Dubai Commercial Property FAQ

Yes, wherever the land is freehold — in Dubai freehold is a property of the land, not of the unit's use, so an office or a retail unit inside a freehold zone is ownable by a foreigner on the same footing as an apartment. In January 2025 Dubai Land Department moved 457 plots to freehold for all nationalities: 128 along Sheikh Zayed Road from the Trade Centre Roundabout to the Water Canal, and 329 in Al Jaddaf. Tenure comes in three forms for foreign buyers per u.ae — freehold, usufruct and leasehold up to 99 years — and the only document that settles it for a specific unit is the title deed, where it appears as Property Type / Tenure — so tenure is read off the deed, per unit, before money moves. Ask us for it on any unit you are serious about. DIFC is a separate legal system with its own Registrar under DIFC Law No. 10 of 2018.

Full answer: Sheikh Zayed Road Offices — §1, what «freehold» actually attaches to

What trades is strata retail — the ground floors and podiums of second-tier towers — and the volume is real: AED 1.15bn across 437 retail sale transactions in Q3 2025 alone (CRC Property). The majors work on the opposite model, and price has nothing to do with it: Emaar's own Integrated Annual Report 2024 puts Emaar Malls at over 10.5 million ft² of GLA, 3,500+ retail units and AED 5.1bn of segment revenue — an asset producing that on recurring rent is the business itself, and selling units away would hand away control of tenant mix, rent and valuation with it. Dubai Retail consolidated 40+ assets and over 13 million ft² of GLA on the same model in September 2025.

Full answer: Retail Investment — §1, what you can actually buy

Omniyat is the one tier-one name that genuinely sells commercial off-plan, and it does it in Business Bay. Everything else on sale is strata: office floors and podium retail carved out of second-tier towers by Azizi, Binghatti, Samana, Danube, Imtiaz, Peace Homes and their peers — and of twenty districts surveyed for this section, a genuine strata office is sold in about eight. The rest of the tier one leases instead of selling and says so in its own words: Emaar describes offices, retail, education and medical space as «built for leasing to occupiers», against apartments «built for sale», and Nakheel, Meraas, Wasl, Nshama, Expo City, DMCC, TECOM and Aldar follow the same model, with DIFC leasing its own new towers.

Full answer: Dubai Commercial Property Investment Guide — §4, what is actually for sale

It means a title and a vote, and duties that come with both. Under Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 a jointly owned building is run by a management company selected and contracted by RERA, with an Owners Committee whose members RERA appoints — the old self-standing Owners Association is gone. Art. 27 bars the management entity from charging owners anything without RERA's prior approval of a budget verified by an accredited auditor, and Art. 28 bars you from refusing approved charges or renouncing your share of the common parts to escape them; Art. 32 makes unpaid charges a lien on the unit, in its own words «a Unit may not be disposed of unless these charges are paid». In a strata podium the tenant mix, the footfall and the marketing are yours to build, which is what makes the trade in one the owner's own; extraction, grease traps, signage and trading hours go through the management entity's consent.

Full answer: Retail Investment — §7, lease risk in strata, said plainly

Yes, and in three of them the reason is structural, not a stock shortage. Dubai Media City, Dubai Internet City and d3 are TECOM free zones where freehold does not exist at all — their own pages are headed «For Lease» for that reason, and a listing implying otherwise is describing something that does not exist. Al Quoz, Dubai Production City / IMPZ and Dubai South carried no office sale stock on any of the three portals at district and sub-district level; and those portals substitute a neighbouring district's results instead of returning an empty page, so a query for d3 or Al Quoz comes back full of Business Bay. Deira runs the other way — 3 offices for sale against 2,419 for rent, and the city's lowest portal ROI at 3.68%.

Full answer: Dubai Office Districts — §6, the districts where the answer is «you cannot»

DLD registration is 2% from the seller and 2% from the buyer, plus AED 250 for the title deed, AED 225 for the unified map, AED 10 knowledge and AED 10 innovation, plus a trustee fee of AED 4,000 + VAT on deals from AED 500,000 (DLD's own service pages, checked 10 August 2026). The convention that the buyer pays all 4% is market practice, not the tariff — in a commercial deal the seller's 2% is genuinely negotiable, and asking for it is normal. Then 5% VAT, broker commission of 2% plus VAT on the commission (contractual — no regulation sets it), a developer NOC on a resale at roughly AED 500–5,000+, and, if financed, mortgage registration at 0.25% of the loan plus AED 250. Annually: the service charge on the registered area, the chiller capacity charge whether the unit is let or not, and DEWA — there is no property tax and no capital-gains tax in the UAE.

