Real Estate & Property Investment

Why this sits inside a business setup group

Property and company formation are one conversation in the UAE, and pretending otherwise costs clients money. The residency that follows a licence and the residency that follows a title deed are alternatives to weigh, not products to sell twice. A brokerage is a regulated company before it is a sales floor. And the most common expensive mistake we see, a founder buying an apartment for a visa obtainable more cheaply another way, only gets caught if one desk looks at both. So this page covers buying as an investor, licensing a brokerage, and the compliance attaching to both, focused on Dubai with other emirates where they differ materially. How the group is arranged, and where a property engagement sits inside it, is set out in who we are.

For scale: Dubai recorded more than 270,000 transactions worth AED 917 billion in 2025, a fifth consecutive record year and roughly 20% up on 2024, across an investor base of about 193,100, of whom 129,600 were new. A deep, liquid, well-documented market, and one where record volumes have historically preceded corrections. This page assumes you want both halves. Property is only one of the instruments a Dubai return can come from, and the others are sorted in exploring Dubai from an investment perspective.

What a foreigner can actually own

Dubai

Dubai Law No. 7 of 2006 is the governing statute, and its Article 4 is blunt: the right to own real property is restricted to UAE nationals, GCC nationals, companies wholly owned by them, and public joint stock companies. Everyone else owns by exception. In areas designated by the Ruler, non-nationals may be granted freehold without time restriction, or usufruct or leasehold not exceeding 99 years.

Those areas were first listed in Regulation No. 3 of 2006 and extended since: Dubai Marina, Downtown, Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, Jumeirah Village Circle, Business Bay, Dubai Hills Estate and several dozen more. Outside them a non-GCC buyer cannot take freehold at any price. Confirm the plot, not the marketing name of the community, because master developments sometimes straddle a boundary.

Two features of the law matter more than buyers realise. First, a transaction not recorded in the Property record is void: rights created, transferred, amended or extinguished are not valid until they are recorded in it. Side agreements, undocumented resales and cash arrangements outside the Dubai Land Department create nothing. Second, the record has absolute evidentiary value against all parties and cannot be challenged except for proven fraud or forgery. A strong title system, and the reason UAE conveyancing is fast.

Elsewhere in the UAE

Abu Dhabi opened freehold to foreign individuals and foreign-owned companies inside its designated investment areas through Law No. 13 of 2019, amending Law No. 19 of 2005; before that, foreigners held only a 99-year musataha or usufruct with ownership of the structure. Title records, developer approvals and broker permits run through the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, using DARI and Madhmoun, and the transfer fee is 2% rather than Dubai's 4%.

Ras Al Khaimah and Ajman offer freehold to foreigners in specified developments. Sharjah does not grant freehold to non-GCC nationals; the usual instrument is a long usufruct, commonly 100 years. Verify any northern-emirate freehold claim with that emirate's land department first.

The word freehold does identical marketing work in every emirate and means something different in each. It is worth settling the instrument before the price, because in one emirate the instrument a foreign buyer is offered is not ownership at all. Taken one instrument at a time, what a foreign buyer actually owns in Dubai covers the same ground more slowly.

Licensing a brokerage: the RERA route

Brokerage is a licensed activity, not a job you start with a phone. The framework is Bylaw No. 85 of 2006 regulating the Real Estate Brokers record, administered by RERA under the Dubai Land Department.

The company

A trade licence from the Department of Economy and Tourism carrying the brokerage activity, physical premises in Dubai with an Ejari tenancy, professional indemnity insurance, and RERA approval of the entity before the activity goes live. A free zone licence does not permit brokerage of Dubai mainland property, so the jurisdiction decision is made for you.

The legal form and the trade name are settled before either authority opens the file

Two decisions come before the trade licence, and both are awkward to undo once it has issued.

The first is the legal form. The Commercial Companies Law provides five: the partnership company, the limited partnership company, the limited liability company, and the private and public joint stock company, and the Ministry of Economy and Tourism confirms that full foreign ownership extends to all five. A sole establishment, which is the owner trading under a licence rather than a company, sits outside that list. The activity can still carry conditions of its own: the federal government's guidance is that the legal form must match the business activity, so confirm which forms the brokerage line accepts before paying for one. For a brokerage the deciding question is liability, not tax. The firm may hold a buyer's deposit, gives advice that clients act on, and answers for the conduct of every card-holder working through it. In a sole establishment the owner answers for all of that personally and without limit; in a limited liability company the company answers, and the partners' exposure stops at their shares. That is why we would not put a brokerage in a sole establishment, and why a joint stock company, with a board and a disclosure regime a small firm will not use, is rarely the answer either. How each form allocates liability is set out in choosing the legal form of your UAE company.

