Freehold areas in Dubai: where foreigners can buy, and how to check (2026)

Freehold areas in Dubai are the parts of the emirate where non-UAE nationals may own property outright, with no time limit. Everywhere else, ownership is reserved to UAE and GCC nationals.

The areas are set by law, plot by plot. Regulation No. 3 of 2006 named 23 land areas, and a series of later regulations and resolutions has added plots since. In January 2025 the Dubai Land Department also opened 457 private plots on Sheikh Zayed Road and in Al Jaddaf to conversion to freehold.

This guide sets out what the official instruments say and how to check a specific home. For an overview of the city, area by area, see our guide to Dubai areas and districts and the Dubai area pages. For the rules in the other emirates, see can foreigners buy property in the UAE?.

Law No. 7 of 2006 on real property registration in Dubai restricts ownership to UAE nationals, GCC nationals, companies wholly owned by them and public joint stock companies. Article 4 then allows an exception.

Subject to the Ruler's approval, and in areas the Ruler determines, non-UAE nationals may be granted:

• freehold ownership of real property without a time restriction; or
• usufruct or leasehold over real property for a period not exceeding 99 years.

Three further articles matter to every buyer. Article 6 makes the Dubai Land Department the only body that can register property rights. Article 9 says a transaction that creates or transfers a right is not valid until it is recorded in the Property Register. And Article 24 gives title deeds issued from the register absolute evidentiary value. In practice, that means the register, not the brochure, decides what you own.

Regulation No. 3 of 2006, issued on 7 June 2006, designated 23 land areas. Article 3 lists them by their official land-area names and plot numbers, as shown on the Dubai Land Department's maps, and allows freehold without a time limit, or usufruct or leasehold for up to 99 years, on each.

Article 4 of the original regulation added one more plot, Nad Al Sheba plot 224, for usufruct or leasehold only. That was changed in 2010, as the next section explains.

Why so few names? Each official land area is large. Emirates Hills, Al Barsha South, Jebel Ali and Nad Al Sheba plots, for example, were vast master-development parcels on which whole communities have since been built under their own marketing names. That is why a short list in 2006 covers so much of where new homes are sold today.

Plots have been added at least nine times since, by regulations and resolutions published on the Dubai Legislation Portal, and once more by the Dubai Land Department's 2025 conversion scheme. Most additions grant freehold; two grant only time-limited rights.

Several of the resolutions also confirm, retrospectively, dispositions made on those plots before they were added, and most take effect on the day they are issued. The Arabic text of each instrument prevails over the English translation.

On 19 January 2025 the Dubai Land Department announced that private property owners on 457 plots could convert to freehold ownership, open to all nationalities. That is 128 plots on Sheikh Zayed Road, from the Trade Centre Roundabout to the Water Canal, and 329 plots in Al Jaddaf.

The department set out the process as follows:

1. Check eligibility in the Dubai REST app.
2. Apply to the department for a land assessment and valuation.
3. Service charges and common-area fees are set under the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's guidelines.
4. Pay the conversion fee, which the department gave as 30% of the property's valuation, based on gross floor area.
5. Receive a map and a freehold title deed once payment is processed.

For a buyer, the point is simple. A building on one of these plots may be offered for sale after conversion, and the seller should be able to show the freehold title deed. If the conversion has not been completed, the existing title is what you would be buying.

Our Al Jaddaf and Sheikh Zayed Road pages cover both areas in detail.

Which off-plan projects are on sale in Al Jaddaf and on Sheikh Zayed Road?

The tables below are built from our project data and change whenever we add or update a project. Check the plot and the title for any home you consider, as described later in this guide.

Because the law uses official land-area names and plot numbers, and brochures use community names. Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Hills Estate and many other communities were built on designated land, under names chosen by their master developers.

That gap is the main source of confusion about freehold in Dubai, and it cuts both ways:

• A famous community name does not prove a plot is freehold. Some districts contain both freehold and other plots. Our Al Sufouh page, for example, explains that its plots carry a mix of free-zone leasehold and freehold title depending on which authority granted them.
• An unfamiliar land-area name does not mean a plot is not freehold. The designated land areas sit beneath many communities under other names.

