First-time buyers
Buying your first home runs in a set order. Here is each step, what it decides, and what Dubai’s First-Time Home Buyer Programme adds.
Short answer
Start with what you can borrow, not with the property. Three Central Bank limits cap every mortgage, and the lowest one sets your maximum.
Then budget for the cash beyond the deposit, let the bank value the property, and register the sale and the mortgage. In Dubai you may also qualify for the Land Department’s First-Time Home Buyer Programme. It brings developer and bank benefits. It is not a mortgage approval.
Most of a first purchase is decided before you view a single property. These are the steps, in the order they happen.
Three separate limits cap a mortgage, and the lowest one sets your real maximum. Knowing which one binds tells you what to change.
Your deposit covers the part of the price the bank does not lend. Registration, valuation and bank charges are paid in cash on top of it.
Before you commit to a property, you can ask a bank for an in-principle view of what it might lend. It rests on what you tell the bank, and it is not a decision to lend.
Ready or off plan is the first choice, because off plan carries a much lower borrowing limit. In Dubai, check whether the property is in a freehold area.
An independent valuer must value the property before any irrevocable commitment to lend. The limit is worked on that valuation, not on the price you agreed.
Only after the valuation and a full check of your income and debts. Each bank applies its own board-approved policy, so the offer can sit below the regulatory maximum.
These are two separate registrations, each with its own fee. In Dubai the Land Department handles both.
On a ready home, handover follows the transfer of ownership. On an off-plan home it waits for the building to be finished. Read the bank’s offer before you sign, not after.
If you want the decision rather than the route, what UAE banks look at covers whether you can borrow at all.
The Central Bank caps every mortgage in several ways at once. You are held to whichever limit is lowest for you.
A share of what the property is worth. For a first home it is set separately for UAE nationals and expatriates, and it is lower above AED 5 million.
All your debt repayments together, the new mortgage included, may not exceed 50% of gross salary and any regular income from a defined and specific source.
Total borrowing may not exceed seven years of annual income for an expatriate, or eight years for a UAE national.
Banks must test your repayments at 2 to 4 percentage points above the current rate. You are judged on a bigger payment than the one you would make.
How the property limit works gives each band, and how the debt burden ratio works explains what counts as income and as debt. There is no minimum salary in the regulations either, which the minimum salary question explains.
All of these are ceilings. The regulations set minimum standards, and nothing stops a bank adopting more conservative limits. Each bank also has its own board-approved policy for checking income and deciding how much of a property’s value it will lend.
The Central Bank’s property limits have a category for a first house or owner occupier. It carries a higher maximum than a second home or a property you buy to rent out.
Each borrower can only claim one property under that category. If you plan to buy a home to live in and later one to rent out, you can use the first-home maximum for only one of them.
Your nationality and the property’s value then decide which first-home maximum applies. Those bands live on the property limit guide rather than being repeated here.
This is the case worth seeing in numbers, because it changes the deposit you need.
You are an expatriate buying a ready first home. The price and the valuation are both AED 1,800,000. You earn AED 180,000 a year and have no other borrowing.
The property limit for an expatriate first home below AED 5 million is 80%. So 80% of AED 1,800,000 = AED 1,440,000.
The income multiple for an expatriate is seven years. So 7 × AED 180,000 = AED 1,260,000.
The lower figure applies, so on these two limits the most that may be lent is AED 1,260,000. The cash towards the price is AED 1,800,000 − AED 1,260,000 = AED 540,000, not the AED 360,000 the property limit alone suggests.
The income limit still has to be tested too. That needs your repayment, your term and your other debts, which this example does not assume. Registration, valuation and bank charges sit on top.
Example only. Your actual borrowing depends on your circumstances, the property and the bank. The figures are illustrative and are not an offer.
A gap like that is far easier to find before you choose a property than after. The calculator runs all three limits on your own figures, including the income test.
Your deposit is the part of the price the bank does not lend. It is not the only cash that leaves your account.
What cash you actually need works through each cost and when it applies. How a Dubai purchase runs gives the Land Department’s own charges, dated.
Leave a margin. The valuation and the bank’s fees are often not known until late in the process.
Yes. Borrowing on an off-plan purchase is capped at 50% of value, regardless of purpose, value or category of purchaser. A first home gets no higher limit.