The second is the trade name, reserved with the Department of Economy and Tourism, which took over the former Department of Economic Development's functions under Law No. 20 of 2021. The federal guidance sets the conditions: the name carries the legal-form suffix, such as LLC; it must be compatible with the activity and the legal status; it cannot offend public morals or public order; it cannot use the name of a religion or a governing authority, or the name or logo of another body; and it cannot duplicate a name already taken. Compatibility is the condition that bites in property, because a name promising real estate services has to sit on a licence that carries them. So the order is activity, then form, then name, and the Land Department's approval then attaches to the company those three decisions describe. Changing any of them afterwards means amending the licence, the memorandum where there is one, and every file that recorded the old version, which is why the order matters more than the speed. What follows the licence, permission by permission, is in licensing a property brokerage in Dubai.

The individual

Every person who brokers holds a current broker card: certified training through the Dubai Real Estate Institute or an approved provider, then a RERA examination covering Dubai property law, brokerage conduct, contract types, anti-money-laundering duties and client disclosure. Applicants must generally be over 21, resident, and hold a good conduct certificate, and the card renews annually. Course and card fees are commonly quoted in the low thousands of dirhams each; confirm current figures with DREI and RERA, not an agent.

What compliance looks like day to day

• Advertising permits. Every listing, sale or rental, carries a valid Trakheesi permit number. Advertising without one is a RERA violation carrying meaningful fines and, on repetition, licence suspension.
• The forms. Form A appoints an agent to market an owner's property, Form B appoints an agent for a buyer, Form I governs agent-to-agent cooperation, and Form F is the sale contract, which only a licensed broker can generate. If someone offers you a Form F outside the system, walk.
• Anti-money-laundering. Brokers and agents are Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism: business risk assessment, written policies, customer due diligence, a compliance officer, enrolment on the Financial Intelligence Unit's goAML platform, suspicious transaction reporting, five-year records. Separately, a Real Estate Activity Report is due where a freehold sale or purchase involves cash, virtual assets, or funds converted from virtual assets, at or above AED 55,000. An operating cost with staffing implications, not a form.

the gates this page names

Department of Economy and Tourism

• The trade licence carrying the brokerage activityBefore the activity goes live
• The trade name, and whether it fits the activityAfter the activity and the legal form

RERA

• Approval of the entity, and a place on the Brokers recordBefore the activity goes live
• The broker card for every person who brokersRenewed annually
• The Trakheesi permit number on each listingEvery sale or rental advertisement

Ministry of Economy and Tourism

• Anti-money-laundering supervision and five-year recordsContinuing, once licensed

Financial Intelligence Unit

• goAML enrolment and the report at AED 55,000On cash or virtual-asset deals

Off-plan versus ready

What genuinely protects an off-plan buyer

Dubai's off-plan framework is among the better ones in the region, and it exists because the 2008 cycle exposed how bad the alternative is.

the instruments this page names

1. 2006Foreign ownership becomes possible, by exception and only in designated areasDubai Law No. 7 of 2006
2. 2007Off-plan money must sit in a project escrow account with a trustee bankDubai Law No. 8 of 2007
3. 2008An off-plan sale not recorded through Oqood is voidDubai Law No. 13 of 2008
4. 2013The transfer fee is set at 4%, split 2% buyer and 2% sellerExecutive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013
5. 2019Service charges move to approved budgets and supervised trust accountsDubai Law No. 6 of 2019
6. 2020A Special Tribunal can liquidate a failed project and settle buyer claimsDubai Decree No. 33 of 2020

Law No. 8 of 2007 requires a developer selling off-plan to open a dedicated escrow account per project with a RERA-approved trustee bank. Buyer payments are ring-fenced to that project, and the developer draws against construction milestones certified by an independent engineer, not on demand. Developers must also sit on the record of Developers, own or control the land, and satisfy RERA's pre-sale condition, commonly stated as completing 20% of construction or lodging a guarantee of equivalent value, before marketing. Confirm that requirement's current form with RERA for the specific project. The Land Department's own project service states it at 30%, met by completing 30% of construction, lodging a bank guarantee covering 30% of construction, or placing a cash deposit equivalent to 30%, and the authority's figure is the one to work from.

