Buying Property in Dubai as a Non-Resident

You do not need UAE residency to buy property in Dubai. Non-residents can buy freehold in the designated freehold areas, which is where all six of our developments sit, and the process is the same one a resident goes through: reservation, sale and purchase agreement, registration, payments, handover.

Two things people conflate are worth separating at the start. Buying property does not by itself make you a resident. Property worth AED 2 million or more can support a Golden Visa application, on terms the Land Department and the immigration authorities set and update — that is a separate application with its own criteria, not something that arrives with the title deed.

What You Need

A passport, and funds you can evidence. There is no requirement to hold a UAE visa, and no minimum purchase to buy — only to qualify for the visa route. You can complete a purchase from outside the country; powers of attorney and remote signing are routine here, and the developer's sales team will tell you which steps, if any, need you in person.

What you should insist on remotely is the same paperwork a buyer standing in the room would get: the dimensioned floor plan for your exact unit type, the written specification, the escrow account details, and confirmation the purchase will be registered with the Dubai Land Department through Oqood.

What It Costs Beyond the Price

The Dubai Land Department transfer fee is 4% of the purchase price, paid once at transfer. There is no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on residential property in Dubai. Beyond that sit smaller charges that vary — the trustee office fee, Oqood registration on an off-plan purchase, agency commission where an agent is involved. Ask for each as a dirham amount rather than a percentage of something unspecified.

Then the recurring one: an annual service charge, levied per square foot of your unit, which funds the pool, the lifts, the lobby, the cooling infrastructure and the reserve fund. It is set building by building, so ask for the current rate for the specific project.

Buying Off-Plan from Abroad

Most of what is being sold in Dubai today is off-plan, which means paying for a home before it exists. Two mechanisms protect the money: payments go into a RERA-regulated project escrow account and are released against verified construction progress, and Oqood puts your interest on the Dubai Land Department register before the project is complete.

Neither makes a handover date binding, and buying remotely removes the one check a local buyer has — walking into something the developer has already finished. If you cannot visit, make someone else do it: send a friend, or pay an inspector, and ask for the completed projects by name with the quarter each was promised for and the month keys were actually handed over.

The Part That Applies to Us

Six developments are launched, 1,087 homes between them. One is delivered: Floareá Residence in Arjan, 206 homes, handed over and occupied. The other five are under construction and every image of them on this site is a computer render. If you are buying from abroad, that is the number to weigh — one completed project — and it is on the delivery ledger with the count reconciled so you can weigh it without taking our word for it.