, and only if the 30% ruling already applied to your salary at the end of 2023. Box 3 looks at what you own on 1 January, so for an apartment you buy now, it no longer helps.

Your home country may tax you too. If you are a US citizen, the United States taxes you wherever you live. If you lived in the UK for a long time, UK inheritance tax can reach the apartment for several years after you left; see Buying property in Dubai from the UK.

Inheritance and gifts: Dutch tax in full

The Netherlands taxes what you leave, wherever it is. Dutch inheritance tax (erfbelasting) applies to everything inherited from someone who lived in the Netherlands when they died, the Dubai apartment included. A Dutch national who moves abroad is treated as still living in the Netherlands if they die within ten years of leaving. Where your heirs live does not matter.

The rates for 2026 depend on the relationship. A partner or child pays 10% on the first €158,669 and 20% above it; grandchildren 18% and 36%; anyone else 30% and 40%. Each heir has an exemption first: up to €828,035 for a partner, €26,230 for a child or grandchild, €62,110 for a parent and €2,769 for anyone else. A stepchild or foster child counts as a child. For a death in 2026, the inheritance tax return is due 20 months after the death.

The apartment counts at its market value on the day of death. The Belastingdienst’s notes on the inheritance tax return say so for homes abroad.

Nothing reduces it. There is no inheritance tax treaty between the Netherlands and the UAE, and the UAE government’s list of its taxes includes no inheritance tax. The Dutch rules give relief for property abroad only for a similar tax actually levied there. So the full Dutch tax is due.

Gifts are taxed at the same rates. Dutch gift tax (schenkbelasting) applies if you live in the Netherlands when you give — and after you leave, for ten years if you are a Dutch national and for one year whatever your nationality. In 2026, parents can give a child €6,908 a year free of tax. Once, instead of that year’s €6,908, they can give €33,129 to a child aged 18 to 40 (or with a partner that age), or €69,009 for an expensive course of study; the child claims it in a gift tax return. The one-off exemption for buying a home was abolished on 1 January 2024. For gifts made in 2026, the gift tax return is due by 1 March 2027.

Who inherits the apartment: two legal systems.

• The Netherlands. Under EU rules, the law of the country where you habitually live when you die governs your whole estate, the Dubai apartment included. In a will made before a notary, you can choose the law of your nationality instead, and under EU rules that choice holds even if you later move. Without a will, Dutch law gives the estate to your spouse or registered partner, and your children a claim in money that becomes payable only when both parents have died.
• Dubai. The UAE applies its own rules to property in the UAE. UAE law applies to a foreigner’s will about property there. Without a will, UAE rules point in different directions for an owner who lives abroad: one to the law of your nationality, another to the law in force in Dubai for property in the emirate. The UAE’s law for non-Muslim foreigners living in the UAE gives half of the estate to the spouse and half to the children in equal shares, unless the person relies on the law of their own country. No official text we found settles which applies. If one of the heirs asks, a Dutch court can leave the Dubai apartment out of its decision when that decision is not expected to be recognised in the UAE.
• What to do. Make a will in Dubai and one in the Netherlands that fit together.

A will registered in Dubai settles it on the Dubai side. If you are not and have never been Muslim, the courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) register wills for people with assets in the UAE, including people who do not live there. You can attend the appointment online. A will covering up to five properties costs AED 7,500. Dubai Courts keep a register of non-Muslim wills too. Have your Dutch notary and your Dubai lawyer make sure the two wills do not contradict each other.

Moving to Dubai does not end Dutch tax at once

Where you live is judged on all the facts. Dutch law decides where you live by the circumstances, and the courts look for a lasting personal bond with the Netherlands. If your family stays in the Netherlands while you go ahead, the Belastingdienst usually still treats you as living there. That can change if a strong personal bond with the new country arises, for example because you have bought or rented a home there ahead of your family. Deregistering from the population register (BRP) is one of those facts, not the test. And if you come back within a year without having lived in another country in between, you count as having lived in the Netherlands the whole time. For the year you leave, you file the M form (M-formulier).

The treaty does not decide it for you. It counts an individual as resident in the UAE only if they are a UAE national. A Dutch national living in Dubai cannot rely on it to settle where they are resident for tax — and once you live in Dubai, the treaty does not apply to you at all, so it limits none of the Dutch taxes that continue.

Once you no longer live in the Netherlands:

• Box 3. For non-residents, Dutch box 3 covers only property in the Netherlands, rights relating to it and profit-sharing rights in Dutch businesses. The Dubai apartment leaves Dutch box 3. A property in the Netherlands stays in Dutch box 3.
• Pension and shares. If you have built up a Dutch pension or annuity or an own-home savings product, or hold a substantial shareholding (aanmerkelijk belang) in a Dutch company, you can receive a protective assessment (conserverende aanslag) when you leave. It is usually valid for ten years, and for a substantial shareholding indefinitely. Box 3 wealth, the Dubai apartment included, does not bring one.
• Inheritance and gifts. If you are a Dutch national, Dutch inheritance and gift tax continue for ten years after you leave. Gift tax continues for one year whatever your nationality.
• Your estate. Under EU rules, the law that governs your estate follows where you live when you die. Without a choice of law in your will, a move can change it, and in Dubai the UAE’s law for non-Muslim foreigners can apply to you.