So an off-plan first home needs a much larger share of the price from you than a ready one. Several of the Dubai programme’s developer benefits are for off-plan units, so weigh that cap before a launch offer makes the choice for you. How an off-plan mortgage works covers what you fund before handover and when a bank lends.
A Dubai Land Department programme, launched with the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism on 2 July 2025. The Land Department describes it as an initiative to make homeownership more accessible in Dubai.
It is not a loan and not a mortgage approval. Eligible buyers get a QR code, which they use to reach the offers of participating developers and banks. To qualify, the Land Department lists four tests.
You must be a resident of the UAE. Any nationality qualifies.
You must not currently own any freehold residential property in Dubai. Property in another emirate, or in a non-freehold location, does not rule you out.
The programme is open to applicants aged 18 and above.
You must be looking for a property below AED 5 million in value.
Its page also says the programme gives additional benefits to Emirati citizens, without saying what they are.
The Land Department lists these benefits for eligible buyers.
To join, you register through the Land Department website or the Dubai REST app. If you are eligible, you get a confirmation email with your QR code. It stays valid until you have bought a property and registered it with the Land Department.
The terms matter as much as the benefits.
The Land Department’s page names the participating developers and banks. CredMe does not repeat that list, because it changes as partners join.
Not on anything the Land Department has published. Its page describes offers from participating banks and says nothing about the Central Bank’s lending limits. Those limits are set nationally and apply to every bank.
Two tests are easy to mix up. The programme asks whether you own freehold residential property in Dubai. The Central Bank’s first-home category is its own test, and each borrower can claim only one property under it. They are written by different bodies in different words, so meeting one does not tell you whether you meet the other.
Joining the programme does not replace a bank’s assessment either. A participating bank still applies its own board-approved policy to your income, your debts and the valuation.
The Central Bank sets different limits for the two in two places. The first-home property maximum is higher for a UAE national. And the income multiple is eight years of annual income for a UAE national, against seven for an expatriate.
Dubai’s programme draws its line differently. It is open to UAE residents of any nationality, so what matters there is where you live, not your passport.
If you live outside the UAE, you do not meet the programme’s residency test. What changes for a non-resident buyer covers the mortgage side.
Registration, valuation and bank charges come on top, in cash. So does any gap if the valuation lands under the price.
The regulations set minimum standards, and a bank may be stricter. The maximum is the most that may be lent, not what you will be offered.
On a more expensive home, the cap based on your annual income can bind before the property limit does.
Every loan, overdraft and credit card facility counts towards the debt ceiling, whether you use it or not.
A price agreed is not a value confirmed. If the valuer comes in lower, the shortfall is yours to pay.
Joining the Land Department’s programme gives you a QR code, not a loan. The bank still assesses you in full.
Off-plan purchases are capped at 50% of value for every buyer, whatever the price and whoever is buying.
CredMe works out the property limit, the income limit and the income multiple from what you tell it, and shows which one is holding you back. It also shows the cash you would need on the day.
That is an initial assessment, not a lending decision. A CredMe Mortgage Consultant goes through it with you before any bank is approached, and the bank underwrites the application and makes the final decision. CredMe is not a bank and cannot approve or decline a mortgage.
Written by CredMe Team
Based on CredMe's mortgage assessment methodology and verified regulatory and government sources
Last reviewed 14 September 2026
Every lending limit here comes from the Central Bank rulebook, and every programme detail from the Dubai Land Department’s own pages. Each source was read on the date shown. The only AED figure outside the worked example is the AED 5 million line, which appears in both the Central Bank limits and the programme’s eligibility test.
Indicative guidance only. Not a formal offer of finance and not a lending decision. The limits described here are regulatory maximums; each bank applies its own criteria within them. Programme terms are set by the Dubai Land Department and its partners and can change. CredMe is not a bank and cannot approve or decline a mortgage. See our disclaimer.
How UAE lenders decide what you can borrow: income, existing commitments, residency, employment type and the property itself. Understand your position before you approach a bank.
What loan to value means on a UAE mortgage: what the ratio is measured against, which cap applies to which buyer and property, and why the regulatory maximum is an outer limit rather than an offer.
Your down payment is only part of the cash you need. Here is what CredMe budgets for on top of it, which costs apply to a resale, an off-plan purchase, a refinance and an equity release, and how each one is worked out.
Getting a mortgage in Dubai: what the Land Department charges to register a sale and a mortgage, what freehold and Oqood mean in practice, and which parts of the process are federal rather than local.
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