Buyer’s Guide

Any person of any nationality, whether based overseas or a resident of Dubai, can purchase in Dubai’s freehold property market.

In general, the Dubai Government issues multi-entry visas (not residence visa) to new property owners. It is widely thought that if an individual owns a property in Dubai that is worth AED 1,000,000 plus then that individual will be granted a 2x Two year Multiple-entry Visa.

Worth to note that:
– Note that with such visa does not provide all benefits as for Residence Visa (working permit, applying for driver’s license, etc).
– Holder of such Freehold Property Visa in Dubai can stay maximum up to 6-months period per entry.
– This visa can be renewed, but the investor has to be out of the UAE for at least one month.
– The property should be ready (completed) and title deed must be registered.
– However this is subject to the current immigration rules and regulations which are likely to change.

To apply for such visa one must attend Dubai Land Department – built-in Immigration Department with all the required documents.

Freehold is available on the majority of developments West Gate Real Estate handles. Freehold properties are properties built in designated areas where foreign citizens can buy those properties, and such ownership rights are given for indefinite time (no time limit).

While leasehold property ownership are granted for 30-99 years period only.

There are currently no government taxes of any kind when purchasing a property in Dubai. Neither is there a capital gains tax. When the Dubai Land Department registers the property title, Buyers will pay from generally 4% (but in limited scenarios 1.5% to 2%) registration fee based on the purchase price of the property.
If the property is purchased with a mortgage, Buyers will pay a Mortgage Registration amount of 0.25% from the mortgaged amount to Dubai Land Department and certain fees to the Developer.

However, while occupying (or renting out) your property, there is a Housing Fee (or Municipality fee), which is 5% from the rental amount of your property per year, which is being billed monthly to the Tenant or the Landlord (whoever occupies the Property at that time) and such charges are part of DEWA (Dubai Electricity and Water Authority) bills.

In line with the growth that the Dubai Realty Market has experienced, local banks have expanded their mortgage market. Mortgages are available on a 10 to 25-year basis, with interest rates varying from 2.99% to 6% depending if the it’s for a person or company, if it’s salaried or self-employed (business owner), if the source of funds are UAE based or based in another country and so forth. At West Gate Real Estate we can provide you the right advice on how to best obtain a mortgage from the bank for buying a property in Dubai.

Property Buyers and Seller will most probably need to open a bank account, in order to issue/receive a Manager’s cheque (also known as Banker’s cheque) when completing a property transfer.

To register the property in the new property owner’s name, you are required to pay a 4% transfer fee to the Dubai Land Department and if you’re purchasing with a mortgage then there is also a mortgage registration amount to be paid to both the Developer and Dubai Land Department. In addition, should the property you’re buying be completed and handed over for occupancy, there is a service maintenance fee to be paid to the Seller on a pro-rata basis from the date of the transfer into the Buyer’s name till the end of the service maintenance period as the owner of property in Dubai is required to be a service maintenance fee annually. West Gate Real Estate charges 2% of the purchase price to the Buyer as an Agency Fee for the property.

Service Charges are levied in order to maintain the various common areas and facilities of the community or the building and to generally ensure these are properly managed and administered. In many of the new property developments and residential buildings throughout Dubai, service charges are levied on the owners by the co-owners associations, and collected by a Community Manager. When renting a property to a Tenant, these service charges are still the responsibility of the Landlord.
The Tenant is responsible for the utility bill charges and Ejari Registration Fees, which costs AED 200 to register and is valid from 6-months to 1-year (depending the term of a tenancy contract).

Services charges throughout Dubai vary widely, depending on the area and sophistication of the property in question. Larger community developments also charge their property owners an annual community charge, which is normally paid to the master developer of the project. We advise all our Buyers to find out their obligations to their Owner’s Association before purchasing a property.

Developers’ obligations to complete and handover property on time are dealt with contractually under the sale and purchase agreement (or as applicable, the lease agreement). If the property is not yet constructed, the agreement will typically provide an estimated handover date and usually the agreement will allow the developer a fair bit of latitude in terms of extending the date. As in many other regions, purchasers must be prepared to anticipate possible delays when awaiting possession of a property under construction. Once the property has been handed over, the developer has an obligation to provide a 1-year warranty on the structure of the building and the property and 10-years warranty on the structure of the building only – both from the date of property handover.

All Dubai Courts registered POAs can be checked online as follows: