Before you buy · The steps

How to buy property in Dubai from abroad, step by step

Buying property in Dubai from abroad takes a handful of steps, and most of them can be done without flying in. Here they are in order, for a finished property and for one bought off-plan: who does what, what you sign, what you pay and when, and what to check before any money moves.

Oston Property Investment · Last reviewed 8 October 2026

We are a Dubai brokerage (RERA ORN 62268), and we earn our commission by taking buyers through these steps. So each step says what the law or the Dubai Land Department requires, and where something is only common practice, we say so and name who describes it. We read every source on 8 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.

The short version

You can buy with a passport. Foreigners may own property outright in the freehold areas that Dubai’s Ruler has designated, and the Dubai Land Department (DLD) accepts a valid passport from a buyer who does not live in the UAE. You need no residence permit to buy.
A finished property changes hands at a trustee office. You check it, sign the DLD’s standard sale contract, Form F, and pay a deposit, often around 10% of the price. The seller gets the developer’s no-objection certificate. The sale is then registered at a registration trustee office, where the DLD’s 4% fee is paid and you receive an electronic title deed. The DLD gives the transfer itself 25 minutes; the brokerage Betterhomes puts the whole purchase at 30 to 60 days.
Off-plan, the developer registers your purchase. You reserve a unit and sign the developer’s sale and purchase agreement (SPA); the developer must register it with the DLD within 90 days, and the 4% is paid through it. Every instalment of the price goes into the project’s escrow account, and the title deed comes after completion, once you have paid what your contract requires.
On top of the price: about 4.2% for cash, more with a broker. The DLD’s 4% is shared equally between seller and buyer unless the contract says otherwise, and buyers often pay all of it: budget for the whole 4%. On a finished flat at AED 2 million bought for cash, the DLD’s fees and the trustee’s fee come to AED 84,780 if the contract puts them on you, or AED 126,780 with a broker at 2% plus VAT.
From abroad, the transfer of a finished property is the step that needs someone there. An off-plan purchase can be made without a visit if the developer allows it. A finished property is transferred with the seller and the buyer there or represented: if you cannot go, someone signs for you on a power of attorney, which must be attested for the UAE and translated into Arabic.
Start the slow things before you make an offer. A UAE bank account and a power of attorney each take weeks, and Form F, which sets the deposit and the transfer date, follows within days of an agreed price. Your broker and the banks must ask where your money comes from, and a finished property is paid for at the trustee office, usually by manager’s cheques from a UAE bank.
Pay nothing until the checks pass: the broker on the DLD’s list, the advert’s permit, the title deed with its owner’s name, and, off-plan, the project and its escrow account in the DLD’s records. The DLD’s pages for these checks list no fee, and they work from abroad.

Before you start

What you can own. Dubai’s property registration law lets foreigners own property outright, with no time limit, only in the areas the Ruler has designated, the freehold areas, and hold usufruct or leasehold rights there for up to 99 years. You do not need to live in the UAE: for an off-plan purchase and for the sale of a finished property, the DLD accepts a valid passport from a buyer who does not. To buy through a company instead, it must be one the DLD registers as an owner, such as a company registered in a Dubai free zone: see In your own name or through a company.

Buying together. Two or more people can be registered as owners: Betterhomes writes that a property “can be registered in joint names, with ownership shares recorded on the title deed”. Each of you signs, or gives a power of attorney that names your share, and each of you goes through the source-of-funds checks. Whose names are on the deed matters for a Golden Visa and for who inherits: see If you buy together with your spouse and DIFC will.

What it costs on top of the price. The largest cost is the DLD’s 4% registration fee. The law splits it equally between seller and buyer unless the contract says otherwise, and buyers often pay all of it: budget for the whole 4% until you have read your contract. On a finished flat at AED 2 million bought for cash, the DLD’s fees and the registration trustee’s fee come to AED 84,780 if the contract puts them on you, and AED 126,780 with a broker at 2% plus VAT. Off-plan, the 4% is paid through the developer, as your SPA divides it, and AED 540 when the title deed is issued. Plan to pay the fees in cash: the Central Bank no longer lets banks include the DLD’s fee or the broker’s fee in a mortgage, The National reported in January 2025. Every fee, who pays it, and the costs of owning: What buying property in Dubai costs on top of the price.

