United Arab Emirates · ARE · snapshot 2026-08-16
A pegged currency, a fee that is negotiable, and evidence we are not allowed to publish
Reviewed
Currency movement
Not measured
The dirham is not in the ECB reference rate list. World Bank annual data gives 3.6725 per US dollar for 2025, consistent with the long-standing peg, but annual resolution cannot support an entry-window claim — a figure for a whole year cannot answer a question about a twelve-month move, so no currency row is published here.
Foreign-buyer rules
2 of 2 published rules apply
These are the restrictions a foreign buyer meets before price is even discussed — approval regimes, surcharges, ownership limits.
What it does not show. It is not a completeness claim. A rule we have not read is not a rule that does not exist, and this row counts what is cited, not what is in force.
Cost of money
Not measured
The dirham is pegged, so domestic policy rates track the anchor currency rather than local conditions, and BIS publishes no separate central-bank policy rate for this territory.
Supply against absorption
Licence unconfirmed
Only one national statistics agency has been read and cleared for publication so far. For every other market the data exists and the permission to republish it does not.
Residential price cycle
Not measured
The United Arab Emirates is not an area in the OECD analytical house prices dataflow.
Valuation against its own history
Not measured
The United Arab Emirates is not an area in the OECD analytical house prices dataflow.
On the market now
Not measured
No listings platform has been read for this market. The one platform this site can read covers Russian cities only, and inventing a count for anywhere else would be worse than an empty row.
Thesis
The United Arab Emirates was the market this project researched first, and it is retained as a comparator rather than a recommendation. Its dirham is pegged — World Bank data for 2025 shows 3.6725 per US dollar, the peg rate — which removes the currency layer entirely. A pegged currency is not a signal in either direction, and reading it as stability or as risk would both be reading meaning into a policy setting. What the page can say concerns the rules, and there the useful finding is that one widely repeated cost is not what it is usually described as.
Counter-thesis
The absence of a currency signal is not the absence of a market, and the thinness here is a statement about our evidence rather than about Dubai. The transaction-level data that would make this market interesting — principally the Dubai Land Department open data — has a licence posture recorded in this repository as reported rather than confirmed, so nothing derived from it is published. A reader should discount this page for missing evidence, not conclude that the evidence says something unfavourable.
The series behind those figures, and the workings
Background
Annual national statistics from the World Bank, under a licence that permits reuse with attribution. They describe the country; they do not time an entry, and they are not counted as measurements of this market — otherwise every territory on earth would claim to be measured on the strength of one dataset.
| Indicator | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|
| GDP per capita | 50,274 US$ | 2024 |
| Consumer price inflation | 1.3 % | 2025 |
| Population | 11,513,149 | 2025 |
| Urban population | 86.0 % of total | 2025 |
| Official exchange rate | 3.6725 per US$ | 2025 |
What the rules do to a foreign buyer
Each entry cites the instrument and the authority page it was read from, with the date it was retrieved. Facts of law change; the retrieval date is how you know how old this reading is.
| Topic | In force | When it bites | Applies to | What applies | Instrument | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where a non-UAE national may own | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | All property | Ownership by non-UAE nationals is permitted by designated area, not across the emirate. In the designated plots a non-UAE national may take freehold without time limit, or usufruct or leasehold for up to 99 years. The list of designated plots is not fixed: it has been extended repeatedly by later resolutions, so whether a specific plot qualifies is a question about the current list on the date of the transaction, not a general fact about Dubai. | Regulation No. (3) of 2006 Determining Areas for Ownership by Non-UAE Nationals of Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai, as extended by Resolutions No. (8) of 2016, (18) of 2019, (7) of 2021 and (6) of 2022 | 2026-08-10 |
| Registration fee on a sale, and who owes it | In forceNot stated by the source | On the way in | All property | The Land Department fee on a sale is 4% of the value of the sale contract. The legal default is that seller and purchaser share it equally unless they agree otherwise — which is not how the market usually transacts, where the buyer commonly pays the whole 4%. A buyer told that 4% is simply their cost is being told the custom, not the rule, and the rule is the thing that is negotiable. | Executive Council Resolution No. (30) of 2013 Approving Fees of the Land Department, Article 3(1) and Schedule Item 1 | 2026-08-10 |
What is missing, and why
currency — Source does not cover this market
The dataset simply does not include this territory. Absent, not zero.
The dirham is not in the ECB reference rate list. World Bank annual data gives 3.6725 per US dollar for 2025, consistent with the long-standing peg, but annual resolution cannot support an entry-window claim — a figure for a whole year cannot answer a question about a twelve-month move, so no currency row is published here.
valuation — Source does not cover this market
The dataset simply does not include this territory. Absent, not zero.
The United Arab Emirates is not an area in the OECD analytical house prices dataflow.
financing — Source does not cover this market
The dataset simply does not include this territory. Absent, not zero.
The dirham is pegged, so domestic policy rates track the anchor currency rather than local conditions, and BIS publishes no separate central-bank policy rate for this territory.
What supports this, what would make it wrong, and how it could go
What supports this
- World Bank official exchange rate for 2025 is 3.6725 dirhams per US dollar, the peg rate.
- The dirham is absent from the ECB reference rate list, so no daily or monthly series is available from the confirmed currency source.
- Non-UAE national ownership is by designated area, with freehold available without time limit in those areas, verified against the Dubai legislation portal on 10 August 2026.
- The 4% Land Department sale fee is set by Executive Council Resolution No. (30) of 2013, whose Article 3(1) shares it equally between seller and purchaser unless they agree otherwise.
What would make this wrong
- The peg is changed or abandoned, which would create a currency layer where there is currently none.
- The Dubai Open Data licence text is confirmed and recorded, which would unblock transaction-level evidence and move this market up the coverage ladder.
- The plot in question is outside the designated areas, in which case the ownership route is not freehold at all and the rest of the analysis does not apply.
- A later resolution adds or changes designated areas — this has happened at least four times since 2006, so the list must be checked at the date of the transaction.
Outcome branches
- The peg holdsCurrency is neutral for a US-dollar buyer and tracks the dollar for everyone else, so the exposure is really a dollar exposure wearing a local name.
- The buyer accepts market custom on the registration feeThey pay 4% of contract value. The legal default is half that, so the other half is a negotiating position that exists whether or not it is used.
- Source rights are confirmedTransaction, project and developer layers become publishable and this page can carry the evidence it currently cannot.
Record
| Why this market is on the list | Retained as comparator (P2) on already researched data, not as a beachhead. Recorded in ADR-0010 §9. |
|---|---|
| Dossier | Approved by founder on 2026-08-10 |
| Next review | 2026-11-10 |
| Evidence snapshot | 2026-08-16 |