General guidance on the Dubai market, not legal, tax or financial advice. Fees and regulations change. Ask one of our consultants to confirm the current position before you commit to anything.
This is the part that brings most overseas investors to Dubai, and it holds up to scrutiny better than most tax-advantage stories.
VAT is where precision matters, and the Federal Tax Authority’s Real Estate VAT Guide sets it out:
| Transaction | VAT treatment |
|---|---|
| First supply of a new residential building, within 3 years of completion | Zero-rated |
| Any subsequent sale or lease of residential property | Exempt |
| Sale or lease of commercial property | Standard-rated at 5% |
| Supply of bare land | Exempt |
| Brokerage and property management services | Standard-rated at 5% |
Source: Federal Tax Authority Real Estate VAT Guide. Residential letting and resale are outside VAT; the services you buy around them are not.
Two caveats worth taking seriously. UAE corporate tax can apply where property is held through a company rather than personally, and the treatment differs. And your own country of tax residence may tax your UAE income and gains regardless of what the UAE does. Take advice in your home jurisdiction. We are not tax advisers and this page is not tax advice.
Property ownership is a recognised route to UAE residency, and the terms are specific rather than vague.
An investor owning property with a purchase value of AED 2 million or more can apply for a 10-year renewable Golden Visa. The detail that matters:
Application fees are published and modest relative to the investment, in the region of AED 10,000 all-in including the medical, the Emirates ID, the residency confirmation and the Dubai Land Department component. The application is made through the Dubai Land Department, and we can introduce you to the right desk.
Residency does not make you UAE tax resident automatically, and it does not sever tax residence elsewhere. Those are separate questions with separate tests.
Every listing quotes a gross yield: annual rent divided by purchase price. It is the least useful number in the transaction, because none of the costs have come off it yet.
To get to a net figure, deduct all of the following from the rent:
We will not quote you a market-wide yield figure on this page. Yields vary materially by community, building, unit type and the month you ask, and a number pulled from a dated report is worse than no number. Ask us for a net calculation on a specific property and we will show you the workings.
Service charges deserve particular attention because they are the cost investors most often discover after purchase. The Dubai Land Department publishes a service charge index, and the figure is per square foot per year. A large apartment in a high-charge tower can lose several percentage points of yield to it. Always ask for the last two years of actual charges, not the developer’s original estimate.
One right worth knowing: where the building is jointly owned, Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 requires the management entity to obtain RERA’s approval before charging owners, and RERA will not approve a budget that has not been audited by a firm it recognises. Collections must sit in a dedicated account at a Dubai-licensed bank. The Dubai Land Department administers this through its Mollak system, so there should be an approved, audited budget behind the figure you are asked to pay.
Three questions decide most of the outcome, and none of them is about the finish of the kitchen.
Who is the tenant? A studio in a tower near a metro station and a four-bedroom villa in a family community are different businesses with different void risks, tenant profiles and management burdens. Decide which business you are in before you decide which unit to buy.
What is the supply pipeline in that area? Rent is set by what else a tenant can choose. If three comparable towers hand over within a year of yours, your rent will reflect that. We track the registered off-plan pipeline by community and refresh it daily, so this is a question we can answer specifically rather than in general terms.
Ready or off-plan? Completed property gives you rent from the first month and no delivery risk. Off-plan gives you a staged payment plan and launch pricing, and asks you to carry construction and market risk in between. Our off-plan guide covers the checks that separate a sound off-plan purchase from a hopeful one.
Our community guides set out what each district actually is, who lives there, and what the pipeline looks like.
UAE banks lend to non-resident buyers, on more conservative terms than to residents. Several lenders have specific non-resident products, usually with a shorter maximum term, a higher rate, and a longer approval process because of the additional documentation.
The Central Bank of the UAE sets the ceilings rather than the individual bank. The structure is what to plan around:
Published loan-to-value figures for expatriate buyers differ between sources and move with Central Bank policy. Do not plan off a percentage you read online. Get written pre-approval before you commit to anything.
None of these is a reason not to invest here. They are the things to price in rather than discover.
Not in the UAE for an individual: there is no personal income tax, no capital gains tax and no annual property tax. A resale or lease of residential property is also exempt from VAT. Where property is held through a company, UAE corporate tax may apply, and your own country of tax residence may tax the income regardless. Take advice in your home jurisdiction.
A purchase value of AED 2 million or more, which can be met across more than one property. The property must be fully owned and registered in your name, and it can be mortgaged provided the finance is from an approved local bank. The visa runs for 10 years and is renewable, and you can sponsor your spouse, children and parents.
It depends heavily on the community, the building and the unit type, and we will not publish a single figure here because any number general enough to print is too general to use. Ask us for a net yield calculation on a specific property, with the service charge, management, voids and commission all deducted, and we will show you how we got there.
Yes, several UAE banks have non-resident products, though with lower loan-to-value caps, shorter terms and more documentation than for residents. The Central Bank sets the ceilings. Get a written pre-approval before making an offer, and remember the transaction fees cannot be financed.
They are the annual charge for maintaining the building and the common areas, set per square foot by the master developer and payable whether your unit is let or empty. They are the most underestimated cost in Dubai investment and the largest single difference between the gross yield in a listing and the net return you keep. Always ask for two years of actual charges rather than an estimate.
Give us a budget and a target return. We will come back with specific properties and a net yield calculation you can interrogate, including the costs most listings leave out.