Whether you will borrow. If so, ask a bank for an approval in principle, its written statement of how much it would lend you, before you make an offer. The UAE Central Bank caps a loan on property bought off-plan at 50% of its value. For an expatriate, it caps a loan at 80% on a first home you will live in that costs less than AED 5 million, 70% above that, and 60% on a second home or an investment property: if you will let it, ask the bank which cap it applies. Banks lend less to buyers who live abroad: HSBC up to 60% of the property’s value, and Mashreq 50%, 60% or 65%, depending on which of its pages you read. Each lends on its own valuation, and a UAE mortgage needs a UAE bank account. What a loan adds in fees: What a mortgage adds; the banks’ figures in detail: Mortgage.

Where your money comes from, and how it gets here. Real estate brokers fall under the UAE’s anti-money-laundering rules, so your broker must check who you are and where your money comes from, and the bank that receives it will ask again. What they ask for: Proving where your money came from. Your price is in dirhams: if your money is in euros or pounds, the exchange rate and your provider’s margin are costs too, and on AED 2 million each percentage point of margin is AED 20,000 (see The cost nobody quotes you). Off-plan, you can usually pay into the project’s escrow account, a bank account in the project’s name that by law may be used only to build it, from your bank at home. A finished property is paid for at the registration trustee office, an office that registers sales for the DLD, usually by manager’s cheque, a cheque a UAE bank issues on its own funds: you need a UAE account, or an intermediary licensed in the UAE that issues the cheques from money you send it.

A licensed broker. A buyer’s contract with a broker is the DLD’s Form B: have the commission written into it. No law sets the rate: in the DLD’s words, the commission “is determined according to the agreement”, and Property Finder calls 2% of the price, plus VAT, typical on a resale. We charge 2% plus VAT on a resale; if you buy off-plan, the developer pays us. Whoever you deal with, ask them to confirm in writing what you will pay. Look them up first on the DLD’s list of licensed brokers, by name, office or office registration number (ORN), and check that the advert shows its permit number and the DLD’s QR code, which lets you check that RERA approved it. How: Fake listings, and brokers who are not brokers.

You do not need a lawyer. The sale is recorded on the DLD’s standard contracts and registered by the trustee office, and the DLD’s sale registration asks for no lawyer; Betterhomes speaks of “no lawyer-led closings”. Some buyers from abroad pay a Dubai lawyer to read Form F or the SPA, or to word a power of attorney: ask for the fee in writing.

What to start before you make an offer. Form F follows within days of an agreed price, and it sets the deposit and the transfer date. So, from abroad, start three things first:

A UAE bank account, which takes weeks, or an intermediary licensed in the UAE: the deposit is often a cheque, and the price is paid by manager’s cheque.
If you borrow, a bank’s approval in principle.
If you will not be at the transfer, a power of attorney: have its wording checked in Dubai, and find out how long your country’s certifications take. In the UK, the Foreign Office’s paper apostille alone usually takes up to 25 working days, plus postage: see Buying without flying in.

Then agree a transfer date in Form F that leaves time for all three, and send the money at least two weeks before it: see How long to allow.

