Mortgages in Dubai
Buying in Dubai involves two separate systems, and most of the confusion comes from mixing them up. What you can borrow is set nationally. What happens to the property is handled locally.
Short answer
What you can borrow is national. The Central Bank sets the same limits whether the property is in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah.
What happens to the property is local. The Dubai Land Department registers the sale, registers the mortgage separately, and charges for each.
Mortgage lending is regulated by the Central Bank for the whole country. Four things are fixed nationally, and none of them changes because your property is in Dubai:
How UAE mortgages work covers that layer, and what UAE banks look at covers the limits in detail.
What Dubai handles is the property side. It records who owns the property, registers the bank’s security against it, and charges for both. These are Land Department transactions with published fees, and they are the part of buying in Dubai you will not find in the mortgage regulations.
The Land Department states the fee as 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the buyer, plus AED 250 for issuing the title deed certificate, and AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees.
A separate transaction from the sale. It costs 0.25% of the mortgage value where an ordinary mortgage and an ordinary or usufruct title deed exist, a usufruct being a long-term right to use a property you do not own outright. Plus AED 250 for issuing the title deed, and the same AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation fees.
Registration happens at a Real Estate Registration Trustee centre. On a mortgage registration the service-partner fee is AED 4,000 plus VAT, or AED 5,000 plus VAT where registration is provisional (the off-plan case).
In the freehold areas (the parts of Dubai where non-nationals can own property outright) the developer must supply a no-objection certificate before a sale can be registered.
One point is worth separating out, because you will usually see it stated the other way. The sale fee is often quoted as a single 4% paid by the buyer. The Land Department’s own service card states it as 2% from the seller and 2% from the buyer. That adds up to 4% of the sale value. Who actually bears which share in a particular transaction is a matter for the parties, not something the Land Department sets.
Every figure above is quoted from the Land Department’s own service cards, linked at the foot of this page and read on the date shown. Extra map and certificate charges apply depending on the property. Your bank will also have costs of its own, which have nothing to do with the Land Department.
One thing worth knowing.The figures on this page are the charges the Dubai Land Department publishes. CredMe’s own upfront-cost estimate may differ, because CredMe uses its own buyer-cost model to work out the cash you are likely to need on the day. Neither is wrong. They answer different questions. Government-published charges are what an authority levies; CredMe’s estimate is what we budget for you.
What you could borrow, and which limit is holding you back. This is national and applies wherever in the UAE you buy.
Ready or off-plan, and whether it is in a freehold area. Both change what follows.
What you can borrow is worked out against the bank’s valuation, not the asking price or your own estimate.
Identity, proof of income, and in the freehold areas the developer’s no-objection certificate.
At a Real Estate Registration Trustee centre, where the Land Department’s sale fees are paid.
A second, separate registration against the property. The bank may submit it online, with the department taking its fees from the bank’s account.
Two parts of that sequence have their own guides: what a pre-approval commits a bank to before you make an offer, and how financing works when the home is not built yet, including Oqood registration.
Borrowing is capped at 50% of the value for off-plan property, regardless of purpose, value or who is buying. That is a national rule and it applies in Dubai like anywhere else.
A sale and a mortgage are two separate registrations with two separate fees. Budgeting for one and not the other is a common and avoidable surprise.
If the bank values the property below the price you agreed, you cover the difference in cash.
Developer, bank, trustee centre and Land Department all have to line up. Documents pulled together late are the usual reason a completion slips.
The registration works the same way, but the decision does not. Moving an existing mortgage turns on whether the saving covers the cost of switching. Switching while taking cash out adds a second question on top of it. And releasing equity from a property you own outright is a different journey again, because there is nothing to redeem.
All three involve registering a mortgage against the property, or changing which bank holds it. So the Land Department’s mortgage registration charge is part of the sums in every case.
Two things change a Dubai application more than the emirate does. If you are buying without living in the UAE, what changes for a non-resident buyer is worth reading, and it is less than most people are told. If you earn through a business rather than a salary, how banks check business income is the whole question.
Neither is a Dubai question. Both are bank questions. Each bank sets its own board-approved policy for how it checks income, how much of a property’s value it will lend, and over how many years.
CredMe asks which emirate your property is in, because government charges are set by the emirate rather than nationally, and prices the transaction accordingly. It shows what you could borrow, which limit is holding you back, and what you would need on the day, then which lenders fit your file and why. Completing the assessment produces a CredReport.
That analysis is an initial assessment, not a lending decision. A CredMe Mortgage Consultant reviews it with you, picks up what the automated pass could not see, and refines it before any lender is approached. The lender 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 16 August 2026
Every charge on this page is quoted from the Dubai Land Department’s own service cards, and every lending limit from the Central Bank rulebook. Both were read on the date shown. Government fees change, and the linked service card is always the current authority; a figure here that disagrees with it is out of date.
Indicative guidance only. Not a formal offer of finance and not a lending decision. Government charges depend on the specific transaction and the property, and lender charges are separate. Regulatory limits are maximums; each lender applies its own criteria, and every figure depends on full underwriting by the lender. CredMe is not a bank and cannot approve or decline a mortgage. See our disclaimer.
How mortgages work in the UAE: what the Central Bank fixes, what each lender decides, and which question to answer first depending on whether you are buying, refinancing or self-employed.
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.
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.
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