Law No. 13 of 2008 then requires every off-plan sale to be recorded in the Interim Real Property record through Oqood. An unrecorded off-plan sale is void. That is the buyer's real protection, and where the 4% Dubai Land Department fee falls due, at interim recording rather than at handover. Paid then, there is no second 4% at title deed.

Where a project fails outright, Decree No. 33 of 2020 established a Special Tribunal for unfinished and cancelled real property projects, able to liquidate it, determine buyer claims and recover assets from non-performing developers.

Three statutory instruments, three separate jobs, and almost no overlap between them. Set against what an off-plan buyer actually stands to lose, they cover less than a payment plan implies. Of the six exposures below, one falls to the developer's own sale and purchase agreement, drafted by the other side, and one falls to nothing at all.

six exposures, judged against each instrument

Judged on	Escrow, Law No. 8 of 2007	The interim entry, Law No. 13 of 2008	The Tribunal, Decree No. 33 of 2020
Money already paid, ring-fenced and drawn against certified milestones	Yes	No	No
Your ownership of the unit before the unit exists	No	Yes	No
Your claim if the project is cancelled outright	No	No	Yes
The handover date the payment plan was built around	No	No	No
The price you agreed, if the market moves against it	No	No	No
Your position if you are the one who stops paying	No	No	No

What does not protect you

Escrow protects the project, not your timetable and not your price. Nothing guarantees delivery on the contractual date, and delay is the most common off-plan complaint. Damages depend on what the sale and purchase agreement says, and most developer SPAs are drafted generously in the developer's favour with wide force majeure and extension clauses.

Nor does the framework protect you if you are the one who defaults. Under Article 11 of Law No. 13 of 2008 as amended, a developer whose buyer stops paying notifies the Land Department, which serves a 30-day notice, after which remedies are tiered by construction progress:

Anything retained beyond the cap is refundable within one year of termination or 60 days of resale, whichever is earlier. Note the percentages bite on the contract price, not on what you have paid: a buyer who has paid 20% and stops can end up owing money rather than recovering it. Verify these figures against the current consolidated text before relying on them.

The trade-off, plainly

The choice is not between a better purchase and a worse one. It is between paying for a building that does not exist yet and paying for one that does, and almost every advantage on one side is charged for on the other.

Neither is superior. What is almost always wrong is buying off-plan because the payment plan makes an unaffordable property look affordable.

The famous names are master developers, and the tower you buy may not be theirs

Three names come up in the first conversation about Dubai property, because between them they built much of what a newcomer already knows. Emaar developed Burj Khalifa and Downtown Dubai around it, and Dubai Marina is among its communities. Nakheel is the master developer of the waterfront Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Dubai Islands, and of mid-market communities including Jumeirah Village Circle, Jumeirah Village Triangle, Al Furjan and Discovery Gardens. Dubai Properties developed Jumeirah Beach Residence and Business Bay, and it sits with Nakheel and Meraas inside Dubai Holding Real Estate, the property arm of Dubai Holding.

Treat the names as a map, not as diligence. A master developer plans a community, lays out its roads and shared spaces, and sells within it, but the individual tower can be the work of another developer that bought the plot, carrying that developer's delivery record rather than the master developer's. The Land Department's Project Status Enquiry, on the Dubai REST app, shows the developer recorded against each project alongside its completion status, escrow account information and inspection photographs. That is the name to check before a deposit moves, and the record to ask about. The full set of free checks, and what a clean result does and does not prove, is in the property diligence Dubai has already done for you.

The buying process, end to end

Ready property, secondary market

1. Agree terms and sign Form F, the DLD-issued sale contract, through a licensed broker. A deposit, conventionally 10%, is held by the broker or trustee office as a manager's cheque, not paid to the seller.
2. Apply for the developer's no objection certificate. The developer confirms service charges are clear and consents to transfer. Deals stall here, because arrears must be settled first.
3. If mortgaged, settle the seller's loan and discharge the mortgage at the DLD.
4. Transfer at a DLD trustee office. Both parties or their attorneys attend, the balance and fees are paid by manager's cheque, and the title deed issues the same day.

Four to eight weeks for a cash purchase, six to twelve with a mortgage. The NOC and the seller's mortgage discharge are the variables.

