In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →A buyer in London, Mumbai or Toronto can choose a flat in Dubai without boarding a plane. Whether the same buyer can also sign for it, pay for it and register it from a sofa is a different question, and the answer changes from one step to the next. Some stages are fully online. For one of the most important, the Dubai Land Department's own service page names a single channel, the registration trustee centre, while its frequently asked questions also describe a registration by recorded video call.
In between stands the broker. This guide sets out what the sources say a broker's work covers for an absent buyer and where it stops. It follows a purchase in order: who the overseas buyers are according to official figures, what a broker does for a client who is absent, which steps the Land Department lets a buyer do at a distance, how the price and the fees are paid, who pays the broker, and how a broker can be checked from another country. It describes the position as read in October 2026, on the Land Department's pages, Dubai Media Office releases, Gulf News and two guides published by the brokerage Betterhomes, which are quoted as that company's account and not as rules.
Gulf News, 12 January 2026, citing Dubai Land Department data; Dubai Land Department frequently asked questions and initial sale registration page, read in October 2026.
Who buys from abroad, in the official figures
The Land Department does not publish, on any page read for this guide, a table of buyers by passport. What it does publish, through the Dubai Media Office and the press, is a count of investors split by where they live and by broad origin.
Related readSingapore estate agency agreements: the forms buyers and tenants signFor 2025 as a whole, Gulf News reported on 12 January 2026, citing Land Department data, that Dubai recorded about 270,000 real estate transactions worth AED 917 billion, which the report writes as Dh917 billion, and gave a rise of 20 per cent on 2024. The same report counted 129,400 new investors and put non-resident investors at 14 per cent of overall market participation. It gave residents as 23 per cent of the total, without saying what the remaining share is made of.
The half-year release is more detailed. The Dubai Media Office said on 20 July 2025 that 94,717 investors made 118,132 investments worth about AED 326 billion in the first six months of 2025. Of those investors, 59,075 were new to the market, and UAE residents made up 45 per cent of the newcomers. The release does not state the non-resident share, and a reader should not assume that the other 55 per cent all live abroad, since the release does not say so.
The same release splits the money by origin of the investor.
Dubai Media Office release of 20 July 2025, Dubai Land Department data. The release does not say how the three groups add up to the total of about AED 326 billion.
The release does not define "foreign", so the figure cannot be read as money from buyers living abroad. Neither the release nor the Gulf News report names a single nationality. Official rankings of buyers by country exist for older periods, 2015 and January 2016 to June 2017, in Land Department releases; no newer official ranking was found, so none is given here.
What a broker does for a buyer who is not there
The Land Department describes the broker's legal tools in its Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide, second edition, November 2024. The guide lists three electronic contracts. Contract A is a marketing agreement between a seller and a brokerage. Contract B is an agreement of desire to purchase between a buyer and a broker. Contract F is the agreement to sell between seller and buyer. The guide says all brokers are mandated to use electronic contracts to record sales, and that all real estate sales are handled through real estate registration trustee offices.
Related readWhat a buyer or tenant can expect of a property agent in SingaporeThe guide says nothing about clients who live in another country. It has no section on video viewings, remote dealing or powers of attorney. What a broker does for an absent buyer is therefore described by brokerages, and what follows on that point is one company's account.
Betterhomes, a Dubai brokerage, published a guide to buying from abroad on 25 August 2026. It lists eight stages: establishing what a foreigner may buy, setting a budget, setting up a power of attorney, working with a licensed agent, signing the sale agreement, obtaining the developer's no-objection certificate, completing the transfer at a trustee office, and receiving the ownership document. On viewings, the guide says many developers offer virtual tours and mock-up units so that a buyer can look at a property from a distance. On signing, it says the sale agreement, which it calls Form F or the memorandum of understanding, must be signed digitally through the Dubai REST application because paper copies are no longer accepted, and that a representative holding a power of attorney can sign in the buyer's place. On timing, it gives two to six weeks from signature to title deed for a completed home.
Nothing in these sources says a broker may sign for the buyer. The Department's pages speak of a representative acting under a valid power of attorney, which is a separate document.
