The default rule, and the exception
Official rule Law No. 7 of 2006 concerning Real Property Registration in the Emirate of Dubai states in Article 4 that "the right to own Real Property in the Emirate will be restricted to UAE nationals, nationals of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states and to companies fully owned by these, and to public joint stock companies".[1] Non-UAE nationals come in through the exception in the same article: they may hold freehold ownership, or a usufruct or leasehold of up to ninety-nine years, in areas approved by the Ruler.
The instrument that carries out that approval is Regulation No. 3 of 2006, issued under the same law. Its Article 3 designates the areas and grants, within them, freehold ownership "without time restriction", usufruct rights, and leasehold rights for up to ninety-nine years.[2]
This ordering matters more than it sounds. Freehold in Dubai is not a general property regime that happens to have gaps. It is a set of carved-out exceptions to a restriction, and each carve-out is defined by plot numbers.
Three different rights, often called one word
Official rule Regulation No. 3 of 2006 does not hand the same right to every designated plot. Article 3 grants all three forms within the areas it lists. Article 4 designates a further plot, Nad al-Sheba plot 224, where non-UAE nationals may take usufruct or leasehold of up to ninety-nine years, but not freehold ownership.[2]
| Right | What you hold | Time limit | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freehold ownership | The property itself, registered in your name | None. "Without time restriction" | That the plot is designated for freehold, not only for usufruct or lease |
| Usufruct | A registered right to use and take the fruits of a property you do not own | As granted | The remaining term, and what happens at its end |
| Leasehold | A long lease, registrable as a real property right | Up to 99 years | The years left to run, which is the part that erodes |
Nexus Bridge experience In everyday marketing all three get described as "buying". The distinction becomes concrete at two moments: when a bank sizes a facility, and when you come to sell. A ninety-nine year lease with eighty years to run and one with forty behave very differently in both.
Why the list keeps moving
Official rule The 2006 designation was never meant to be the last word, and it has not been. The Ruler has issued a series of resolutions adding land to the areas open to non-UAE nationals, in 2015, twice in 2021, in 2022 and beyond, each one naming specific plots.[3]
Resolution No. 6 of 2022 shows the shape of these instruments. Issued on 28 February 2022, it adds land plots 58 and 59 in Zabeel First, with the boundaries set out in attached plans, and permits non-UAE nationals to acquire freehold ownership rights over them and over any units on them, without time restriction. Its Article 2 validates transactions made on those plots before the resolution took effect.[3]
Two consequences follow for anyone reading a list of "Dubai freehold areas" online. First, a list compiled from the 2006 regulation alone is incomplete, and has been for a decade. Second, a list that names neighbourhoods rather than plots cannot be right at the edges, because the additions arrive as plot numbers inside neighbourhoods that were already partly designated.
Nexus Bridge experience We have never once resolved this question from a published list. It is resolved from the plot: the title deed for an existing property, or the developer's own land documentation and the Land Department's registration for a new one.
The conversion route on Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Jaddaf
Official rule On 19 January 2025 the Dubai Land Department opened a route for private owners of leasehold property in two defined stretches to convert to freehold ownership. It covers 457 plots: 128 on Sheikh Zayed Road, from the Trade Centre Roundabout to the Water Canal, and 329 in Al Jaddaf. The Department states that conversion is available to owners of all nationalities. Owners apply to the Land Department for assessment and valuation, and a conversion fee of 30 per cent of the property's valuation, based on gross floor area, applies.[4]
Eng. Marwan Ahmed bin Ghalita, Director General of the Land Department, framed it as a growth measure for the sector.[4] For a buyer the more useful reading is narrower: within those 457 plots, the status of a specific building may have changed since a listing or a brochure was written, in either direction, depending on whether the owner has actually applied and paid.
Nexus Bridge experience Where a seller says a property "can be converted", that is a statement about the plot, not about the property. The conversion is a filing with a price attached, and the question that decides your purchase is whether it has been completed and registered, not whether it is possible.
Only the register decides
Official rule Article 9 of Law No. 7 of 2006 requires that all transactions creating, transferring, amending or extinguishing real property rights are recorded in the Property Register, and that such transactions "will not be deemed valid unless recorded in the Property Register".[1]
This is the sentence that makes every other paragraph on this page secondary. Whatever a brochure, an agent, a list or a lawyer's summary says about a plot, the operative fact is what the Land Department has registered. An unregistered agreement is not a weak form of ownership; in the terms of the law it is not valid.
Nexus Bridge experience One clarification we give in nearly every mandate, because the marketing invites the confusion: the form of ownership and the residence permit are separate questions decided by separate authorities. Residence permits are issued by GDRFA Dubai and by ICP, not by the Land Department, and a title deed is not itself a visa.
What this means for financing and resale
Bank practice A bank lends against a right it can register a mortgage over and, if it has to, realise. The form of the right and the years left on it therefore reach into the financing terms, not only into the price. This is one of the first things to establish, before an offer, rather than after a valuation.
On resale the same logic runs forward. A freehold title without a time restriction has the widest possible pool of future buyers. A leasehold has a shrinking asset embedded in it, and the buyer you eventually find will price the remaining years, whatever you paid.
Nexus Bridge experience The cases that go wrong are rarely cases where someone bought the wrong right knowingly. They are cases where nobody asked which right it was, because the word on the listing was "freehold" and the plot said something else.
How we work
We do not sell property and we do not represent developers. When we run a purchase, the ownership status of the plot is settled from the register and the title documents before financing is arranged, because a financing plan built on the wrong right is wasted work.
Our fee is paid by the client, not by the product distribution side. We take no commission from banks or sellers, and we accompany you to the bank, we do not work for the bank. The fee is agreed in advance and paid in advance, and if no bank offer materialises, we refund it in full.
This page is information, not legal advice. The status of a particular plot, and what a specific title document or lease actually grants, belongs in front of a lawyer in the Emirates before you sign.
Sources
- Government of Dubai, Law No. (7) of 2006 Concerning Real Property Registration in the Emirate of Dubai, Article 4 on who may own real property and Article 9 on the Property Register and the validity of transactions, Dubai Legislation portal, dlp.dubai.gov.ae (accessed 14 September 2026).
- Government of Dubai, Regulation No. (3) of 2006 Determining Areas for Ownership by Non-UAE Nationals of Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai, Article 3 on the designated areas and the three forms of right, and Article 4 on Nad al-Sheba plot 224, dlp.dubai.gov.ae (accessed 14 September 2026).
- Government of Dubai, Resolution No. (6) of 2022 Adding Land to the Areas for Ownership by Non-UAE Nationals of Real Property in the Emirate of Dubai, issued 28 February 2022, cited here as an example of the series of additions that also includes Resolution No. (14) of 2015 and Resolutions No. (7) and No. (25) of 2021, all published on the Dubai Legislation portal, dlp.dubai.gov.ae (accessed 14 September 2026).
- Dubai Land Department, announcement of 19 January 2025, private property owners on Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Jaddaf enabled to convert to freehold ownership, including the number of plots, the stretch covered and the conversion fee, dubailand.gov.ae (accessed 14 September 2026).