Full answer: Commercial Property Due Diligence — §3, the money that is not the price

Yes — 5%, on sale and on lease alike (FTA VAT Real Estate Guide VATGRE1 §6.2), where residential resale is exempt and a first residential supply within three years is zero-rated. On a secondary commercial sale the Special Payment Mechanism applies (VATGRE1 §6.4): the buyer pays the VAT directly to the FTA before re-registration, receives a Payment Transaction Number and must produce it at the Land Department — in the guide's own words, «without this evidence that the VAT on the purchase has been paid, the purchase of the property cannot proceed». So the 5% falls due before the transfer, and on an instalment plan it accrues on each payment. The most common error in this market is «commercial VAT is reverse-charged, so there is nothing to pay» — there is; and a tenanted unit sold to a taxable person may qualify as a transfer of a going concern, which is worth structuring with a tax adviser in advance.

Full answer: Commercial vs Residential — §3, VAT and the number that gates the transfer

For a pure rental strategy the individual is often the cheaper holder — the opposite of the advice that circulates. Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023, Art. 2(2), sub-paragraph c puts a natural person's real-estate investment income outside UAE corporate tax regardless of the amount, where the activity requires no licence; the FTA's own guide for natural persons (CTGTNP1 §3.8.3 Example 15 and §6.1 Case 5) works through an individual letting several UAE properties for AED 1.2M a year, free of corporate tax and of any registration obligation. A company is a different taxpayer: 0% up to AED 375,000 of taxable profit and 9% above it (Federal Decree-Law No. 47 of 2022). The company is the right answer when you need entity-level credit, a partnership or a succession structure — or when the unit will house an operating business you run yourself, because that is licensed activity and the exclusion stops applying; the free-zone 0% regime is narrower than it sounds and belongs with a tax adviser before any structure is chosen.

Full answer: Commercial vs Residential — §5, why the company is often the expensive one

Two lines, and both are set building by building. The service charge falls on the owner under Law No. 6 of 2019, Art. 25(a), and Art. 24 says the owner is not released from it because a tenant did not pay; Law 26/2007 Art. 22 separately puts government charges for use of the property on the tenant absent a contrary term — which is why cooling and DEWA usually sit with the tenant and the service charge with the owner unless the lease moves it. Who pays which part of district cooling is therefore a question of contract, not of law, and the chiller capacity charge is billed whether or not anyone is in the unit, which makes it the quiet cost of every vacancy. On level, secondary sources put Grade A office service charges at AED 25–45+/ft²/year and Grade B/C at 15–25, over a Dubai median of about AED 17/ft² from Mollak — but that median is residential-weighted and is a proxy at best, because Dubai publishes no office-specific index. The rate for your actual project is public in the Mollak Service Charge Index, which is where to read it.

Full answer: Commercial vs Residential — §4, what comes off the rent before you see it

Sometimes, and it is a different product from a home loan. The UAE Central Bank's LTV regulation covers residential property by definition, so commercial lending sits outside it and the bank sets the terms: the published corridor is 60–75% LTV over 10–15 years, not 25. Emirates NBD publishes 70% for UAE nationals and 60% for expatriates, up to AED 7M and up to 15 years — for completed freehold or transferable property only. No bank publishes a mortgage product for an off-plan office, and most run commercial lending through business banking, underwriting the company instead of the salary — so plan an off-plan commercial purchase as cash unless a lender has put something else in writing.

Full answer: Dubai Commercial Property Investment Guide — §5, what the purchase costs

In one part of the office market, by up to three points; in another they yield less than an average apartment. The residential base is about 6.9% gross across apartments and villas (Engel & Völkers Middle East, early 2026), with apartments alone at 7.15% (Property Monitor, April 2026). On the office side — and every office yield in circulation is a broker estimate, since no institutional house publishes a Dubai office cap rate — Chestertons (February 2026) put DIFC Grade A at 6.5–7.5%, Business Bay at 7–9%, and JLT and Al Quoz at up to 10%. So the trophy office yields less than the average apartment, Business Bay modestly more, and the secondary and value-add segment up to three points more. One top-down figure holds up, and only because it divides a reported rent by a registered price: AED 211/ft²/year (Cushman & Wakefield Core, Q1 2026) over the DLD ready-office average of AED 2,266/ft² gives 9.3% gross at city level — about two points, concentrated at the cheap end.

Full answer: Dubai Commercial Property Investment Guide — §3, the yield picture

Four different things decide it, and the yield is not one of them. Permitted use, because an office floor is not automatically a clinic, a school or a restaurant — Dubai Law No. 6 of 2019 fixes a unit's designation at register level, and use contrary to the lease or to planning rules is a ground for eviction under Law 33/2008 Art. 25(1)(f). Fit-out, because most of what is on sale here is shell & core, so the finished cost is the purchase plus the build. The licence, which attaches to the activity and the premises — and in Dubai an alcohol permission attaches to the operator and the address, so it does not come with the keys. And the practical pair your staff will actually raise: parking ratio and metro distance, both fixed the day you sign.