We track off-plan projects in 58 Dubai areas. The communities where developers sell new homes to international buyers include Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, Dubai Islands, Dubai Creek Harbour, Jumeirah Village Circle, Dubai Hills Estate, Mohammed Bin Rashid City, Dubailand and Dubai South. Each area page sets out the ownership position and the projects on sale.

Even in a well-known freehold community, confirm the specific plot. It takes minutes, and it is the only check that settles the question.

Freehold is ownership with no end date. Leasehold and usufruct are time-limited rights to use a property, which return to the landowner when the term ends. Law No. 7 of 2006 caps both at 99 years in Dubai.

A 99-year right is valuable, but it shortens every year, and banks and resale buyers treat it differently from freehold. If a sales document uses any word other than freehold, ask what the term is and what happens at its end. Musataha, a right to build on another's land, is used more in Abu Dhabi; our foreign ownership guide explains it alongside the other emirates' rules.

Ask for the plot, check the project's registration, and read the type of right on the registration document. The Dubai Land Department's register is the record; anything else is a description.

1. Get the land area and plot number. The developer or seller can give them, usually from the plot's affection plan or the sale and purchase agreement (SPA). Compare the land area with the lists above.
2. Check the project with the Dubai Land Department. For an off-plan home, the project must be registered and have an escrow account. You can look up projects and their status in the Dubai REST app. Our guide to Dubai's escrow law explains why that matters.
3. Read the type of right. Your Oqood registration, and later your title deed, states the right you hold. Freehold has no end date; a usufruct or leasehold certificate states its term.
4. Verify an existing title. On a resale, check the seller's title deed with the Dubai Land Department's title deed verification service, on its website or the Dubai REST app.
5. Ask if anything is unclear. The u.ae government portal directs buyers to the Dubai Land Department and the Real Estate Regulatory Agency for questions on ownership.

The Dubai Land Department's published guidance is that all property transactions not registered in its registers are invalid, so a home that cannot be registered in your name is not one to buy.

Freehold gives you ownership of your unit with no end date: you can live in it, let it, sell it, mortgage it, give it away and leave it to your heirs, subject to registration with the Dubai Land Department. It does not free you from the rules of the building or community you buy into.

Apartments and shared buildings. Most freehold homes in Dubai are units in jointly owned property. Under Law No. 6 of 2019 you own your unit outright and a share of the common parts, calculated by the ratio of your unit's area to the total area of the property. You pay your share of RERA-approved service charges, whether or not you live there.

Villas and townhouses. In most villa communities the buyer owns the house and its plot, within a master community. The master developer's community rules and charges still apply.

What freehold does not change. Planning and building rules, community rules, service charges and the need to register every transaction all apply to freehold owners. Renting the home out still needs an Ejari registration, or a holiday home permit for short stays.

Off-plan buyers. Until the building is complete, your right is recorded on Oqood. The Dubai Land Department transfers fully paid units to the main register and issues a title deed or usufruct certificate. Our handover guide explains that step.

No. The u.ae government portal says foreigners who do not live in the UAE, as well as expatriate residents, may acquire freehold ownership in designated areas, and that there is no age limit to own property in Dubai.

You can buy off-plan remotely, and the developer registers the sale on Oqood in your name. Buying from a particular country is covered in our guides for buyers from the UK, India, Pakistan and the USA. The step-by-step process is in how to buy off-plan property in Dubai.

Not by itself. Owning freehold property does not grant a visa, but property of sufficient value can support one. Our guide to the golden visa through UAE property explains the AED 2 million route, and golden visa cost sets out what it costs.

• Freehold area. A land area designated for ownership by non-UAE nationals without a time limit.
• Land area. The official name of a part of Dubai on the Dubai Land Department's maps, such as Al Barsha South 2.
• Plot number. The number of a land plot within a land area.
• Leasehold. A registered lease of up to 99 years.
• Usufruct. A registered right to use a property and take its income for a term, without owning it.
• Oqood. The Dubai Land Department's interim register for off-plan sales, and the certificate issued from it.
• Title deed. The certificate of ownership issued from the Property Register.

Compare places on our Dubai area pages and in our guide to Dubai areas and districts, or browse every off-plan project. Tell us your budget, the home you want and where you need to be each day, and we will send a shortlist of freehold projects that fit, with the plot and registration checked for each.