Off-plan

Reserve and pay the booking amount; sign the developer's SPA; the sale is recorded in the Interim Real Property record and the 4% DLD fee falls due; pay the construction-linked plan; on completion, snag, take handover, settle the final instalment and handover charges, and the interim entry converts to a title deed.

What it costs to transact

Dubai's transfer fee is 4% under Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013, formally split 2% buyer and 2% seller, but by near-universal practice the buyer pays all of it. Treat the following as indicative and confirm each before committing.

Round-trip cost is 6% to 8% of value. That is the number that decides whether a short hold makes sense, and it is the number brochures omit.

Financing

The Central Bank's mortgage regulations set the ceilings. For expatriates a first residential property is commonly capped at 80% loan-to-value below AED 5 million and 70% above it, with second and subsequent properties lower again; UAE nationals sit five points higher at each tier. Off-plan is capped at 50% regardless of buyer, and monthly debt service at 50% of gross income for expatriates, with banks stress-testing above prevailing rates. Confirm caps against the CBUAE Rulebook, not a broker's summary. Transfer fees generally cannot be financed, so the 4% must be cash.

Property-linked residency

Two routes, routinely conflated.

The Golden Residence for property investors requires a property, or group of properties, worth at least AED 2 million. The Dubai Land Department administers it and describes a 10-year renewable permit, with a published fee schedule totalling AED 9,884.75 through its channel. The property may be mortgaged provided the bank issues a no-objection letter stating the amount paid and the balance outstanding, and a lien is placed on the property for the permit's duration. Federal basis: Federal Decree-Law No. 29 of 2021 and Cabinet Decision No. 65 of 2022.

The property investor residence permit is the two-year route, historically requiring a property worth at least AED 750,000 on a title deed. Those rules were reported to have changed during 2026, including removal of the minimum value for sole owners of completed units. We do not publish a rule we have not confirmed with the issuing authority: treat it as unsettled and check with GDRFA or ICP first.

Two points regardless of route. The threshold is measured on the DLD-recognised value, not the price you negotiated or your agent's valuation. And residency obtained through property ends when the property is sold.

Yields, service charges and the number that matters

Gross yield is the number in the pitch. Net yield is the number in your account.

Dubai gross residential yields in 2026 run 4% to 6% in prime central districts such as Downtown, 5.5% to 7.5% in Marina and Business Bay, and 8% or above in mid-market communities such as JVC, Arjan and Dubai Silicon Oasis. Villas generally yield less than apartments and have historically appreciated faster. Ranges, not guarantees.

Yield bandgross and netBasis

1. Prime central districts such as Downtown4% – 6%Gross, before any deduction
2. Marina and Business Bay5.5% – 7.5%Gross, before any deduction
3. Mid-market communities such as JVC, Arjan and Dubai Silicon Oasis8% and upGross, and no ceiling is published
4. A 6% gross in a prime district, once the costs are out4.5% – 5.5%Net
5. A 9% gross in a mid-market community, once the costs are out5.5% – 6.5%Net

06.2512.5gross and net

The deductions are predictable and large:

• Service charges. Set per building, approved annually by RERA against a submitted budget, held in supervised trust accounts and administered through the Mollak platform under Law No. 6 of 2019. Typical residential rates run AED 10–30 per square foot per year, rising to AED 50–90 in trophy waterfront and branded buildings. The DLD publishes a service charge index; check the actual building, not the community average.
• Voids. One month empty removes roughly 8% of annual rent.
• Letting and management. Commonly around 5% of annual rent each.
• Maintenance, chiller and insurance, depending on the building.

A 9% gross in a mid-market community realistically lands near 5.5% to 6.5% net; a 6% gross in a prime district nearer 4.5% to 5.5%. Any projection presented without service charges deducted is not a yield, it is a headline.

Rent increases are capped by Decree No. 43 of 2013 on a sliding scale tied to how far the rent sits below market for that unit, from no increase where it is within 10% of market up to 20% where it is more than 40% below. The Smart Rental Index now assesses this building by building rather than by area average.

The newer selling points are worth what they change in the running costs

The last few years of brochures add a layer the numbers above do not show: green design, co-living and co-working, smart-home automation and virtual tours. Each is worth what it changes in the running costs or the rules, and only one of them is a rule rather than a feature.

