The Dubai Golden Visa for property buyers is a 10-year renewable residence permit. You can apply for it if you own real estate in Dubai with a purchase value of at least AED 2 million, about USD 545,000 at the dirham's fixed peg of 3.6725 to the dollar set by the Central Bank of the UAE. You don't need an employer or a local sponsor, your spouse, children and parents can be added to it, and long stays abroad don't cancel it as long as it doesn't expire while you are outside the UAE. The Dubai Land Department (DLD) handles the property check. Its service page, last updated on 14 October 2026 and checked by us on 20 October, puts the government fees for the main applicant at AED 9,884.75 and processing at 7 to 10 business days.
Who is eligible for a Dubai Golden Visa through property
Property is one of several ways in. The Golden Residency guide of the federal immigration authority (ICP) also covers skilled professionals earning at least AED 30,000 a month, entrepreneurs, people with exceptional talents and outstanding students (checked October 2026). The property route is the one open to a buyer whatever their job or income, and it's the one this page covers.
Any foreign national who owns qualifying Dubai property can apply. The rules don't depend on your passport, so a British, Indian, Russian or German buyer faces the same AED 2 million test. Nationality matters in one practical way. DLD requires the applicant to be inside the UAE when the application is filed, and nobody can apply on your behalf. UK citizens are on the visa-on-arrival list of Dubai's residency authority (GDRFA), so they can simply fly in. Indian passport holders get a visa on arrival only in specific cases, such as holding a US visa or green card or an EU residence permit. The list has changed several times since 2024, and in mid-2026 there were reports that UK documents alone would no longer qualify, so check with GDRFA or your airline before you fly. Otherwise you need an entry visa arranged in advance. For that case ICP issues an entry permit for real estate investors with AED 300 in fees, and its Golden Residency guide says eligible applicants who are outside the UAE get a six-month multiple-entry visa, renewable once, to complete the process (checked October 2026).
The property has to be in your name. DLD's wording is that it must be "wholly owned by the investor", in one or several properties, with a total purchase value of AED 2 million or more.
Dubai Golden Visa requirements for the property
DLD's service page measures the threshold by the purchase value at the time you bought, as recorded with DLD, not by today's market price. On that test a flat bought for AED 2.1 million in 2023 still qualifies if the market has since dipped, and a flat bought for AED 1.8 million that is now worth 2.3 million does not. GDRFA asks for the value to be certified by a property status certificate from DLD and adds that a valuation certificate from an office licensed by DLD "may be accepted". If your property has risen above AED 2 million since you bought it, ask DLD whether a valuation will be accepted in your case, and don't plan a purchase just under the threshold on the hope that it will.
Several properties can be combined
Two apartments at AED 1.2 million and AED 800,000 count the same as one villa at AED 2 million. Both deeds must be in the applicant's name. You don't have to live in any of them. Letting them out is fine, and the visa doesn't care where you actually sleep.
Off-plan units
Federal rules allow one or more off-plan units with a total value of at least AED 2 million, provided you buy from a developer approved by the local authority (ICP Golden Residency guide and the UAE Ministry of Economy and Tourism, checked October 2026). In Dubai the purchase is registered in Oqood, the DLD register for off-plan sales. DLD's investor service page doesn't mention off-plan units at all, so it doesn't say how much of the price must already be paid, and brokers give different answers. Ask DLD or the developer for the current position before you sign, not after.
Mortgaged property
A mortgage is allowed if the loan comes from an approved local bank (ICP). DLD's page, as updated in October 2026, asks for a no-objection letter in which the bank states that it doesn't object to a residence permit on the property and shows the amount paid and the balance, and, for a mortgaged property, a bank letter confirming that AED 2 million has been paid. Read literally, your paid-in amount has to reach AED 2 million, so on DLD's current wording a AED 3.5 million villa with AED 1.4 million paid would not qualify yet. GDRFA's own page says only that mortgaged property is acceptable.
