Buying in Dubai vs the UK: costs and taxes

Dubai charges you once on the way in and then mostly leaves you alone. The UK is gentler on day one, as long as you don't already own a flat in Dubai.

The short version

Foreigners can own freehold in Dubai's designated areas. Back home, anyone can buy anywhere, freehold or leasehold.
Dubai's main purchase cost is the Dubai Land Department (DLD) fee of 4%, split 2% buyer and 2% seller on the DLD's own schedule, though your contract decides who really pays [8].
England's stamp duty bites harder on Brits abroad: a 2% surcharge if you're non-resident and the higher rates if you'll own another home anywhere in the world, your Dubai flat included [1][2].
The UAE has no annual property tax and no personal income tax on the gain when you sell. The UK taxes non-residents on UK property gains, with a 60-day return [5].
Letting your UK home from Dubai means the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, and form NRL1 if you want the rent paid without tax taken off [7].

Pound conversions use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = AED 4.95). The dirham rate is derived from the Bank's US dollar rate and the dirham's fixed peg of AED 3.6725 per dollar.

What a Brit can buy in Dubai, compared

In Dubai, foreigners can own property outright in the areas designated as freehold, and the DLD issues the title deed in your name. Most of the places Brits look at are freehold: Dubai Marina, JLT, Downtown, Arabian Ranches and the big master-planned communities. Outside those areas, the options for foreign buyers are much more limited. Flats are owned as units in a jointly owned building, with service charges paid to the owners' association and tracked through the DLD's Mollak system. Off-plan is a huge slice of the market; our Dubai property guide covers Oqood registration and escrow.

Back in the UK, your passport doesn't come into it. In England and Wales, houses are usually freehold and flats usually leasehold, with ground rent and a service charge to the freeholder. Scotland has its own system of ownership altogether. So a Dubai flat and an English leasehold flat feel similar day to day: you own your four walls and pay towards the lifts and the pool, or the lifts and the bins.

Upfront costs side by side

Take a Dubai flat at AED 1.5 million (about £303,100), roughly the same money as a £300,000 house back home.

	Dubai, AED 1.5 million flat	England, £300,000 house
Main purchase tax	DLD registration fee: 2% buyer plus 2% seller [8]	Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), banded [1]
On our example	AED 30,000 (about £6,060) for the buyer's 2%, or AED 60,000 (about £12,120) if you agree to pay all 4%	£5,000 at standard rates for a UK resident [1]
Non-resident surcharge	None	2% on top: £11,000 in total [1]
Owning another home	No effect	Higher rates, 5% on top: £20,000, or £26,000 if you're also non-resident [2]
Smaller fixed fees	Title deed AED 250, plus a service partner fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT (about £808) on sales of AED 500,000 or more [8]	Land Registry fee, searches, conveyancing
Legal help	Not built in; you hire your own lawyer	Solicitor or licensed conveyancer as standard

That last row of the table is where Dubai-based Brits get stung. HMRC's higher rates apply if you'll own residential property worth £40,000 or more anywhere in the world after the purchase [2]. Keep the Dubai flat, buy a house in Harrogate, and you pay the additional-home rates. If you're also non-resident (in the UK on fewer than 183 days in the 12 months before you buy), the 2% surcharge sits on top [1]. On £300,000 that's £26,000, against £5,000 for someone buying their only home from Leeds.

There is one escape hatch. If the new UK house replaces your main home and you sell the previous one within three years, you can claim back the higher-rate part [2]. A tax adviser who knows both countries can check whether a Dubai flat counts as that previous main home in your case.

Scotland and Wales do it differently. In Scotland, Land and Buildings Transaction Tax for 2026/27 is 0% up to £145,000, then 2%, 5%, 10% and 12% in bands, plus an 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement on the whole price for additional homes [3]. On £300,000 that's £4,600, or £28,600 with the supplement. In Wales, Land Transaction Tax main rates start at 0% up to £225,000, and the higher residential rates run from 5% to 17% [4]; on £300,000 that's £4,500 or £19,950. Neither has a 2% non-resident surcharge.

Financing: UAE bank or UK lender?

In Dubai, the UAE Central Bank caps what banks lend to expats [9]:

First home under AED 5 million (about £1.01 million): up to 80% loan-to-value.
Over AED 5 million: 70%.
Second home or investment property: 60%.
Off-plan, for anyone: 50%.