Green design is the rule. Dubai Municipality's Al Sa'fat green building system makes its Silver rating the mandatory minimum for every new building, so a new building is green to the floor the emirate sets whatever the hoarding says, and the only green claim worth paying for is one that goes beyond it. The difference shows in the cooling and utility bills and in the service charge, so ask for the building's actual consumption and charge history rather than the certificate.

Co-living and co-working sell the same space in smaller pieces. The rent per square foot is usually higher, and so are voids, furnishing and management, which makes the unit an operating business to be priced as one rather than a let. Letting by the night goes further still: short-term letting of a holiday home is an activity licensed by the Department of Economy and Tourism under Decree No. 41 of 2013, including inside free zones, and holding that permission can put the tax positions described below in question, as set out in letting by the night is a licensed activity.

Smart-home automation and virtual or augmented-reality tours are sales features. Neither changes the title, the service charge or the yield, and a walk-through on a screen is not an inspection: inspect a ready unit before transfer, and snag an off-plan unit before accepting handover, in person or through an inspector you instruct.

Affordability, for a foreign buyer, is a private-market question rather than a government scheme. The state housing programmes the UAE Government portal lists, among them the federal Sheikh Zayed Housing Programme and Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Housing Establishment, serve UAE nationals. For everyone else the affordable end of the market is the mid-market communities above, where gross yields are highest and the gap between gross and net is widest.

Tax on UAE property

There is no annual property tax and no capital gains tax on individuals. That answers a narrower question than it appears to, and the charges that do land each time a property moves are collected in no property tax is not no charges on property.

VAT. The first supply of a new residential building is zero-rated within three years of completion; subsequent residential sales and leases are exempt. Commercial property is taxed at 5% and bare land is exempt, so a commercial seller may need to be enrolled for VAT with the FTA.

Corporate tax. A natural person earning real estate investment income personally, where no licence is required, sits outside corporate tax under Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023. A company holding property pays 9% above AED 375,000 and must enrol and file regardless.

Succession. Missed constantly. UAE property held by a non-Muslim may default to Sharia principles of distribution unless a valid will directs otherwise, through the DIFC Wills Service, Abu Dhabi's equivalent, or Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2022 on Personal Status for Non-Muslims. A AED 3 million apartment with no will is a problem for a family already having a bad year.

Where UAE property is the wrong move

We would rather talk you out of a purchase than earn a commission on one that should not have happened.

You are buying to secure a visa. Committing AED 2 million to an illiquid asset carrying 6% to 8% round-trip costs is an expensive way to buy residency. Other Golden Residence routes, and often a properly structured operating company, reach the same status for a fraction of the capital. Buy property because the property is a good investment. Take the visa as a by-product.

You need the money back on a schedule. Even a well-priced ready unit takes four to twelve weeks to sell, the developer NOC gates it, and in a soft market the timeline is open-ended. Do not put money here you may need within three years.

The yield was the whole thesis, and you used the gross figure. Service charges can rise sharply after a building's first reserve fund study. A model without a building-specific service charge, a void allowance and management costs is not one.

You earn in a currency that is not the dollar. The dirham is pegged to the US dollar, so a euro or sterling earner takes a currency position on top of a property position, intended or not.

You are relying on a guaranteed return. Hotel-managed and branded units offering guaranteed yields are worth the operator's balance sheet and no more, and the guarantee is usually priced into the purchase figure. Ask what year four looks like, when the guarantee ends and the service charge does not.

You are buying off-plan from a developer with no delivery record because the payment plan is attractive. Escrow protects the project's money. It does not compress a three-year build into eighteen months, nor make an untested developer competent.

You are opening a brokerage because the market is hot. The failure mode we see most on the licensing side. Dubai brokerage is saturated and commission-only, and what kills new firms is not the licence: office rent, professional indemnity cover, a broker card per agent, Trakheesi permits, AML compliance, and above all portal subscriptions, which reach six figures a year for competitive visibility. All of it needs funding for six to nine months before commissions arrive at scale.

You want the licence to be a residency vehicle. A brokerage carries continuing regulatory duties, RERA inspection and personal liability for conduct breaches. There are quieter licences.

What we need from you

For a purchase: budget, cash or financed, hold period, whether income or appreciation is the objective, and whether residency is part of the reason. For a brokerage: the activity, the emirate, headcount, and whether you hold twelve months of working capital.

We come back with the areas that fit the brief, the service charge and net yield for the specific buildings rather than the community average, and, where the answer is that you should not buy or should not license, that answer with its reasoning attached.

Frequently asked questions