Dubai Mortgage for Non-Residents
What Banks Will Actually Lend
You do not need a UAE residence visa to borrow against a Dubai property — but you will borrow less, pay more for it, and clear a longer document list than a resident. This guide sets out what the published sources say about loan-to-value limits, lender terms and costs, and is explicit about where they disagree.
Yes, you can borrow — on tighter terms
A non-resident buyer is someone purchasing Dubai property without a UAE residence visa. That status does not shut you out of the mortgage market: several UAE banks run non-resident lending desks, and the Dubai Land Department mechanics are the ones every foreign buyer follows. What changes is the size of the loan, its price, and how much evidence you must produce.
The headline constraint is loan-to-value. Grovy, in its July 2026 summary of UAE mortgage rules, reports that most tier-one banks limit international non-residents to 50–60% LTV on ready assets — a deposit of 40% to 50%. Mortgease, updated 21 September 2026, gives the same band and describes it as lender policy that is “not guaranteed” rather than a regulatory ceiling. For comparison, Grovy puts an expatriate resident buying a first home under AED 5 million at up to 80%, and a UAE national at 85%.
That distinction matters. Both Mortgease and Kotook state plainly that the Central Bank of the UAE does not publish a fixed non-resident LTV matrix, and that the real limits come from each bank’s credit policy. We could not retrieve a Central Bank document setting a non-resident cap, so this report does not claim one exists. Treat the 50–60% band as what lenders are reported to be doing, not a rule you can hold a bank to.
Off-plan is where the sources agree on a hard number. Grovy and Mortgease both put the maximum LTV on any off-plan purchase at 50%, applying to every buyer category rather than non-residents specifically. Mortgease attributes that cap to Central Bank rules and adds that non-resident off-plan lending is limited in practice, depending on lender, project and construction stage. Our off-plan mortgage guide covers when a bank will lend against an under-construction unit.
Every figure below carries its publisher and publication date. Where the sources conflict — and on non-resident deposits they do — we show both numbers rather than picking one. Where we could not retrieve a figure, including current October 2026 rates, we left it out. The gaps are listed in full below.
Non-resident lending, line by line
Four published guides, each counting slightly differently. Rather than reconcile them into one number, each row carries its publisher, dated in the legend below.
| Item | Reported figure | Scope / caveat | Source & date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-resident LTV, ready | 50–60% | Lender policy, not a published cap | Grovy; Mortgease |
| Non-resident deposit | 40–50% | Implied by the LTV band above | Mortgease |
| Non-resident deposit | 35–40% | Conflicts with the row above | Kotook |
| Off-plan LTV, all buyers | 50% maximum | Attributed to CBUAE rules | Grovy; Mortgease |
| Maximum tenure | 25 years | Non-resident products often shorter | Grovy; Mortgease |
| Age at maturity | 65 salaried / 70 self-employed | Entry from age 21 | Grovy; RECD |
| Debt burden ratio | 50% of gross income | Stress-tested at +2 to +4pp | Grovy |
| Minimum income | AED 15,000 a month | Or home-currency equivalent | RECD |
| DLD transfer fee | 4% of price | Buyer typically pays | Grovy |
| DLD mortgage registration | 0.25% of loan + AED 290 | Registers the bank’s lien | Mortgease; RECD |
| Bank arrangement fee | 0.5–1% of loan | Minimum AED 5,000 reported | Grovy; RECD |
| Valuation and trustee | AED 2,500–3,500 / AED 2,000–4,200 | Trustee by price tier | Grovy; Mortgease |
| Insurance | 0.4–0.8% a year / AED 1,000–2,500 a year | Life on balance; property annual | RECD |
| Early settlement fee | 1% of balance, capped | AED 10,000 variable / AED 100,000 fixed | RECD |
| Total upfront budget | 6–7% / 7–8% of price | Includes 2% agency fee + 5% VAT | Grovy; RECD |
Sources, retrieved 9 October 2026. Grovy, “UAE Mortgage Rules 2026: New LTV Limits Explained”, 3 July 2026. Mortgease, “Non-Resident Mortgage UAE Guide 2026”, updated 21 September 2026. RECD, Real Estate Club Dubai, “How to Get a Dubai Mortgage as a Non-Resident”, 16 February 2026. Kotook, “Dubai Mortgage for Non-Residents (2026 Update)”, 16 December 2025. All four are broker, lender or developer guides; none is a Central Bank publication. Conflicting figures are shown as published, not averaged.
Six things that decide your application
Where non-resident lending differs in substance from a resident application.
