Interest rates in Dubai: EIBOR, margin, reversion

All figures are documented on this page; the sources are listed at the end of the page.

Data as of: EIBOR and base rate 23 September 2026 (Central Bank of the UAE), DLD price index August 2026.

This page deliberately does not quote a “best rate today”. Such figures go stale within weeks, and a rate without a date and a borrower profile attached is misleading. What follows instead is how an offer is constructed, what each number means, and where there is room to negotiate.

EIBOR: the reference rate

Official rule The Emirates Interbank Offered Rate is the rate at which banks in the UAE lend to one another. The UAE Central Bank publishes it every business day for tenors from overnight to twelve months.^[1] Because the dirham is pegged to the US dollar, EIBOR broadly follows US policy rates: when the Federal Reserve cuts, EIBOR falls, with a short lag. A buyer earning euros is therefore exposed to American monetary policy, not European.

Check the current fixing at the central bank before relying on any of these figures.^[1]

Bank practice Variable mortgages are quoted as “3M EIBOR + x %”, repriced quarterly. Some lenders reference the one-month tenor instead, and some use their own base rate rather than EIBOR at all. The margin, x, is the only part the bank sets, and therefore the only part you can negotiate.

How to read an offer letter

What a percentage point costs

Worked example An annuity loan of AED 1,000,000 over 20 years:

One percentage point of margin on a million dirhams costs roughly AED 130,000 to 140,000 over the term. That is the sum at stake when you compare two or three banks, not the arrangement fee, which is usually a few thousand.

The same effect at the edge of affordability is sharper still. In a mandate we published in full, the borrower's payment sat at 98.1 per cent of the regulatory debt-service ceiling: at 5.99 per cent it worked, and from 6.19 per cent it would have breached the cap and the financing would have failed. The full arithmetic is in case study 01.

What lowers the margin for a non-resident

Nexus Bridge experience Four things move the number in practice, in roughly this order of effect:

1. An existing UAE account with history. A non-resident account through which money has been flowing for months improves both the internal rating and the margin. It is also the slowest to arrange, see opening a UAE bank account.
2. A lower loan-to-value. Asking for 55 per cent when 65 is available is sometimes cheaper over the term than the extra equity costs you elsewhere.
3. A complete, legible file. A credit committee prices uncertainty. Removing the uncertainty removes part of the price.
4. A second written offer. Not a threat, a comparison. With a comfortable profile this is straightforward; with a tight one, be careful, because parallel applications create parallel credit enquiries.

Fixed or variable

The honest comparison is total cost over your realistic holding period, fixed rate, reversion margin, arrangement fee and exit terms together. If the payment sits close to the 50 per cent debt-service ceiling, a fixed period is not a preference but a safeguard: it is the only thing that keeps a rate move from putting the loan out of compliance.

Read next: the full non-resident mortgage guide, the down payment calculation and how UAE lenders differ.

Frequently asked questions

Sources