Full answer: Dubai Commercial Property Investment Guide — §2, the two buyers

The label is a description of specification, not a certificate, and the last twelve months are direct evidence against reading it as a growth forecast: JLL, Q2 2026 year on year — Grade A +26.2%, Grade B +31.5%, prime +13.6%. The best space grew least. What does support a premium, on the same reports, is that quality space is committed before it opens: DIFC Square was substantially pre-let before construction finished, Immersive Tower had significant space under offer more than a year before its July 2027 delivery, and Savills states that most future Grade A supply will be pre-leased or absorbed by existing demand, with occupancy at ≈94% citywide and above 95% for central prime buildings (CBRE, Q2 2026). A premium rests on a tenant with a deadline in a market where the alternative building is already taken.

Full answer: Grade A Offices — §4, what actually supports a premium

Small, and much smaller than the brochures imply. Savills on DLD data, Q2 2026: deals under 500 ft² accounted for 66% of all office leasing, up 17% quarter on quarter; ZāZen Properties puts roughly 97% of office transactions under 3,000 ft² (Q1 2026). The tenant is an SME, a start-up or a company that has just moved to the UAE — Dubai Chamber of Commerce recorded 71,830 new member companies in 2025, taking the total to 292,486. On the regulatory side, the widely quoted minimum of about 200 ft² of office area for a mainland licence is market practice, not a published norm — it appears on no DET, GDRFA or MOHRE page, and it is settled in the licensing system at the time of application.

Full answer: Dubai Office Market 2026 — §5, the tenant is smaller than the brochures imply

None on paper — an off-plan office has no rent yet, and a city-average yield laid over it is arithmetic dressed as a forecast. One top-down figure does hold up, and only because it divides a reported rent by a registered price: AED 211/ft²/year (Cushman & Wakefield Core, MarketBeat Office Q1 2026) over the DLD ready-office average of AED 2,266/ft² gives 9.3% gross at city level. Run the same division on other city-average series and the same market returns anything from 4.6% to 12.2% — one operation, nearly eight points of spread, and nothing in it that tells you which end is your floor. What is worth modelling instead, per unit and with the assumptions visible, is the instalments to handover, the fit-out from shell and core, the service charge from Mollak for that project and a realistic void — and that is a model we build with you on a specific floor.

Full answer: Ready vs Off-Plan Offices — §5, which yield figures hold up off-plan

Ready buys rent from the first month, a rate you can verify against Ejari, a service charge you can read on a real bill and a valuation anchored to comparable sales in the same building — and it buys somebody else's specification, the 5% VAT up front through the Special Payment Mechanism, and a shortlist that is essentially Business Bay and JLT. Off-plan buys current specification, a payment plan that spreads the capital, the floor you want while the stack is unsold and access to the buildings attracting demand — plus delivery risk, no income during the build, and service-charge and chiller levels you cannot yet read. One counter-intuitive fact first: in Dubai offices the off-plan end is the expensive one — on DLD registrations for 1 January – 19 May 2026, ready offices averaged AED 2,266/ft² against AED 4,349/ft² off-plan. Two questions settle it: do you need income now or the right building later, and can you carry the build?

Full answer: Ready vs Off-Plan Offices — §6, what each side of the trade buys

Twelve things, in the order they matter: the title deed read in full; the service-charge rate and the arrears; the chiller; permitted use; VAT and the Payment Transaction Number; the lease you are inheriting; the price basis; the area basis; registration and escrow; handover terms plus evidence that anything is being built; the building's physics against your actual scenario; and the parking the deed records, which the building's own description does not always match. Two of them can stop a transfer outright — the unpaid service charges that are a lien on the unit under Law 6/2019 Art. 32, and the VAT evidence required by VATGRE1 §6.4. Each check has a place it is verifiable: the deed, the Mollak Service Charge Index, the cooling provider's statement, the Oqood entry, the FTA portal. Ask us and we run all twelve against those sources for the specific unit.

Full answer: Commercial Property Due Diligence — §1, the twelve checks

Four documents set the calendar, and every one of them can be requested the week you decide to buy. The VAT has to be paid to the FTA and the Payment Transaction Number produced at the Land Department before re-registration (VATGRE1 §6.4); the management entity's written service-charge clearance has to be in hand, because arrears are a lien on the unit (Law 6/2019 Art. 32); a resale needs the developer's NOC; and an off-plan assignment needs the developer's written transfer consent, which normally requires a minimum percentage paid and an administrative fee. Two figures circulate widely and are not DLD's current published tariff — an «Oqood fee of AED 4,020» and «90 days to register from the contract date» — so ask us for the fee and the deadline that apply to your own transfer.