The biggest difference from a resident application. Grovy and Mortgease both report 50–60% on ready assets, against up to 80% for an expatriate resident buying a first home under AED 5 million. On an AED 2 million apartment at 55% LTV that is an AED 900,000 deposit before fees — an illustration from those inputs, not a quoted product.
Real Estate Club Dubai’s February 2026 table names Emirates NBD at 50% LTV, FAB at 55%, ADCB and HSBC at 60% and Mashreq at 65%, with minimum property values from AED 500,000 to AED 1,000,000. It labels those indicative. Kotook names Dubai Islamic Bank as an Islamic option; our Ijara guide explains that structure.
Real Estate Club Dubai reports a minimum income of AED 15,000 a month or the home-currency equivalent, and an age range of 21 to 65, extending to 70 for some self-employed borrowers. Mortgease notes income is assessed in the country where it is earned — hence the tax returns.
Passport with six months’ validity, proof of address under three months old, a home-country credit report, bank statements, a salary certificate and employer letter, and one to two years of tax returns — audited accounts if self-employed. Anything not in English or Arabic needs certified translation, per Mortgease.
Kotook’s December 2025 guide lists the UK, EU states, USA, Canada, Australia, India, Pakistan, Russia, China and most GCC states among those widely accepted, and reports that applicants from sanctioned or high-risk jurisdictions are almost always declined. Mortgease adds that acceptance lists vary by lender and change. This sits alongside the standard AML source-of-funds checks.
You do not have to be in Dubai for every step. Mortgease prices a power of attorney at AED 2,000 to AED 5,000. See our guides to POA for Dubai property and buying remotely.
Want to know what you would actually be offered?
Published LTV bands are a starting point, not a decision. Tell us your nationality, where your income is earned and the budget, and we will tell you which lenders are worth approaching and which are not.
Reading Non-Resident Terms Properly
Three things the published numbers do not say outright.
There is no published non-resident cap to appeal to
The most useful thing in all four sources is a negative. Mortgease and Kotook both state that the Central Bank does not publish a fixed non-resident LTV matrix, and that the limits buyers see are lender credit policy. The practical consequence: there is no rule to cite when one bank offers 50% and another 60%. It is a commercial negotiation across a small panel, which is why Real Estate Club Dubai’s table spreads from 50% at Emirates NBD to 65% at Mashreq.
The deposit figures genuinely conflict
Mortgease, updated September 2026, implies a 40–50% deposit from a 50–60% LTV. Kotook, from December 2025, says non-residents typically need 35–40% while elsewhere giving LTVs that imply more. We have not reconciled them because we cannot: either one is wrong or policy moved between the dates, and the published material does not say which. Budget on the higher figure.
Fees are the part people underestimate
The deposit is visible; the transaction costs are not. Grovy advises budgeting 6–7% of the price for upfront costs that cannot be financed, and Real Estate Club Dubai says 7–8%. On that basis a non-resident buying at AED 2 million needs roughly AED 1 million of deposit at 50% LTV plus AED 120,000 to AED 160,000 of costs — an illustration from those published percentages, not a quote. Our DLD fee breakdown itemises the government side.
Non-resident financing in Dubai is real and routine, but it is a half-loan, not a full one, and the published bands are indicative rather than binding. The decision you are actually making is whether tying up 40% to 50% of the price in equity still clears your return threshold — an arithmetic question about yield, not one about eligibility.
From enquiry to registered mortgage
The sequence is the one residents follow, with more evidence at the front: assemble the document pack, obtain a pre-approval, find the property, sign the sale agreement, have the bank value the unit, receive the final offer letter, then complete at a Dubai Land Department trustee office where the transfer and mortgage are registered together. Our guides to pre-approval and the mortgage process cover each step.
Two points are specific to non-residents. Eligibility is limited to designated freehold areas, and Mortgease reports that visit-visa holders cannot access mortgages at all — a different status from non-resident. And your credit history is assessed abroad, so a home-country credit report under three months old does the work an AECB score does for a resident.
Be careful with any rate you read, including the ones here. The most recent indicative figures we could retrieve are Real Estate Club Dubai’s February 2026 table — HSBC 4.69% on a two-year fix, Emirates NBD 4.99% on three years, FAB 5.15%, ADCB 5.25% and Mashreq 5.49% on five years — and Kotook’s December 2025 range of about 5% to 6.5%. Both are labelled indicative, both predate this report by months, and Real Estate Club Dubai’s own summary range of 4.5% to 6.5% contradicts its own table. We have not published a current October 2026 rate because we could not source one. Our note on the recent rate rise covers the direction of travel.
