What are you actually trying to do?

Most guides start by assuming you already picked the visa. You probably haven't. Pick the thing you want below and we'll tell you the route, the real constraint, and what would stop you. No sign-up, nothing emailed, nothing sold.

Find your route Two clicks. No sign-up, nothing saved.

Prefer to read it all? The full routing is written out below, and nothing is hidden behind the picker.

Before you start Everything below is free to read and every figure is sourced to a named government document with the date we checked it. We're not a brokerage and we don't list property. How we make money.

Rules move. We tell you when.

Dubai property and residency rules changed twice this year, and in one case the change was announced through a service centre with no numbered circular behind it. We record every change in the Rule Tracker with the date and the source it came from. If you pick a route above and tick the alerts box, we email you when a change lands that affects it. That is the only ongoing email we send, it is separate from anything else, and one click stops it.

Written out in full

Everything the picker can tell you, as text. Useful if you would rather scan than click, and it is what search engines and AI assistants read.

I want residency in Dubai by buying property

Your route is decided by one number: the Dubai Land Department certified value on the day you apply. Not the price you paid, not a portal estimate.

AED 2 million or more gives you the 10-year Golden Visa, renewable, with no minimum-stay requirement and the widest family sponsorship available. The complete guide.
Below AED 2 million gives you the 2-year investor visa, with two bridges up to the 10-year: combine multiple properties held in your own name, or get a DLD revaluation if the property has appreciated. The 2-year visa and routes under AED 2 million.
55 or older with AED 1 to 2 million opens a third door, the 5-year retirement visa. Retirement visa at 55.

If you know roughly what the property is worth, the five-question check gives you your specific route in about a minute.

I already own Dubai property and want to know if it qualifies

The test is the DLD-certified value on your application day, which is often not what you paid. Property bought below the threshold years ago may clear it now. Which route your value supports, and how revaluation works.

One trap worth knowing before you plan around it: if the property is co-owned with anyone other than your spouse, each owner's share must itself reach AED 2 million. Co-owned property.

I can buy, but getting the money out of my country is the problem

This is the constraint almost nobody writes about, and for several nationalities it is the only one that actually binds. The property is rarely the obstacle. Moving the funds legally, at the size required, in your own name, is.

The interaction that catches people: the obvious workaround for a transfer limit is to split the purchase across two names. That fixes the transfer and destroys the visa, because the Golden Visa needs AED 2 million in a single name. Only spouses can combine. Find your situation below before you plan a structure.

India

The RBI's Liberalised Remittance Scheme caps an individual at USD 250,000 per financial year. AED 2 million is roughly USD 545,000, so a single-year purchase in one name is not possible within the scheme. Spreading across years, or combining with a spouse, are the routes that survive. Splitting with a parent or sibling does not. Buying as an Indian citizen.

China

SAFE's annual USD 50,000 individual quota may not be used to buy overseas property - it is a capital-account item, not a current-account one. There is a published enforcement case fining RMB 530,000 for splitting a purchase across 33 people's quotas. Buying as a Chinese citizen.

Pakistan

The State Bank's Foreign Exchange Manual contains no permitted category for a resident to remit funds abroad to buy property. That is an absence of permission rather than an express prohibition, and the distinction matters, so read the detail rather than the summary. Foreign assets above USD 100,000 also carry a mandatory declaration. Buying as a Pakistani citizen.

Russia

Russian nationals can own Dubai freehold on the same terms as anyone else, and UAE property ownership is not itself subject to Western sanctions. The planning is entirely in the payment route: UAE bank transfer, a wire from a non-sanctioned bank, a developer payment plan, or regulated crypto-to-fiat through VARA channels. Every route settles in dirhams and every route runs source-of-funds checks. Buying as a Russian citizen.

United Kingdom

Moving money is straightforward. The trap is on the way back: the temporary non-residence rule can reclaim gains if you return to the UK within five years. Buying as a UK citizen.

Germany

There has been no Germany-UAE double taxation treaty since 1 January 2022. Germany let the 2010 agreement lapse and did not replace it, so German tax applies to Dubai rent and gains under domestic law with no treaty relief. Most competing guides still assume a treaty exists. Buying as a German citizen.

Canada

The Canada-UAE treaty is in force, but its residency article requires UAE nationality, so the tie-breaker is closed to a Canadian on a Golden Visa. Departure tax does reach foreign real property. Buying as a Canadian citizen.

United States

US citizens are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live, and no visa changes that. Buying as a US citizen.

If your nationality is not listed, the general position on funding routes and source-of-funds checks is in the process guide. We only publish a country page when we can source every claim to that country's own regulator, which is why the list is short.

I want to know what it really costs

The visa fees are the small part. Total transaction costs typically run 7% to 9% of the price, including the 4% DLD transfer fee, plus agent, trustee and admin fees, and a developer NOC on a resale. Every line is verified to the fils in the cost table.

You do not need AED 2 million in cash. A mortgaged property can qualify on its certified value with a bank no-objection letter, though the paperwork on that point is genuinely unresolved and we say so rather than picking a side. The mortgage rules.

I am comparing Dubai against other countries

We publish a separate index that measures ten property-linked residency programmes worldwide on seven published criteria, including capital threshold, true total cost, family scope and how many days a year you must actually be there. Qatar ranks first, Panama second, the UAE third. The Property Residency Index.

It also carries something worth reading before you trust any government page: three of the ten programmes had an official source that was wrong, stale or unreachable when we checked.

What we will not tell you

We will not tell you which property to buy, because we do not sell property and we do not carry listings. We will not tell you a rule is settled when it is not; where DLD's own published text and the reported position disagree, we record the disagreement in the Rule Tracker and date it. And we will not tell you your specific case is fine, because that depends on facts we cannot see. Everything here is general information, not legal or immigration advice.