The KEYORA Journal
Dubai property, explained properly
Ten long-form briefings on investing in Dubai real estate — the rules as they are written, the costs as they are charged, and the numbers as the registry records them. Written for buyers who would rather read the detail than be sold to.
Start here
How to buy property in Dubai as a foreigner: the 2026 process, step by step
You do not need residency, a local partner or a UAE bank account to own freehold property in Dubai. You do need to know which land you are allowed to own, what a Form F actually commits you to, and why the trustee office — not the agent — is where the deal becomes real.
Buying
How to buy property in Dubai as a foreigner: the 2026 process, step by step
You do not need residency, a local partner or a UAE bank account to own freehold property in Dubai. You do need to know which land you are allowed to own, what a Form F actually commits you to, and why the trustee office — not the agent — is where the deal becomes real.
All briefings
Nine more briefings
Costs
The true cost of buying in Dubai: every fee, line by line
Dubai has no annual property tax and no capital gains tax, which is why the entry costs surprise people. On a ready purchase they come to about 6 to 7 per cent of the price, and almost all of it is payable on transfer day.
Finance
Mortgages in Dubai: LTV caps, debt-burden limits and what banks ask of non-residents
The Central Bank sets two numbers — how much of the price you may borrow, and how much of your income may service debt. Everything else is bank policy, and bank policy is where non-resident applications are won or lost.
Off-plan
Off-plan or ready? How to choose, and how escrow actually protects you
Roughly seven in ten residential deals in Dubai are now off-plan. The payment plan is the attraction; the handover date, the assignment fee and the specification are the risk. Both can be managed — but only if you read the SPA before you read the brochure.
Yield
Where the yields actually are: Dubai rental returns by community
Gross yield is a marketing number. Net yield — after service charges, voids, letting commission and management — is the number you live on, and it reorders the league table completely.
Running costs
Service charges in Dubai: the line that decides your real return
Two apartments of identical size, in towers four hundred metres apart, can carry service charges that differ by AED 20,000 a year. Nobody mentions it at viewing. Here is how the system works and how to check a building before you buy into it.
Law
Dubai rental law for landlords: increases, notices and eviction
Dubai is a landlord-friendly market with one firm constraint: you cannot raise the rent by whatever the market will bear, and you cannot ask a tenant to leave on a whim. The rules are short, specific, and routinely broken by accident.
Residency
The Golden Visa through property: what AED 2 million actually buys
A ten-year renewable residence visa for a property owner, their spouse and their children, with no local sponsor. The threshold is simple; the conditions attached to it are where applications fail.
Prime
Where Dubai’s ultra-prime market actually lives
Six addresses account for most of Dubai’s eight-figure residential trade. Each one trades on a different scarcity — a beach, a lagoon, a plot size, a brand — and understanding which scarcity you are buying is the whole of prime investing.
Market
Reading the Dubai market: which data matters and which is noise
Two credible reports on the same Dubai quarter can differ by twenty billion dirhams, and neither is lying. Knowing what each one counts — and what the registry itself records — is the difference between informed and merely confident.
Want this applied to a specific building?
Send us the tower, the community or the unit you are weighing up and we will come back with the service charge history, the recorded transactions and what we think it is worth.