A finished property, step by step

See it. In person, on a live video call with the broker, or through an inspection company you hire. A viewing tells you about the property’s condition, not about who owns it: the checks in the next step do that.
Check the property and the seller. Ask for the title deed’s number and year, and run the DLD’s Verify Title Deed with the owner’s name as it appears on the seller’s passport. Then run its Property Status Enquiry for the same property, which shows blocks, restraints from registered cases and active rental disputes. Ask whether the seller still has a mortgage on it: if so, the bank states what is still owed in a liability letter, which you should see before you sign. Ask whether the property is let (see If the property is let) and whether its service charges are paid: by law a unit may not be sold until they are. If you plan to let it to holidaymakers, ask whether the building allows it: every holiday home needs a permit from Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) before it is listed. The deed check, click by click: How to verify a title deed.
Agree the price and sign Form F. Form F, which brokers call the MOU (memorandum of understanding), is the DLD’s standard contract between seller and buyer, and brokers must record a sale on the DLD’s electronic contracts: ask yours how you will sign it from abroad. Betterhomes says it is normally signed within two to five days of agreeing the price. It should set the price, the deposit and the transfer date, and say who holds the deposit, when it is released and what happens to it if either side does not complete. Agree in it who pays the DLD’s 4% and the trustee’s fee. If you borrow, it should say what happens if the bank lends less than you need: Engel & Völkers, a Dubai brokerage, warns that leaving the financing out “may cause deal cancellation or delay if financing falls through unexpectedly”.
Pay the deposit, only as Form F says. Betterhomes puts it at 10% of the price in most deals; Engel & Völkers describes a cheque, or another agreed method, held by the broker until the transfer. The deposit cheque we hold is made out to the seller. Never pay a deposit into a broker’s own account, and never before you have signed Form F. If you pull out without a valid reason after signing, Betterhomes writes, the deposit “is usually lost”.
If you borrow: the valuation and the final offer. The bank values the property and lends on its own valuation, not on your price: if it values the property below your price, the loan shrinks with it, and you pay the difference in cash. Betterhomes puts the valuation at five to seven working days and the whole mortgage process at two to six weeks; the final offer must be in place before the transfer. The DLD charges 0.25% of the loan plus AED 290 to register the bank’s mortgage, and the trustee charges AED 4,000 plus VAT for it; the DLD’s page for buying a property its seller has mortgaged waives that fee if your mortgage is registered on the day of the sale, so ask the trustee office.
The seller’s paperwork. For a property in a freehold area, the DLD asks for the developer’s electronic no-objection certificate (NOC), requested through the DLD’s Dubai REST app; a DLD guide for investors says it is there “to ensure that the seller has paid all the service charges”. It is one of the seller’s costs. Betterhomes says it is ready in about a week if the seller is up to date with the developer. If the seller still owes a bank, the bank’s release letter, confirming that the loan is repaid, completes the sale (next step).
The transfer at a registration trustee office. The sale is registered at one of the registration trustee offices that work for the DLD, with the seller and the buyer there or represented. You identify yourself with a valid passport. The DLD’s fees are paid there, by manager’s cheque or electronically, and so is the trustee’s fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT (AED 2,000 plus VAT below AED 500,000), by whoever Form F names. The price changes hands, usually as manager’s cheques. If the seller still owes a bank, there are three: one to the bank for what its liability letter says is owed, one to the seller for the rest and one to the DLD for its 4%. The DLD gives the service 25 minutes and then issues the title deed in your name, electronically, with the property’s map. If the seller had a mortgage, the DLD completes the sale, and issues your deed, once the seller’s bank has sent its release letter: Betterhomes allows one to two weeks to settle the seller’s loan. The broker is paid once the sale is registered, unless your contract with the broker says otherwise.
After the transfer. Open the DEWA account for electricity and water, unless a tenant holds it: a deposit of AED 2,000 for a flat or AED 4,000 for a villa, which an owner gets back only when the property is sold, and AED 125 to connect plus AED 30 in fees. From now on you pay the building’s service charge every year. If you let the property, the lease is registered in Ejari, the DLD’s register of leases, and a holiday let needs DET’s permit first. Your home country may tax the rent, the property or the gain: see the guides for buyers from Germany, from the UK, from Ireland, from the Netherlands and as a US citizen. Make a will that covers the property: see DIFC will. And if you bought it for AED 2 million or more, in your name alone, it can qualify you for a Golden Visa; with a mortgage or a shared deed, the official pages differ: see Getting a Golden Visa through Dubai property.

If the property is let

The lease comes with it. Dubai’s tenancy law says a sale “does not affect the Tenant’s right to continue to occupy” the property under a lease made with the previous owner, if the lease has a fixed term. You buy it with the tenant in it, until the lease ends.

