Visas & immigration
Golden Visa through property investment
AED 2 million of UAE property buys a five-year renewable residence with no employer and no sponsor. The threshold is measured on the title deed, and since February 2026 it no longer has to be paid down before you qualify.
What it is
Who this is actually for.
This is the route most people mean when they say 'Dubai golden visa'. You buy residential or commercial property in the UAE with a value of at least AED 2 million on the Dubai Land Department title deed — or on the Oqood contract for an off-plan unit — and you become eligible for a five-year renewable residence that no employer controls. The property can be mortgaged. It can be off-plan. It can be more than one unit combined to reach the threshold, provided the registration reflects that. What it cannot be is a valuation you commissioned yourself: the figure the authority reads is the one on the government register, which is why a property bought below the line does not become eligible because the market moved.
The rule that changed matters. Until early 2026 an applicant had to have paid at least AED 1 million, or half the value, before the file would be accepted — which excluded most people on a developer payment plan in the first two years. That upfront requirement has been removed, and the total value shown on the title deed or Oqood is now what counts. In practice this opened the route to buyers midway through an off-plan schedule, and it is the single most common reason an application that failed in 2024 succeeds now. It is also why advice written before 2026 on this subject is actively misleading rather than merely dated.
The other property route
There is a separate five-year category for someone contributing to an establishment that pays at least AED 250,000 a year in taxes. It is a different test — business contribution rather than asset ownership — and it is assessed on the company's tax position rather than yours. Most applicants who qualify under it are already directors of an operating UAE business and would in any case be looking at the entrepreneur or public investment route.
What it does not give you
A Golden Visa is not citizenship, it does not exempt you from Emirates ID or health insurance, and it does not make you tax resident anywhere by itself. It also lapses if the qualifying property is sold and not replaced — the residence is tied to the asset, and the authority does check at renewal.
The conditions, precisely
- Threshold
- AED 2,000,000 registered value
- Evidence
- DLD title deed, or Oqood contract for off-plan
- Mortgage
- Permitted; the registered value is what is assessed
- Duration
- 5 years, renewable while the asset is held
- Family
- Spouse and children may be sponsored under the same file
- Where filed
- The emirate's GDRFA, or ICP for the northern emirates
How long it takes
The sequence
How it runs, in order.
- Check the registered value, not the purchase priceThe title deed figure is what is assessed. Fees, agency commission and furniture are not part of it, and a property bought at AED 1.95 million does not qualify because you spent AED 2.1 million all-in.
- Get the deed or Oqood in the applicant's own nameJoint ownership with a spouse is accepted in most cases with the spouse sponsored as a dependent, but a company-held property does not qualify the individual shareholder.
- Apply through the correct channelDubai property goes through GDRFA-Dubai, most commonly via the Dubai REST or ICP channels. Other emirates route through ICP. Using the wrong one does not fail the application, it just restarts it.
- Complete medical and biometricsThe same fitness test and Emirates ID enrolment as any residence, done inside the UAE after the entry permit or status change.
- Sponsor the family separatelySpouse and children are added to your file once your own residence is issued, not in the same submission.
Related
Questions
Yes. The Oqood contract registered with the Dubai Land Department serves the same evidential purpose as a title deed, and since February 2026 the amount paid to date no longer matters — the registered value does.
Yes. A mortgage does not reduce the registered value for this purpose. Some banks will ask for a no-objection letter, and it is worth confirming that before applying rather than during.
The residence is tied to holding a qualifying asset. Selling without replacing it puts the next renewal at risk, and the authority verifies ownership at renewal rather than taking the previous approval on trust.
It can be reached across more than one property, but the registration has to show it. Two units of AED 1 million each held by the same owner are generally accepted; the same value split between two different owners is not.
One question
Who is going to sponsor this residence?
Then most of this is out of your hands and that is usually fine — the employer holds the quota, files the permit and carries the cost. What is worth checking before you sign is the job title going on the permit, because it decides your skill classification, and that in turn decides whether you can sponsor a family later.
How the employment route runsOr just ask usThen the visa and the company are one decision. Quota comes from the licence and the premises, so a package chosen on price can quietly cap you at one or two visas — which is discovered at the point you want to bring your spouse or your first hire.
Compare the 40 authoritiesOr just ask usThen you are looking at the Golden Visa, the Green Visa, or the remote work permit, and they are not interchangeable. The Green Visa needs a freelance permit and an income history; the Golden Visa needs an asset, an endorsement or a nomination; the remote work permit needs a foreign employer and lasts a year.
The three self-sponsored routesOr just ask us