INSIDERrealestate — Home Rates are indicative. Contracts and DLD fees are always in dirhams.
UAE banks lend up to 80% of the price to a resident and 50–60% to a non-resident, over terms to 25 years. The rate is rarely what decides the deal — which bank will take your particular profile is. Work out the payment below and I will come back with the lenders that write it, before you apply anywhere.
Oleg Svyatenko · RERA-licensed broker, ORN 11899 · Metropolitan Premium Properties
Move the sliders and the payment updates as you go. Leave a number and I will come back with the detail: which banks write your profile, at what deposit and what rate.
A Dubai mortgage currently prices around 4%, while gross residential rental yields run at 6–7%. For as long as the property earns more than the debt costs, the difference stays with you rather than with the bank. Buying outright hands that spread away for nothing in return.
Then there is leverage. The same two million dirhams spread across deposits on three units keeps three times the floor area working — three rent streams instead of one, and three assets appreciating instead of one. UAE banks allow up to five mortgaged properties per borrower, which is what makes that arithmetic available rather than theoretical.
And there is timing. 2026 and 2027 are the largest delivery cycle in the city’s history — on market forecasts, roughly 150,000 new homes across the two years. Every buyer on a developer payment plan meets the same question at completion: where does the final payment come from. Handover financing answers it at exactly the moment it arrives.
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More than half of Dubai’s secondary-market transactions now involve a mortgage. Borrowing here stopped being exotic for a foreign buyer some time ago: it is an ordinary way to buy, with the same documents any other market would ask for, and without income tax or capital gains tax on the way out.
You have not bought yet
Completion is due and the final payment is not there
You already own the property
Resident, salaried, 3.99% over 25 years
Those fees are the 4% Land Department transfer fee, 2% agency commission plus VAT, mortgage registration, the trustee office, the valuation and the bank’s arrangement fee. None of it can be added to the loan, and it is what buyers who budgeted only for the deposit come up short on.
Bought on a payment plan, 40% paid, completion due
Three hundred thousand and a covered instalment instead of one and a half million in a single movement. Start three to six months before completion: the bank needs an income history, and that is the one part of this that cannot be accelerated.
It sets the ceiling on what you can borrow, the list of banks that will look at you, and how the whole application is sequenced. The second question is how the income is documented. Nearly everything after those two is workable.
| Profile | Income evidence | Maximum LTV | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| UAE resident, salaried | Salary certificate, six months of statements | up to 80% | The simplest case |
| UAE resident, Golden Visa | Salary or dividends | up to 80% | Treated the same way |
| UAE resident, property owner | Ejari-registered rent plus other income | up to 80% | The tenancy has to be registered |
| UAE resident, company owner | Dividends, turnover, company accounts | up to 70% | The bank reads the business margin |
| Non-resident — UK, EU, Australia | Overseas income | 50–60% | A shorter list of lenders |
| Non-resident — elsewhere | Overseas income, statements | case by case | Country lists differ by bank; residency first is often faster |
The ceilings come from Central Bank of the UAE rules. Above AED 5 million lending is capped at 70% of the price whatever the profile; on off-plan the limits are lower and not every bank participates. Final terms are set by the individual bank on the individual file.
Non-residents borrow here every week, so this is a choice rather than an obstacle. Which route wins depends on your passport, on where your income sits, and on how long you are prepared to wait.
Faster — you are not waiting on a visa. Expect a deposit from 40–50%, pricing above resident terms and a shortlist rather than the whole market, because each lender applies its own country list and its own reading of overseas income. Worth establishing which banks are open to you before you commit to a property, not after.
Slower, and usually cheaper. A purchase from AED 750,000 earns an investor visa; from AED 2 million it is a ten-year Golden Visa. Company formation and employment are the other routes. After that the bank wants three to six months of income arriving in a UAE account — the one interval that cannot be compressed — and from there you are on resident terms: a deposit from 20% and rates from 3.99%.
What that is worth in figures. A property at AED 3 million with a 30% deposit means a loan of AED 2.1 million and an instalment of about AED 11,050 a month. Rent on a unit like that runs AED 12,000–14,000. The instalment is covered by the tenant, and the deposit stays your equity in the asset rather than an expense.
Add a second party. A co-borrower or co-owner with a suitable profile is assessed alongside you, and a share of the property is registered to them. That is a standard structure, not a way around the rules.
UAE banks know how to read a business owner’s income: dividends, account turnover, company accounts, tax filings. The question is never whether the income exists — it is how the file presents it, and that is what preparing the application means.
Not every bank lends on off-plan, but some do: part of the market will fund a unit at 50% construction progress rather than waiting for handover. This is the case where the choice of lender decides everything.