Moving in yourself takes a year’s notice. When the lease ends, you can ask the tenant to leave only on the grounds the law lists. Two matter to a buyer: you want to live there yourself, or have a first-degree relative live there, and you own no other suitable property; or you want to sell. You must give notice at least twelve months before the date the tenant is to leave, through a notary public or by registered post.

Agree the rest in writing in Form F: how the rent the tenant has already paid, and the tenant’s security deposit, pass to you. Ask for the lease and its Ejari registration before you sign.

Off-plan, step by step

Check the developer, the project and its escrow account. Look the project up in the DLD’s Project Status Enquiry: it shows the developer, the completion percentage and the status, which should not be “under cancellation”. Under Escrow Account it shows the bank and the account number into which every payment of the price must go. A developer may not advertise an off-plan project without the DLD’s written authorisation, and the DLD says a new project may be launched only “After completing all registration procedures and obtaining the accreditation certificate”. How: Off-plan: unregistered projects, and money outside escrow.
Read the SPA and the booking terms before you pay anything. The sale and purchase agreement is the developer’s standard form, filed with the DLD, so you can ask for it before you reserve. It, not the law, sets most of what matters to you: the payment plan, the expected completion date and its grace period, compensation if the building is late, whether and when you may resell, and who pays the 4%. A developer may charge you only administrative fees the DLD has approved: ask for every fee in writing. Ask too what happens to the booking payment if you do not sign the SPA, and whether you can sign without flying in: both are the developer’s practice, not a published rule. The questions to ask: Before you sign: twelve checks.
Reserve the unit and sign the SPA. In a registered project, your booking payment is part of the price and goes into the project’s escrow account. Pay it into that account and no other: by law, a broker who markets a developer’s project must deposit the price into the escrow account and may not put it into their own. A payment before the launch, often called an expression of interest, may have no escrow account to go into: get the refund terms in writing before you pay it.
The developer registers your purchase within 90 days. It enters the sale in the DLD’s interim register, its register of off-plan sales, through the DLD’s Oqood portal, and the DLD’s 4% is paid through the developer, plus AED 20 or AED 40 in small fees; your SPA says who pays the 4%. From a buyer who does not live in the UAE, the DLD asks for a copy of the SPA and of a valid passport. It then emails you a provisional registration certificate, which brokers and developers often call “the Oqood”: give the developer your own email address. An off-plan sale that is not registered is void, so if 90 days pass without the certificate, ask the developer; if it still does not register the sale, you can apply to the DLD’s Real Estate Registration Assurance section to register it. Buying for the Golden Visa: If you buy off-plan for the visa.
Pay the instalments, only into the escrow account. Before every payment, compare the account in your SPA with the one the DLD shows for the project in Dubai REST. For an instalment tied to a construction stage, the DLD says you may first ask for a letter from the project’s consultant. If you miss an instalment, the developer cannot simply cancel: the DLD gives you 30 days’ notice and tries to mediate, and what the developer may then do depends on how complete the building is. See What happens if you miss a payment date.
Completion, snagging and handover. When the building is finished, the authority that issues building permits gives it a completion certificate, and the payment your plan ties to completion falls due. Before or at handover, inspect the unit and give the developer a list of the faults to fix (snagging). Faults found later fall under its defects liability: one year from handover for installations such as electrical and sanitary works, and ten years from the completion certificate for the structure. The costs of owning do not wait for the title deed: the service charge runs from completion or handover, as your SPA says (see The costs that are not in the price). The title deed follows once you have met every obligation in your contract, for AED 540 in DLD fees: on a plan with instalments after handover, normally after the last one. How to plan the payment due on completion: The completion payment.

Buying without flying in

Off-plan. For the registration, the DLD asks a buyer who does not live in the UAE for copies of the SPA and a passport, and its description does not ask you to be there. Whether you can sign the SPA remotely is up to the developer.

A finished property is transferred at a registration trustee office, with the seller and the buyer there or represented. The DLD’s online route for buying or selling, through the Dubai Now app, is only for holders of a UAE identity card. In May 2020 the DLD announced a remote registration, in which buyer and seller are identified on a video call; we found no current DLD page for it, so ask the trustee office whether it is open to you before you sign a power of attorney. Otherwise, if you are not there, someone signs for you on a power of attorney.