If you already own in Dubai and want to release capital rather than buy, that is a different product — see equity release. If you are weighing a mortgage against a developer plan, our post-handover payment plan guide sets out what those cost.
We could not retrieve, from a named and dated source: a Central Bank of the UAE document setting a non-resident loan-to-value cap; current October 2026 non-resident rates; any bank’s minimum loan size as opposed to minimum property value; each bank’s eligible-nationality list; the number or value of non-resident mortgages written in Dubai; approval rates or processing times; or whether the five banks named still offer their February 2026 terms. Rather than estimate or carry a stale figure forward as current, we left them out.
This guide summarises what named third-party publications reported on the dates given. It is general information, not financial, mortgage or legal advice, and not an offer of credit. Lender criteria, LTV limits, rates and fees are set by each bank, change without notice, and the figures here conflict in places. Confirm current terms with the lender or a licensed mortgage broker before committing.
Non-Resident Mortgage FAQ
The questions overseas buyers ask most before approaching a UAE bank.
Yes. Several UAE banks lend to non-residents, meaning buyers who hold no UAE residence visa, and the Dubai Land Department registration process is the same one every foreign buyer follows. The trade-off is loan size. Grovy, in its July 2026 summary of UAE mortgage rules, reports that most tier-one banks limit international non-residents to between 50% and 60% loan-to-value on ready property, and Mortgease gives the same band in a guide updated on 21 September 2026 — implying a deposit of 40% to 50%. Two limits to note: Mortgease reports that visit-visa holders cannot access mortgages at all, a different status from non-resident, and lending is confined to designated freehold areas.
The published sources disagree, and we have not reconciled them. Mortgease, updated 21 September 2026, implies a deposit of 40% to 50% from a loan-to-value band of 50% to 60% on ready property. Kotook, published 16 December 2025, states that non-residents typically need a 35% to 40% down payment, while elsewhere giving loan-to-value figures that imply more. Either lender policy moved between those dates or one figure is wrong, and the published material does not say which. For off-plan the sources do agree: Grovy and Mortgease both cap loan-to-value at 50% for all buyers. Budget on the higher deposit figure.
Real Estate Club Dubai, in a guide published 16 February 2026, names five banks with indicative terms: Emirates NBD at 50% loan-to-value with a minimum property value of AED 500,000, FAB at 55% with a AED 750,000 minimum, ADCB at 60% with a AED 750,000 minimum, HSBC at 60% with a AED 1,000,000 minimum, and Mashreq at 65% with a AED 500,000 minimum. Kotook separately names Dubai Islamic Bank as an Islamic option. Those figures are labelled indicative and were published months before this report, so confirm current terms with each bank.
For ready property, Grovy and Mortgease both report a band of 50% to 60%, and Real Estate Club Dubai names Mashreq at 65%. For off-plan, both put the ceiling at 50% for every buyer category, with Mortgease attributing that cap to Central Bank of the UAE rules. The more important point: both Mortgease and Kotook state the Central Bank does not publish a fixed non-resident loan-to-value matrix, so these bands are lender credit policy, not a regulatory limit you can hold a bank to. We could not retrieve a Central Bank document setting a non-resident cap, and this guide does not claim one exists.
Real Estate Club Dubai, published 16 February 2026, reports a minimum income of AED 15,000 a month or the home-currency equivalent, and an age range of 21 to 65 extending to 70 for some self-employed borrowers. Affordability is then tested through the debt burden ratio: Grovy reports that total monthly debt payments including the proposed mortgage cannot exceed 50% of gross monthly income, stress-tested by adding two to four percentage points. On documents, Mortgease lists a passport with six months of validity, proof of address under three months old, a home-country credit report, bank statements, payslips, an employer reference and one to two years of tax returns — audited accounts if self-employed. Anything not in English or Arabic needs certified translation.
Grovy advises budgeting roughly 6% to 7% of the purchase price for upfront costs that cannot be financed through the mortgage, while Real Estate Club Dubai puts it at 7% to 8%. The itemised charges reported across those sources are a Dubai Land Department transfer fee of 4%, mortgage registration of 0.25% of the loan plus an AED 290 admin fee, a bank arrangement fee of 0.5% to 1% with a reported minimum of AED 5,000, valuation of AED 2,500 to AED 3,500, a registration trustee fee of AED 2,000 to AED 4,200, agency commission of 2% plus 5% VAT, and life and property insurance.
Find Out What You Can Actually Borrow
Published loan-to-value bands do not tell you which lender will say yes to your nationality, your income currency and your target building. We work with the non-resident desks directly and will tell you plainly when the numbers do not support the purchase.
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