Since January 2024 The National and Khaleej Times, citing a law firm and brokers, and in 2026 several Dubai agencies have reported that a mortgaged property qualifies on its full value, whatever you have paid. DLD has never announced it: its service page, updated on 14 October 2026, still asks for a bank letter showing AED 2 million paid, and we found nothing on ICP's pages either. Until it appears there, treat the paid-amount letter as the rule and confirm with DLD before you plan a purchase around a smaller deposit.
Joint ownership
GDRFA's service page answers this directly: if you own a share of a property, your share alone has to be worth at least AED 2 million. A couple who jointly own a AED 4 million villa in equal halves can therefore both qualify. A couple who share a AED 2.5 million flat can't, because neither half reaches the threshold, and the shares can't be added together. In that case the simpler route is for one partner to hold the qualifying property and sponsor the other. Decide this before the sale agreement is drafted: changing the names on the deed later is a new registration, with fees.
How much the Dubai Golden Visa costs
There are two separate bills: buying the property, and the visa itself.
On the purchase, DLD charges a registration fee of 4% of the price. Its sale registration page splits it as 2% for the buyer and 2% for the seller, but who pays what is settled in the sale agreement. On top come AED 250 for the title deed certificate and the registration trustee's fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT for a sale of AED 500,000 or more (DLD, Property Sale Registration, checked October 2026). On a AED 2 million flat the 4% comes to AED 80,000. With a mortgage, DLD adds 0.25% of the loan to register it, and the bank charges its own fees. Agent commission is separate.
For the visa, DLD lists these fees for the main applicant's 10-year permit:
| Item | AED |
|---|---|
| Medical fitness test | 700 |
| Emirates ID | 1,153 |
| Residency confirmation | 2,856.75 |
| DLD fees | 4,020 |
| Administrative fees | 1,155 |
| Total | 9,884.75 |
Source: DLD, Golden Visa application for investors, page updated 14 October 2026. Each sponsored family member is priced separately: AED 5,774.50 per spouse, child or parent, plus AED 100 per sponsored person and a one-off family file fee of AED 318.75. Every dependent also needs UAE health insurance. A couple with two children comes to about AED 27,800 in government fees, before insurance. If you need an entry permit to get into the country first, add ICP's AED 300.
How to apply
Property Golden Visas in Dubai go through DLD, which confirms the ownership and value, and then through GDRFA, which issues the permit. DLD lists Al Manara Center, the Golden Cube at the Dubai World Trade Centre and several registered real estate registration agents as service points.
- Check the file: title deed or Oqood registration in your name, total purchase value of AED 2 million or more, bank letters if the property is mortgaged.
- Go to a service point in person, submit the documents and pay the fees.
- Do the medical test, which can be done at the centre.
- Give fingerprints for the Emirates ID if required.
- Receive the residence permit by email and the Emirates ID card afterwards.
Documents for the main applicant are short: passport, title deed or e-title certificate, a personal photo, and your Emirates ID and current residence permit if you already have them. ICP's checklist adds a passport valid for at least six months and health insurance valid in the UAE. For family members DLD asks for a certified marriage contract, certified birth certificates, health insurance, an IBAN, and for children over 18 an undertaking that they are unmarried. Parents need a dependency certificate certified by the consulate. Certificates issued abroad usually have to be attested for use in the UAE, and that step often takes longer than the visa itself.
DLD quotes 7 to 10 business days from submission. Real timelines stretch when the mortgage letter or attested certificates are late, so start those first.
Dubai Golden Visa benefits, and the limits
What you get is residence. For 10 years you can live in the UAE, open bank accounts, get a driving licence, rent, enrol children in school and sign the everyday contracts that need an Emirates ID. The visa is self-sponsored, so it doesn't end if you change jobs or never work in the UAE at all.
Ordinary UAE residence visas lapse if you stay abroad for more than six months at a stretch. Golden Visa holders are exempt: GDRFA states that their permit is void only if it expires while they are outside the country. Plenty of owners hold it as a second base and spend most of the year elsewhere.
The family rules are wider than for ordinary residents. ICP's guide lists residence permits for spouses and for children regardless of their age, as well as for parents, and the right to sponsor domestic workers. If the main holder dies, sponsored family members may stay in the UAE until their own permits expire.