A power of attorney signed abroad goes through a chain before Dubai accepts it. It is notarised in your country and certified as your country requires, attested by the UAE embassy there and by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and translated into Arabic by a translator on the UAE Ministry of Justice’s list. The UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, so an apostille alone is not enough.

Since July 2025, the DLD also checks the wording and the paper. Its Circular No. 29/R/2025 is known from Dubai law firms’ summaries. One reports that the DLD wants the original paper document and accepts a power of attorney issued abroad only if it names the transaction, such as a purchase, rather than giving general powers. How old it may be is not settled: the DLD’s own FAQ gives five years from notarisation for a purchase, and the law firms read the circular as two years for any transaction. Assume two years, sign it close to when it will be used, and have the wording checked in Dubai before you sign it at home. Each country’s steps, fees and timings are in the guides for buyers from Germany, from the UK, from Ireland, from the Netherlands and as a US citizen.

Other moments that may need you, or someone for you, in Dubai: an off-plan unit’s handover and its inspection (ask the developer whether a representative can sign for you); opening a bank account, if your bank asks you to visit a branch; and a Golden Visa application, which the DLD asks you to make in the UAE, in person.

How long it takes

A finished property: Betterhomes puts the whole purchase at 30 to 60 days, from the day you start looking to the title deed in your name. A bank’s approval in principle takes one to five working days for an employee, it says, and one to two weeks if you are self-employed. Form F is signed within two to five days of agreeing the price, and the developer’s NOC is ready in about a week if the seller is up to date with the developer. Paying off a seller’s loan adds one to two weeks, and a mortgage takes two to six weeks. The transfer itself is one appointment: the DLD gives it 25 minutes.

What adds time from abroad: a UAE bank account, which takes weeks rather than days; the money, which should leave at least two weeks before the transfer date, three if anything about it is unusual; and a power of attorney, whose certifications at home and in the UAE each take their own time. Start all three before you make an offer: the transfer date is agreed in Form F, within days of the price.

Off-plan: the developer must register your purchase within 90 days of signing. After that, the timetable is the building’s: the completion date in your SPA and its grace period. If it is late: When the building is late.

Before you pay: ten checks

The broker and the brokerage on the DLD’s list, and the advert’s QR code.
Finished: the title deed, verified with the owner’s name; the Property Status Enquiry; the service charges, paid up.
Finished: the owner’s name on the deed matches the seller’s passport.
Finished: if there is a mortgage, the bank’s liability letter; if the property is let, the lease and its Ejari registration.
Form F: the transfer date, with time for your account, your money and any power of attorney; the deposit, who holds it, when it is released and what happens to it if either side does not complete or the bank lends less; who pays the 4% and the trustee’s fee.
Off-plan: the project in the Project Status Enquiry, not under cancellation, and its escrow account matching your booking form and SPA.
Off-plan: the SPA’s completion date, grace period, delay compensation and resale terms; what happens to the booking payment if you do not sign; every fee in writing.
Off-plan: your provisional registration certificate from the DLD, within 90 days of signing.
The money: a UAE account or an intermediary for the manager’s cheques, your source-of-funds papers, and the transfer started at least two weeks ahead.
From abroad: the power of attorney’s wording checked in Dubai before you sign it, or the trustee office’s answer on remote registration.

Questions and answers

Can foreigners buy property in Dubai?

Yes. Foreigners may own property outright in the freehold areas that Dubai’s Ruler has designated, and hold usufruct or leasehold rights there for up to 99 years. You do not need to live in the UAE: the Dubai Land Department accepts a valid passport from a buyer who does not. A company owned by foreigners can own property only if it is one the Land Department registers as an owner, such as a company registered in a Dubai free zone.

What are the steps to buy a finished property in Dubai?

Check the title deed online with the Dubai Land Department, in the owner’s name as it appears on the seller’s passport. Agree the price, sign Form F, the Land Department’s standard sale contract, and pay a deposit, often around 10% of the price. If you borrow, the bank’s valuation and final offer must be in place before the transfer. The seller obtains the developer’s electronic no-objection certificate. The sale is then registered at a registration trustee office: the Land Department’s 4% fee and the trustee’s fee are paid there, by whoever Form F names, and you receive an electronic title deed. If the seller had a mortgage, the deed follows once the seller’s bank confirms the loan is repaid.