If you are planning a move, talk to your adviser before you go.

Buying without flying in

Off-plan. The developer registers your purchase with the Land Department through its developer portal, Oqood. For a non-resident buyer, the Land Department lists a copy of the sale and purchase contract and a copy of a valid passport, and the sale must be registered within 90 days of signing. The Land Department’s description does not ask you to be there in person. Whether you can sign the contract remotely is the developer’s practice, not a published rule — ask before you reserve, and ask the developer for proof of the registration.

A finished property is transferred at a registration trustee office licensed by the Land Department, between the parties “or their legally authorized representatives”. If you are not there, someone signs for you on a power of attorney.

A Dutch power of attorney goes through five steps before you can use it in Dubai. The UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, so an apostille from a Dutch court does not work for the UAE. Instead the document is legalised: each authority confirms the signature of the one before it.

Since July 2025, Dubai also checks the paper, the wording and the age. The Land Department’s Circular No. 29/R/2025 is known from Dubai law firms’ summaries. One of them reports that the Land Department wants to see the original paper document, not an uncertified electronic or scanned copy, and accepts a power of attorney issued abroad only if it names the transaction explicitly — for a purchase, wording such as “purchase for oneself with explicit specification of the ownership share”. General wording such as “full authority to manage property” is not enough. The embassy in The Hague says digitally attested documents are “legally recognized within the UAE”. Whether the Land Department accepts the digital attestation together with the original is not settled. Before you apply, ask the developer or the trustee office whether they accept it.

How old it may be is less settled. The law firms read the circular as two years for any transaction. The Land Department’s own FAQ gives two years for selling, mortgaging or gifting a property and five years from the date of notarisation for buying one. Assume two years: sign it close to when it will be used, not when you reserve, and have the wording checked in Dubai before you sign it in the Netherlands.

If you later sell on a power of attorney, the same law-firm summaries say the circular also controls the money. The sale price is paid by manager’s cheque — a cheque issued by the bank itself, like a bank draft — in your name as the owner on the title deed. A cheque to your representative is possible only on conditions, for example a receipt stating that it was received on your behalf. One firm reports that cheques may again be made out to the representative if both the sale contract and the power of attorney expressly say so. So have both say who may receive the money. See Proving where your money came from.

The currency: your price is in dirhams, your money in euros

The dirham is pegged to the US dollar at 3.6725 (Central Bank of the UAE). The rate that moves your price is the euro against the dollar.

Since January 2015, the month-end rate has ranged from 3.599 dirhams to the euro (September 2022) to 4.557 (January 2018). For a property priced at AED 1.5 million, that is the difference between €416,782 and €329,164 — €87,618 for the same apartment.

An off-plan payment plan runs for years. Over every 36-month stretch since 2015, the highest month-end rate was at least 12% above the lowest — typically about 18%, and up to 25%. In the last three years alone, the same AED 1.5 million cost €394,529 in December 2024 and €344,748 in January 2026, almost €50,000 apart.

You can fix a rate in advance with a forward contract through your bank; it binds you to the amount and the date. Off-plan instalments tied to construction stages can move in time, so ask how a forward handles a changed date. Or you convert each instalment when it falls due and accept the swing. Either way, plan your instalments in euros with room for that swing, not at today’s rate.

Questions for your tax adviser and notary

• How do I declare the Dubai apartment in box 3 and claim the deduction to prevent double taxation — and which value and which exchange rate do I use?
• Does the treaty relief apply while the apartment is still being built, to my purchase contract?
• I have savings and investments in the Netherlands too. What does the apartment do to the tax on them?
• I am borrowing against my Dutch home to pay for the apartment. How does that loan count?
• If I let it as a holiday home through an operator, does the rent stay in box 3?
• If I sell my purchase contract before handover, is that still box 3 — or income in box 1?
• Would the counter-evidence scheme lower my box 3 tax in any year?
• We are fiscal partners. How should we split the box 3 base, and does the relief follow the split?
• Does the apartment affect my benefits (toeslagen)?
• What would Dutch inheritance and gift tax mean for my children, and should my will choose the law of my nationality? How should my Dutch will and a Dubai will fit together?
• If I move to Dubai: when do I stop living in the Netherlands for tax, and what stays taxable after I leave?
• If box 3 changes in 2028, what changes for the apartment?

Questions and answers

Related guides

• Proving where your money came from
• What can go wrong when you buy off-plan in Dubai
• What a guaranteed return is actually worth