That is a refinancing question. Moving bank lowers the instalment, and over the remaining term the saving usually covers the cost of re-registering within the first year. It takes one evening to work out from your existing facility.
| Item | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| Bank valuation of the property | AED 2,500 – 3,500 | At application |
| Bank arrangement fee | 0.5 – 1% of the loan | At approval |
| Mortgage registration, Dubai Land Department | 0.25% of the loan + AED 290 | At transfer |
| DLD transfer fee | 4% of the price | At transfer |
| Trustee office fee | AED 2,000 – 4,200 | At transfer |
| Agency commission | 2% + 5% VAT | At transfer, secondary market |
| Life and property insurance | from 0.4% a year of the balance | Annually |
| Early settlement | capped at 1% of the balance or AED 10,000, whichever is lower | UAE law |
Together these run at 6–8% of the purchase price on top of the deposit. The calculator above adds them up for you in the “cash needed upfront” line — the single figure buyers underestimate more often than any other. My assessment and the bank shortlist are free.
Status, nationality, how the income is documented, what the money is for. One day is enough to know which banks to approach and with what numbers.
1 dayThe bank’s provisional commitment. Valid 60–90 days — that is the window in which you choose the property without pressure.
3–5 working daysWith an approval in hand you negotiate as a buyer with funds, not as someone still hoping a bank says yes.
your paceThe bank sends its own valuer and lends against that figure, not the price you agreed. Where a valuation is likely to land short, we deal with it before the offer, not at transfer.
3–5 daysFormal approval and the bank’s cheque. From this point the deal is funded.
14–30 days from applicationTrustee office: signing, mortgage registration, funds released to the seller or the developer.
1 dayRegistered at the Land Department: you own the property, the bank holds the charge. From there it is instalments on a schedule.
Written breakdowns of subjects the English channel has not filmed.
Commercial property can be financed too, on terms that look nothing like a home loan: a bigger deposit, a shorter term, and a bank that underwrites the asset's cash flow rather than your salary.
Non-residents can borrow in the UAE, on tighter terms than residents: a larger deposit, a shorter list of banks and a harder look at income. What the deposit really is, how the rate is built, and the order in which the process has to happen.
Only part of the market writes non-resident mortgages, and every one of those lenders applies its own country list, its own documentation standard and its own view of overseas income. Nationality therefore matters a great deal — not as a yes or no, but in deciding which offers exist for you at all. Expect a deposit from 40–50% and pricing above resident terms. Establishing the shortlist is the first piece of work, before you commit to a property.
Yes, and it is the most common request after the purchase itself. The bank lends against the completed unit and covers up to 80% of the handover tranche, with the remainder paid from your own funds. Once handed over, the unit can go straight into the rental market and the rent typically covers the instalment. Start six to three months before completion: the bank needs an income history and that cannot be assembled in a week.
Yes — that is equity release. The bank lends against the property without a sale, up to around 80% of its valuation if the title is unencumbered. The funds are unrestricted and are commonly used as the deposit on the next purchase. The property stays yours and stays rented.
Against its own valuation, always. If the valuer comes in below the contract price, the shortfall is yours to cover in cash — which is why an over-priced unit is a financing problem as much as an investment one. On a secondary purchase this is worth sanity-checking against registered transactions in the same building before you sign anything.
UAE banks work to a limit of around five per borrower, provided the combined instalments stay inside the debt burden allowed against documented income. That limit is the whole point of leverage here: the same capital spread across several deposits keeps considerably more property working than one outright purchase does.
That is routine. The outstanding balance is settled from the sale proceeds and the charge is released at the Land Department, which adds roughly two to three weeks to the timeline. UAE law caps the early settlement fee at 1% of the outstanding balance or AED 10,000, whichever is lower, so it is a predictable cost rather than a penalty that changes the arithmetic.
Not for most of it. Application, valuation and negotiation are handled remotely. Banks differ on whether signing requires attendance, and where it does, a power of attorney notarised at a UAE consulate and legalised in Dubai covers it. Worth settling at the shortlist stage, because it can decide which lender suits you.
The price or the budget, whether you hold a UAE residency, and how your income is documented. That is enough to give you a realistic deposit, an instalment and the list of banks that will write your profile. The assessment is free and commits you to nothing.
Tell me the price or the budget, whether you hold a UAE residency, and how your income is documented. You get back a realistic deposit, an instalment and the list of banks that will write your profile. No call centre: I answer personally.
Want the full model — rate scenarios, an offset account and the amortisation schedule — open the detailed calculator. Looking for a property to finance — the off-market catalogue.
Name and number — I will ask the rest in the chat.