Due diligence: red flags in Dubai

Look past the renders at the delivery record: how many schemes have completed, how far each slipped against the original date, and what owners in the occupied buildings say about build quality and the management company. The large developers — Emaar, Sobha, DAMAC, Danube, Azizi — have a deeper transaction history, which makes a unit both easier to value and easier to sell later. A newcomer may price better, but you pay the premium for the unknown on the way out.

Service charges in Dubai broadly run from about $9 to $88 per m² a year, and in hotel-operated residences reach $97–119. They cover the common parts: pool, gym, parking, lifts, cleaning, landscaping and staff. Do not take the rate for a specific building from the seller — it is published by the Land Department and visible in the Dubai REST app.

Everything inside your own walls: DEWA electricity and water, internet, insurance, and any repair or replacement of appliances. Villas work differently and are worth understanding: the charge is normally levied on plot area rather than built area, and running a villa often ends up three to four times cheaper than an apartment of comparable size — with an apartment you are also paying for the tower’s shared infrastructure.

It does, in three tiers. A two-year investor visa from $204,000, with at least $102,000 actually paid; construction stage is irrelevant. A five-year retirement visa from age 55, from $272,000 and at least 50% complete. A ten-year Golden Visa from $545,000; above 50% completion approval is effectively assured, below that it goes through pre-approval. The visa renews for as long as you own the asset, and lets you sponsor your family.

Three things. Properties in different emirates do not add up — $300,000 in Dubai plus $250,000 in Ras Al Khaimah is not a Golden Visa. The application has to be made in person; there is no remote route. And, most expensively, a residence visa does not by itself make you a UAE tax resident: that requires actual presence of 180 days and a documented address. Sell the property and the visa is cancelled.

Yes, but more expensively and more slowly. Banks lend up to 60% to a non-resident, so the deposit starts at 40%; fixed rates begin at roughly 5.5%, underwriting takes upward of two months, and you will need to show an average balance of about $11,000–14,000 over six months. A resident sees different terms: up to 80% financing, a deposit from 20%, fixed rates from around 4% and terms up to 25 years. A mortgage can also be used to settle the final tranche of a payment plan.

To buy, no. To sell, in practice yes — the transaction settles by bank transfer and the money has to land somewhere. Residency is not required to open an account, but attending in person is, and a non-resident is normally asked for an opening deposit that runs into the tens of thousands of dollars depending on the bank and on how the source of funds is documented.

Around 180,000 transactions worth roughly $142bn were registered in Dubai in 2024 — the highest on record. What followed looks like a maturing market rather than an accelerating one: forecasts for 2025 pointed to price growth of 5–10%, slower than 2024, with the strongest movement in the prime segment where supply is constrained. For a buyer that means "buy now, sell next year on the growth" has stopped being automatic.