Remote, in person or by representative
The useful question for an overseas buyer is which channel each step runs through. The Land Department's service pages, all showing a last update of 7 October 2026, answer it step by step.
Related readUsing a buyer's agent in South Australia: authority, fees and bids| Step | Channel stated | Open to a buyer abroad |
|---|---|---|
| Sale of a completed home | Registration trustee centres | In person or through a legally authorised representative; a recorded video call is described in the frequently asked questions |
| Digital sale in Dubai Now | The Dubai Now application | Terms limit it to holders of a UAE ID |
| Off-plan initial registration | Developers' portal, Oqood | Filed online by the developer |
| Project and broker look-up | Dubai REST application | Yes |
The last column is this guide's reading of each page.
The sale registration page names one service channel, the Real Estate Registration Trustee centres. It says individuals may register a sale themselves "or through their legally authorized representatives". A non-resident foreigner is identified by a valid passport where a resident shows an Emirates ID, and in freehold areas the file needs an electronic no-objection certificate from the developer, obtained through Dubai REST. The page puts the service time at 25 minutes; the Department's frequently asked questions give an average of 30 minutes when the documents are complete.
The digital alternative is narrower than its name suggests. The Dubai Now page describes a sale that runs entirely in an application, around the clock, with the price and fees passing through an escrow account approved by the Department. Its terms, though, reserve it for individuals who hold a UAE ID, list UAE PASS as the document required, and give the residency status as citizen and resident. It covers only apartments, offices and townhouses in freehold areas that carry no mortgage or restriction. The page does not mention non-residents at all. On that wording, a buyer with no UAE identity card is outside the service.
The frequently asked questions add one entry on distance. They say that owners, or their representatives under a valid power of attorney, register transactions and that the parties must be present at a trustee centre. Two further entries, re-read on 10 October 2026, describe registration at a distance. One says the video call service "has been modified and activated" and that a video call from within the UAE is registered through the registration trustee's office and saved. The other says that, if the call is from outside the country, an email must be sent to the centre's directors with the property details, the amount of the sale and the seller's information, including identity cards, passports and bank accounts; after internal procedures the office receives the approval to register by email, and the video call is recorded by the trustee's office and saved. Both entries refer to a disbursement instruction form that is approved and then applied electronically. The entries are written around the seller's information. They do not say in terms that a buyer abroad may complete a purchase the same way, which documents the buyer sends, or how the buyer's identity is checked on the call.
Related readUSA: who can pay the buyer's agent on a VA or FHA home loanFor a completed home, the Land Department's service page names one channel, the trustee centre. Its frequently asked questions add a recorded video call, described from the seller's side.
The power of attorney, and a two-year figure that conflicts
A power of attorney is the document under which a representative acts. The rules on its wording, attestation and cost are a subject of their own; three points matter for the planning of a purchase.
First, the validity. The Department's frequently asked questions say a power of attorney for a sale, a mortgage or a grant is valid for two years, and one for a purchase for five years, from the date of notarisation. For auctions, they add, the issue date must not be more than two years old.
Second, the route for a document signed abroad. The same page says it must be formally ratified through a notary public, the foreign ministry and the UAE embassy in the country of origin, and finally the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Third, the company account differs on both. The Betterhomes guide of August 2026 says a power of attorney must be written in Arabic, must be notarised in the home country, attested by the UAE embassy and approved by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in that order, and must be less than two years old at the time of transfer. It does not mention the home country's foreign ministry, and its two-year limit is shorter than the five years the Department states for a purchase. The two sources are shown side by side because they disagree; the Department's page is the official one, and it does not say how a trustee applies the periods in practice.
A worked example: a power of attorney to purchase notarised on 1 March 2025, used at a transfer on 1 June 2027, is valid on the Department's five-year figure and expired on 1 March 2027 on the company guide's two-year figure.
Related readUS buyer agreements: what must be signed before a home tourBuying off-plan from another country
A purchase from a developer leans less on the counter. The Land Department's page for registering an initial sale says the developer files the request online, through the Real Estate Developers Portal known as Oqood, and that the result, a provisional registration e-certificate, is sent to the purchaser by email.