What are the steps to buy off-plan property in Dubai?

Check the project and its escrow account in the Land Department’s Project Status Enquiry. Read the developer’s sale and purchase agreement (SPA) and the booking terms. Then reserve a unit, paying the booking amount into the escrow account, and sign the SPA. Within 90 days the developer registers the sale in the interim register, the Land Department’s register of off-plan sales, and the 4% fee is paid through it; your contract says who pays it. You pay the instalments into the escrow account. After completion and handover, the title deed is issued once you have met your obligations under the contract.

Can I buy property in Dubai without travelling there?

Often, yes. For an off-plan purchase, the Land Department asks a buyer who lives abroad for copies of the contract and a passport, not for a visit; whether you can sign remotely depends on the developer. A finished property is transferred at a registration trustee office with the seller and the buyer there or represented, so if you cannot go, someone signs for you on a power of attorney: notarised and certified in your country, attested by the UAE embassy and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and translated into Arabic. The Land Department’s online sale service is only for holders of a UAE identity card. It announced a remote registration by video call in 2020; ask the trustee office whether it is open to you.

How long does it take to buy property in Dubai?

The brokerage Betterhomes puts the purchase of a finished property at 30 to 60 days, from starting your search to the title deed in your name; a mortgage takes two to six weeks of that. The transfer itself is one appointment, of 25 minutes by the Land Department’s count. Off-plan, the developer must register your purchase within 90 days of signing; the rest depends on the building’s completion date.

How much is the deposit when you buy property in Dubai?

For a finished property, the deposit is set in Form F, the Land Department’s standard sale contract. Betterhomes puts it at 10% of the price in most deals, and Engel & Völkers describes a cheque, or another agreed method, held by the broker until the transfer; never pay it into a broker’s own account. Form F should say who holds it, when it is released and what happens to it if either side does not complete; a buyer who pulls out without a valid reason usually loses it, Betterhomes writes. Off-plan, the booking payment is set by the payment plan and goes into the project’s escrow account.

Do I need a UAE bank account to buy property in Dubai?

For an off-plan purchase, usually not: you can pay into the project’s escrow account from abroad. For a finished property, in practice yes, because the price is usually paid at the transfer by manager’s cheques, which a UAE bank issues, unless an intermediary licensed in the UAE issues them for you. With a UAE mortgage, always. Opening an account as a non-resident takes weeks.

Can a non-resident get a mortgage in Dubai?

Yes, from banks that lend to buyers who live abroad, usually less than to residents. The UAE Central Bank caps loans on off-plan property at 50% of its value. For expatriates, it caps them at 80% on a first home under AED 5 million that they live in, and at 60% on a second home or an investment property. HSBC lends non-residents up to 60% of a property’s value, and Mashreq’s pages say 50% to 65%, each on its own valuation. You will need a UAE bank account, and cash for the fees: banks may no longer include them in the loan.

What happens if the property I buy in Dubai is rented out?

The lease continues: Dubai’s tenancy law says a sale does not affect the tenant’s right to stay under a fixed-term lease made with the previous owner. When it ends, you can ask the tenant to leave only on the grounds the law lists, such as wanting the property for yourself or a first-degree relative when you own no other suitable property, or selling it, with notice at least twelve months before the date the tenant is to leave, through a notary public or by registered post.

Does buying property in Dubai give me residence?

Not automatically. A finished property bought for AED 2 million or more, without a mortgage and in your name alone, meets the property condition of the UAE’s ten-year Golden Visa on every official page; off-plan, mortgaged or shared property can count, but the official pages differ. GDRFA Dubai, the authority that issues the permit, ties the property to the visa with a lien, and the Land Department asks you to apply in the UAE, in person. Below AED 2 million, the sole owner of a finished home can apply for a two-year property investor visa. Get the conditions in writing before you buy for a visa.

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