Golden Visa Through Property: 2026 Requirements and Thresholds
Almost every overseas buyer I speak to already knows the number. Two million dirhams of property, and the Golden Visa follows.
The number is right. It is the conditions attached to it that catch people, and the one that catches them most often has nothing to do with the price of the apartment.
What the threshold actually says
The Federal Authority for Identity, Citizenship, Customs and Port Security (ICP) sets the requirement at property with a Dubai Land Department (or relevant emirate land department) certified value of no less than AED 2,000,000, owned by the investor and evidenced by the required registration documents. The permit issued is ten years, renewable.
Two details in that sentence do more work than people expect.
Owned by the investor. The threshold is measured against your share, not the property. If the property is jointly owned, your individual share must still meet the qualifying value under the route you are applying through. Say you and a partner each hold half of a three million dirham apartment, neither of you has met it. Your half is 1.5 million.
One or more properties. You do not need a single qualifying unit. The Dubai Land Department accepts a combined portfolio, provided every property in it is registered to the applicant’s own name. Two apartments at 1.1 million each qualify. Two apartments where one is in your spouse’s name do not.
The condition that catches people
Here is the one worth remembering.
If the property carries a mortgage, Dubai no longer asks whether you have already paid AED 2 million towards it. That requirement was removed in 2026.
Instead, the question is whether the property has a Dubai Land Department certified value of at least AED 2 million. If it does, mortgaged property can qualify, provided your bank issues a No Objection Certificate confirming the mortgage details, including the amount paid and the outstanding balance.
So a buyer with a 2.6 million dirham apartment, 20% down and the rest financed, can still qualify for the Golden Visa. The property value is what matters. The bank’s letter supports the application, but the amount already repaid is no longer the deciding factor.
I still raise this early with anyone who is financing, because it changes what needs to be planned. The question is no longer how much equity you have built. It is whether the property’s certified value meets the threshold and whether your bank is willing to issue the required No Objection Certificate.
The two ways to apply
There are two doors into the same permit, and they are not equivalent on cost or speed.
| ICP (federal) | Dubai Land Department | |
|---|---|---|
| Permit | 10 years | 10 years, renewable |
| Stated fees | AED 300 | AED 9,884.75 |
| Stated timeframe | About 2 days | 7–10 business days |
| Attendance | Online service | In person, inside the UAE |
The gap in the fee column is not a discount. The ICP figure covers only part of the overall application process.; the Dubai figure is an all-in package that bundles the medical examination, the Emirates ID for ten years, the residency confirmation and the department’s own charges. You pay those costs on either route. One quotes them together and one does not.
What genuinely differs is attendance. The Dubai service requires the applicant to be in the country and to attend personally, with no representative permitted. If you are buying remotely, that is the constraint to plan around, not the money.
Off-plan, and what to confirm first
The federal framework allows off-plan property to count, bought from approved developers, at the same two million threshold.
In practice the document lists ask for a title deed, and an off-plan unit before handover has an Oqood registration rather than a title deed. Off-plan property purchased from an approved developer can qualify at the same AED 2 million threshold. The evidence accepted still varies by emirate and by stage of construction, particularly before a title deed has been issued.
If the visa is part of your reason for buying off-plan, confirm the position with the issuing authority for that emirate before you sign, and get it in writing. Do not take it from a sales office, including mine. The people who decide are the ones who should tell you.
What the permit gives you
Ten years, renewable on the same conditions, with no national sponsor required. You can sponsor your spouse, your children and your parents. You can also remain outside the UAE for longer than the six months that would normally lapse an ordinary residence visa, which matters if you are not relocating.
What it is not is permanent. It is a residence permit tied to the ownership that justified it. Sell down below the threshold and you should expect renewal to be assessed on what you hold at that point, not on what you once held.
If you are over 55
There is a separate route worth knowing. Dubai offers a retirement residence permit at AED 1 million of property for applicants aged 55 and above, for five years, renewable.
Half the capital, half the term. For a retiring buyer who does not want two million tied up in a single market, that trade is often the better one, and it is rarely mentioned.
The part I would push back on
Buying to obtain the visa is an expensive way to obtain a visa.
Dubai’s transfer fee is 4% of the purchase price. On a two million dirham purchase made to clear the threshold, that is AED 80,000 paid to the registry on the day you buy, before agency fees, before furnishing, before a single service charge invoice. The visa itself costs a few hundred dirhams through the ICP.
The permit is not the cost. The property is. Which means the property has to stand up on its own arithmetic — the yield after service charges, the realistic rent, the exit — because that is what you are actually buying. The residency is what comes with it.
Every buyer I have seen regret this bought the visa and accepted whatever asset delivered it. The ones who did well chose the asset first and collected the permit as a consequence.
Before you apply
Four things to confirm, in this order:
1. Is the full AED 2 million registered to you alone, across one property or several?
2. If there is a mortgage, does the property have a certified value of at least AED 2 million, and will the bank issue the required No Objection Certificate?
3. Which authority are you applying through, and does that route need you physically in the UAE?
4. If the property is off-plan, what evidence will that emirate accept in place of a title deed?
Answer those four honestly and the application is largely administrative. Skip the second one and you may find yourself missing a document you need before you even begin.