Terms run to 25 years at most, and total debt repayments are capped at 50% of income, with banks stress-testing the rate [9]. On our AED 1.5 million flat as a first home, that means a deposit of at least AED 300,000 (about £60,600) before fees. If you still own a home in the UK, ask your bank early whether it treats the Dubai flat as a second property; the difference between 80% and 60% is a lot of dirhams.

Back home, many high-street lenders won't lend to borrowers living abroad, or won't count a salary paid in dirhams. A smaller group of specialist lenders and private banks does, usually with a bigger deposit and higher fees. If you'll repay a sterling mortgage from dirham income, FCA rules can treat it as a foreign currency loan, which brings extra warnings and protections. Our guide to UK mortgages for Brits living abroad has the detail. The dirham is pegged to the US dollar, not the pound, so your repayments still move with sterling.

Owning it: property tax and running costs

Dubai has no annual property tax of the council tax kind. What you do pay:

Service charges to the owners' association, which vary a lot by building and can be checked through Mollak before you buy.
A municipality housing fee, charged through the DEWA utility bill, which applies to occupants and is based on the rental value. We'd rather not quote a figure: check your own bill.
Utilities and cooling, which in some towers come from a separate district cooling provider.

Rent from a Dubai flat isn't hit by UAE personal income tax, and a 2023 Cabinet Decision keeps an individual's own real estate investment income out of UAE corporate tax, provided it isn't an activity that needs a trade licence.

Back home, council tax applies whether or not you live there. Many councils in England and Wales now add a premium on furnished second homes and long-term empty homes, so check the council's own page before you leave a house sitting empty. If you let it out, the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme kicks in: your letting agent, or a tenant paying more than £100 a week, must take basic rate tax off the rent unless HMRC has told them in writing to pay you gross [7]. Apply on form NRL1 and you'll get the rent without deduction, though you still file a UK return each year. See renting out your UK home.

Tax when you sell

The UAE side

There's no personal capital gains tax in the UAE, so selling your Dubai flat as an individual usually costs you agent's commission and DLD fees rather than tax. Under the DLD's schedule the seller pays 2% of the price [8].

The UK side

Selling UK property as a non-resident. You report every sale on a Capital Gains Tax on UK property return within 60 days of completion, even if there's no tax to pay, and pay any tax in the same window [5]. For 2026/27, gains are taxed at 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it, with a £3,000 tax-free allowance [6]. Homes owned before April 2015 are usually taxed only on the growth since 5 April 2015.
Private residence relief can still cover the years you lived in your UK home, plus the final nine months. While you're abroad, a year only counts if you spent at least 90 nights there. See selling UK property as a non-resident.
Selling the Dubai flat. As a non-UK resident, a gain on foreign property is normally outside UK tax. Sell after you've moved back and HMRC taxes the worldwide gain at the same 18% or 24% [6]. Short spells abroad (five years or less) can bring gains on assets you owned before leaving back into charge in the year you return. If you'd been non-resident for at least 10 tax years, the 4-year foreign income and gains regime may let you claim relief on foreign gains in your first four years back, at the cost of your tax-free allowances.
The treaty. The UK and the UAE have a double taxation convention, in force since 25 December 2016 [10]. Gains on immovable property can generally be taxed where the property is, but with no UAE tax on the gain there's usually nothing to credit against a UK bill.

Which makes sense for whom

On a two- or three-year contract. Renting usually wins. The 4% DLD fee is a sunk cost, and owning the flat when you buy back home can push you onto the higher stamp duty rates.
Staying for the long haul. Low running costs and no tax on the gain make owning attractive, as long as you can live with the mortgage caps and the service charge.
Planning to buy back in the UK. Think about the order: selling the Dubai flat first, or within three years of buying in the UK, can change the stamp duty bill by thousands.
Keeping your UK home. Get NRL1 sorted, keep the 60-day clock in mind for a sale, and remember that a UK home you're not living in may cost more in council tax.

Members of our community group for Brits in the UAE who've bought on both sides are a good sounding board before you sign. A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your case.

Buying in Dubai vs back in the UK: the 4% fee, stamp duty and the taxman