What you don't get is citizenship. The Golden Visa is a residence permit, and holding it for 10 or 20 years gives you no claim to a UAE passport. It also changes nothing about your tax position at home. Where you are tax resident depends on your home country's rules and any tax treaty, so ask a tax adviser in that country.
What happens after 10 years, or if you sell
GDRFA's service page says a lien is placed on the property to keep your ownership in place for the whole validity of the permit, and that the permit can be extended if the same conditions are still met (checked October 2026). Renewal at year ten is therefore the same test again: do you still own qualifying Dubai property? Keep it and you apply for another 10 years.
Selling is different. Because of the lien, you can't simply sell during the term, and once the property is gone the visa has lost its basis. If you want to switch assets, ask DLD how the lien is released and how the visa can move to a replacement property before you list anything. The same logic applies to off-plan: if RERA cancels a project, Dubai's escrow law obliges the developer to refund what you paid through a set procedure that can take time, but a refund isn't a property, and the visa's basis goes with it. For off-plan buyers, the developer's delivery record matters as much as the floor plan.
If AED 2 million is too much: two other property visas
DLD runs two more residence services for property owners. Both pages were updated on 14 October 2026.
The Golden Visa for retirees is for owners aged 55 or over whose property is worth at least AED 1 million, by purchase value or market value; DLD accepts either. A mortgaged property counts once AED 1 million has been paid. It gives a 5-year renewable permit, and DLD lists AED 6,984.75 in fees for the main applicant.
The investor residence visa (Taskeen) has no minimum value for a sole owner. Joint owners need a share worth at least AED 400,000 each. It runs for 2 years and costs AED 10,212.50 for the main applicant, so covering the decade a Golden Visa gives takes five applications and five rounds of fees. Older guides still quote a sole-owner minimum of AED 750,000, which DLD dropped in April 2026.
Where to start
Settle the budget first: property price, 4% DLD fee, trustee and agent fees, and about AED 10,000 in visa fees for you plus around AED 5,900 per family member. Then ask DLD or a registered agent to confirm how your particular deal will be assessed, especially if it involves a mortgage, an off-plan unit or a shared deed. For shortlisting, HomeNSearch lists 1,669 properties for sale in Dubai, and 800 of them are priced at AED 2 million or more, including 692 apartments and 61 villas (20 October 2026). Leaving a margin over the threshold, say AED 2.2 million and up, still leaves more than 700 to choose from. For rules that might have changed since this page was checked, DLD's own service page is the reference.
FAQ
How much money is required for a Dubai Golden Visa?
Property with a total purchase value of at least AED 2 million, about USD 545,000. On top of that come the 4% DLD registration fee on the purchase and around AED 9,900 in visa fees for the main applicant (DLD, October 2026).
Who is eligible for a Dubai Golden Visa?
Through property: any foreigner who wholly owns Dubai property with a combined purchase value of AED 2 million or more, is inside the UAE when applying, and has UAE health insurance. Nationality doesn't change the rules. Other routes exist for skilled professionals, entrepreneurs, exceptional talents and students.
Can I get a Dubai Golden Visa with a mortgage?
Yes, if the loan is from an approved local bank. DLD's page, as of October 2026, also asks for a no-objection letter from the bank and a letter showing that AED 2 million of the price has been paid. Some agencies say the paid-amount rule is no longer applied, so confirm with DLD before you buy.
Does an off-plan property qualify?
Federal rules accept off-plan units worth AED 2 million or more bought from an approved developer. How much must be paid before you can apply isn't stated on DLD's page, so confirm it with DLD before you sign.
Can a couple share one property for the Golden Visa?
Only if each partner's share is worth at least AED 2 million (GDRFA). Otherwise one partner holds the property and sponsors the other.
Can UK citizens get the Dubai Golden Visa?
Yes, on the same terms as everyone else. UK passport holders are on GDRFA's visa-on-arrival list, so they can enter and apply in person without arranging a visa first.
What happens after 10 years of Golden Visa in Dubai?
You can apply to extend it for another 10 years if you still meet the same conditions, above all owning the qualifying property, which stays under a lien for the whole term (GDRFA). If you sold it without replacing it, there's nothing to renew against. The Golden Visa never turns into citizenship.
