A Dubai purchase made from abroad is mostly paperwork. The property takes an afternoon of video; the documents take weeks, and almost every delay we have seen in a remote transaction was a document that was missing, unattested, expired or in the wrong name. This checklist is the full set in the order you will meet it. Prepare it in the first week and the rest of the process runs on the timeline we quote.
Identity and address
- Passport, valid for at least six months, all named buyers; a clear colour copy of the photo page, and the original available for video verification.
- Proof of address dated within the last three months — a utility bill, a bank statement or a government letter — for each buyer.
- For joint buyers who are married and intend to rely on that for the Golden Visa or a mortgage, a marriage certificate attested for use in the UAE.
- A UAE visa or Emirates ID is not required to buy. Non-residents buy on a passport.
Names matter more than they seem. The name on the passport is the name that will appear on the Oqood certificate and the title deed, and any variation — a middle name on one document and not another, a transliteration that differs from the bank account — is corrected easily now and slowly later. Check that every document carries the same name in the same form.
Source of funds
Every broker, developer, bank and trustee office is required to understand where the purchase money came from, and the receiving bank will query an international transfer without it. Prepare one file and send it with the first transfer:
- Bank statements for the account the money will leave from, typically the last six months.
- Evidence of origin: salary slips or an employment letter, business accounts or a dividend statement, a completed sale contract for a property sold, an inheritance grant, a gift letter where funds come from family.
- For Indian residents, the LRS declaration and Form A2 for each remittance; for NRIs, the NRE or NRO account details. Other countries have their own exchange-control paperwork and your bank will name it.
The file does not need to be elaborate; it needs to be coherent. A bank officer should be able to follow the money from where it was earned to the account it leaves from without a phone call. If a step needs explaining — a gift, a sale in another country, a company distribution — write the explanation on one page and include it.
Nobody is questioning your money. They are required to document it, and they will do so at the worst possible moment unless you do it first.
The power of attorney
- The power of attorney itself, drafted narrowly — this property, these acts, this period — naming your attorney in Dubai.
- Notarisation in your country, attestation by the UAE embassy or consulate there, and attestation by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on arrival in Dubai, with a legal translation into Arabic where the original is not. Allow several weeks. Dubai Courts' remote notarisation by video currently covers some documents and is quicker when it applies.
- Your attorney's passport and Emirates ID copies, for the trustee office.
Decide early who your attorney will be. A family member in Dubai is the common choice and works well; a lawyer costs more and removes a relationship from the transaction. We act as attorney for clients when asked, under a narrow document, and we recommend the narrow document whoever holds it.
The purchase paperwork
- For a ready property: the memorandum of understanding (RERA Form F) with the 10% deposit, the seller's title deed and passport copies, the developer's no-objection certificate confirming service charges are paid, the last two years of service charge invoices, the tenancy contract and Ejari certificate if the property is let, and the mortgage liability letter if the seller has a loan.
- For an off-plan property: the reservation form, the sale and purchase agreement with the payment schedule against your unit, the escrow account details confirmed through the Land Department, and, within a few weeks, the Oqood certificate in your name.
- If you borrow: the bank's pre-approval, the valuation report, the mortgage offer, and the mortgage registration at transfer.
For a ready property, the two documents worth reading closely before the memorandum is signed are the service charge invoices and the tenancy contract, because they describe the property you are actually buying rather than the one in the listing. For off-plan, it is the completion and termination clauses of the sale and purchase agreement, which we will annotate on request.
What you receive, and what to keep
At the end of a ready purchase you receive the title deed in your name, issued the same day at the trustee office and downloadable from the Dubai REST app; keep it with the transfer receipt and the fee receipts. At the end of an off-plan reservation you receive the signed agreement, payment receipts into escrow and the Oqood certificate; keep every receipt through to handover, when the certificate becomes a title deed. When you come to sell, you will be asked for the deed, the receipts, a current NOC and, if let, the tenancy and Ejari — so the file you build now is the file you will sell from.
One document nobody mentions
A will. UAE inheritance rules differ from those most international buyers expect, and without a registered will a Dubai property may be distributed under local law. Non-Muslim owners can register a will covering UAE assets through the DIFC Wills Service Centre or Dubai Courts. We recommend doing so soon after completion and will introduce you to a lawyer for it.