What the buyer supplies is short. For an individual, the page asks for the sale and purchase contract, a valid UAE ID, and a valid passport for non-residents. The contract must be signed by both the developer and the purchaser, and it must be registered in the provisional register within 90 days of signing. The fees are 2 per cent of the sale value for the seller and 2 per cent for the purchaser, a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10, and a developer self-registration fee of AED 1,000 for a provisional sale. The page does not say how the buyer's signature is to be given when the buyer is abroad.
The broker's duties at this stage are set out in the practice guide. Before marketing an off-plan project, a broker must make sure the project is licensed and registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, that an escrow account is associated with it, and that there is a marketing contract between the developer and the brokerage office. The guide says the registration can be validated in the Mashrooi section of Dubai REST.
Off-plan money goes to the project's escrow account
The Land Department's practice guide tells brokers to instruct buyers to deposit amounts only into the escrow account of their property. The Department's frequently asked questions say buyers' payments for off-plan units go into the project's escrow account.
The frequently asked questions describe what the account does for a buyer who cannot visit the site. Its funds may pay only for contractors, consultants and marketing, with marketing capped at 5 per cent of total sales. The developer reports completed stages, and the account trustee's engineer verifies them before money is released. Before paying an instalment, a buyer may ask for written confirmation of the completed stage from a project consultant approved by the Department. If a project is cancelled, the developer must return the amounts within 60 days of the decision, a period the regulator may extend. Dubai REST, according to its service page, shows a project's completion percentage, actual pictures of the site and the escrow account number.
Related readWashington state brokerage law: services agreements and dual agencyPaying for a completed home
For a resale, the Land Department's pages say how its own fees are paid and say little about the price. The sale registration page lists ePay, Dubai Pay, the Noqodi wallet and a manager's cheque as accepted methods of payment. It sets no condition on the name a cheque is made out to. The frequently asked questions mention a certified bank cheque, a credit card, Noqodi or cash for the Department's fees. No page read for this guide states a rule on how the purchase price reaches the seller in a counter sale.
The detail comes from the brokerage's guides, and it is the company's account. In its August 2026 guide Betterhomes says the buyer pays a 10 per cent deposit when Form F is signed, and that at transfer the balance and the Department's fees are paid by manager's cheques brought by the buyer's representative. It adds that, in 2026, sale money must go into a UAE bank account held in the exact name on the title deed, and that third-party accounts are no longer allowed; no official page read confirms or dates that rule. It says the buyer's name must match exactly on the passport, the title deed and the bank account, and that the original passport is required at transfer.
A second Betterhomes guide, on buying safely, published on 27 March 2026, gives the deposit as "around 10% to 20%" of the price, a wider range than the 10 per cent in the later guide. It says a deposit is paid by manager's cheque made out to the seller, not to the agent, that it is not paid into a seller's or an agent's personal account, and that large amounts are never paid in cash. For off-plan, it says payments go into an escrow account and never into a developer's ordinary bank account.
Related readWestern Australia: what a buyer's agent must hold, sign and chargeOn the question of whether a broker may hold the price, the official texts read here are silent. The practice guide contains no rule on manager's cheques, on deposits or on brokers receiving purchase money, other than the escrow instruction for off-plan.
What the purchase costs, in a worked example
The Department's fees are the same for a buyer abroad as for one in Dubai. On the sale registration page, the seller and the buyer each pay 2 per cent of the sale value. The page then lists AED 250 for the title deed certificate, AED 250 for villas and apartments, a knowledge fee of AED 10 and an innovation fee of AED 10, without saying which party pays them, and a service partner fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT where the sale value is AED 500,000 or more, or AED 2,000 plus VAT below that.
| Line | Basis | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer's registration fee | 2% of the sale value | AED 30,000 | Land Department |
| Seller's registration fee | 2% of the sale value | AED 30,000 | Land Department |
| Service partner fee | Value of AED 500,000 or more | AED 4,000 plus VAT | Land Department |
| Deposit at Form F | 10% of the price | AED 150,000 | Betterhomes guide |
| Broker's commission | "Typically" 2% of the price | AED 30,000 | Betterhomes guide |
Assumptions: one buyer, one seller, no mortgage. The commission and deposit lines are a brokerage's description of practice, not official rates.
