Qatar

Qatar is the closest market on this page to our own practice without being the UAE, and the question is always the same: is it like Dubai? No. The climate matches, the currency peg to the dollar matches, and the absence of personal income tax matches. What differs is the one thing that decides a purchase — where a foreigner is allowed to own at all.

A 2018 law and a 2020 cabinet decision split the country into two lists. In nine zones a foreigner takes full freehold: The Pearl, Lusail, West Bay Lagoon, the Al Khor resort area and a handful of other districts. In sixteen further zones what is available is a 99-year usufruct that can be sold and inherited — a right for a term, not ownership. Outside both lists a foreigner cannot buy: not at a higher price, not with more paperwork, not at all.

Residency is tied to a value, and there are two thresholds. Owning property above QAR 730,000 grants residence to the owner and their family for as long as the property is held. Above QAR 3.65 million the residence becomes permanent, with access to state healthcare and education. These are statutory thresholds rather than marketing packages, and neither replaces a work visa.

The real difference from Dubai is not the rulebook but the size. The Qatari market is several times smaller and thinner: fewer transactions a year, fewer buyers, and a property that would move in weeks in Dubai can sit for months. That is not an obstacle on the way in; it is the principal risk on the way out, and it belongs in the model before the purchase, not after.

We hold no transaction data of our own for Qatar and will not invent any. What is here is the ownership rules and market structure — the part rewritten by legislators rather than by quotes.

The caveat: The market is several times smaller than Dubai; the exit matters more here than the entry.