The August guide describes the Department's transfer fee as 4 per cent of the price, which is the sum of the two halves on the official page; on this example, AED 60,000. The company also says to add 7 to 9 per cent of the price for all extra costs, which on AED 1,500,000 is AED 105,000 to AED 135,000, and gives the developer's no-objection certificate a cost of AED 500 to AED 5,000 and a delay of at least three to five working days.
Who pays the broker, and what to have in writing
The Department's frequently asked questions state the rule on commission in a few lines. The amount is set by agreement, under the by-law on brokers that the page cites as No. 85 of 2006, and where the agreement is silent, prevailing custom applies. The commission is paid after the sale contract is concluded and registered with the Land Department, unless the brokerage contract says otherwise. If negotiations fail, the broker cannot claim expenses unless the contract provides for them. Under an exclusive contract the property cannot be offered to other brokers; a non-exclusive contract allows several.
Related readWho the agent works for: California, New York and Texas formsThe frequently asked questions do not say which party pays, and neither Betterhomes guide says so either: the August guide gives "typically 2%" and stops there. For an overseas buyer, that silence is the reason the written agreement carries so much weight. On the official wording alone, four things are decided by the brokerage contract and by nothing else: the rate, the moment the fee falls due if it is not registration, whether expenses are owed when a deal collapses, and whether the appointment is exclusive.
The Dubai Media Office said on 9 March 2026 that brokers executed 96,440 transactions in 2025, up 54 per cent, and earned AED 13.59 billion in commissions, up 31 per cent on 2024.
Checking the broker from another country
The same release counted 32,294 registered brokers and 9,785 registered brokerage offices at the end of 2025, with 13,083 brokers newly registered during the year, a rise of 38 per cent.
The check itself can be made from anywhere. The Department's frequently asked questions say brokers can be found on the Land Department's website or in the Dubai REST application. The Dubai REST service page says the application publishes details on real estate brokers and their performance levels, and data on real estate offices and their classifications, in Arabic and English. The practice guide says a broker's card is issued electronically once the licence is registered in the Trakheesi system and the fees are settled; the frequently asked questions add that the card's validity follows the licence and that renewing it costs AED 520.
Related readColorado buyers and brokers: transaction-broker, agent or customerBetterhomes, in its March 2026 guide, describes the check from the buyer's side: a buyer can verify an agent's identification on the Department's website or in Dubai REST.
If something goes wrong, the frequently asked questions describe a complaint route that also works at a distance. A complaint is filed through the Department's website or Dubai REST, against a company licensed in Dubai, with supporting documents and proof of identity. Three kinds are not accepted: contractual disputes, complaints about contracts more than six months old, and lease disputes, which go to the Rental Disputes Center.
What the pages leave open
Several points an overseas buyer is likely to ask about are not settled by the sources read for this guide.
Nationalities. Official rankings by country exist only for older periods, 2015 and January 2016 to June 2017; no newer one was found. The recent official split stops at foreign, Arab and Gulf investors, and at residents and non-residents.
Video viewings and remote signing. No Land Department page describes a viewing by video or says how a buyer abroad signs Contract F; the video call in the frequently asked questions concerns registration. The statement that it is signed digitally in Dubai REST is the brokerage's.
The price in a counter sale. The official pages list payment methods for fees. The deposit, its size, who holds it and the name on the cheques are known here only from one company's guides, which give two different deposit figures.
The name-matching account rule. The 2026 rule that sale money must go to an account in the exact name on the title deed is reported by Betterhomes alone.
Who pays the commission. The frequently asked questions leave it to the agreement and to custom.
Small differences between pages. The knowledge and innovation fees are AED 10 each on the sale registration page and AED 30 each on the Dubai Now page, and the time for a sale is 25 minutes on one page and an average of 30 on another. The pages do not explain the differences.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