Full answer: Commercial Property Due Diligence — §1, checks 2, 5 and 9

Yes, with conditions. A mainland trade licence needs a physical office with a registered Ejari, and an owner occupying their own unit registers a tenancy to themselves or their company — DLD's Ejari service explicitly lists companies among its users. A free-zone licence needs an address inside that zone: a DMCC licence in JLT, a DIFC licence in DIFC; a purchased unit works where the deed's unit type is office, and DMCC's own requirements are understood to accept a title deed in place of a lease on that condition, which DMCC confirms per application. The visa quota consultants quote — one visa per 9 m² of Ejari-registered space — is market practice, and it is settled in the system at the time of application.

Full answer: Commercial Property Due Diligence — §4, the licence

Yes at AED 2 million, on the wording of the rule. The u.ae Golden Visa page, updated 28 July 2026, sets the real-estate investor route at a minimum capital of AED 2 million and speaks of «property ownership» — a use-neutral term that covers an office or a shop as readily as an apartment. The term published for that route is 5 years on u.ae and 10 years in DLD's communications on the same threshold, so have GDRFA or ICP confirm the one that applies to your own case before you reserve. For a company buying its own premises the better-evidenced route is visa capacity through the office itself — staff visas against the space you hold — settled in the licensing system at the time of application.

Full answer: Sheikh Zayed Road Offices — §6, the visa question

Treat it as a forecast until you can read the agreement and name the obligor. Haus of Tenet's marketing quotes an 8–10% return; it is a forecast, not a guarantee. Where a rate does rest on a real document, the document is the thing to ask for: Aljada CBD's «8% net over 10 years» comes from Arada's own Lease Management Agreement, and the obligor is Aljada Developments LLC — one company, not the group brand. So the three questions on any such rate are: which document says it, which legal entity owes it, and what secures it. For Aljada CBD the third answer is that company's own balance sheet and nothing beyond it — no bank guarantee, no surety, no escrow — and the rate is on none of arada.com's own pages. Ask us for the agreement itself.

Full answer: Business Bay Offices — §4, what is established about each building

Enough to change the decision, and the benchmarks are published by zone. For Sheikh Zayed Road, TR Design Build (updated July 2026) puts fit-out at 205–273 AED/ft² light, 273–363 standard, 363–513 premium; for Business Bay, 214–284 / 284–374 / 374–524. Add a 40–60% uplift over a basic fit-out when starting from shell & core — and most of what is on sale in this section is sold shell & core or carries no published fit-out specification, so that uplift belongs in the entry price. Approvals are set by the zone, and budget 2–5% of the build for them.

Full answer: Sheikh Zayed Road Offices — §3, what the road costs, fit-out included

You can buy a unit whose permitted use allows F&B — but buying it does not buy the right to serve alcohol. An alcohol permission is an administrative decision about a specific operator at a specific address: it belongs to the operator, not to the premises, so licence feasibility at that address belongs in the LOI or SPA as a condition. A licensed venue does not have to sit inside a hotel: the hotel association is administrative practice in how permissions are granted, and licensed venues stand on their own in DIFC and in City Walk, Bluewaters and La Mer. Whether a given zone grants one is still a decision, so treat it as one. Three further facts for 2026: Dubai's 30% municipal tax on alcohol sales was reinstated with effect from 1 January 2025; Dubai Municipality prohibits the use of alcohol in food preparation, in force since 2010 and reissued in November 2024; and any F&B model should be stress-tested against the H1 2026 hotel slump, when UAE occupancy fell 27.7 percentage points year on year through June, and not against record 2025.

Full answer: Retail Investment — §4, the alcohol licence belongs to the operator and the address

Usually yes, by assignment — and it is won on paperwork more than on price. Before any offer: unit number, floor, measured area, outstanding instalments and the developer's written transfer consent. Developers normally set a minimum percentage paid before a transfer is allowed and charge an administrative fee; AHS Properties publishes neither for AHS Tower, so ask for its transfer policy in writing. Ask the developer directly for a statement of account — the seller's receipts are a cross-check, not a substitute. And an assignment is a secondary purchase, so VATGRE1 §6.4 applies: the buyer pays the 5% to the FTA and produces the Payment Transaction Number before re-registration, or the transfer does not proceed.

Full answer: Ready vs Off-Plan Offices — §4, what off-plan costs beyond the headline price

Harder than an apartment, and the numbers say by how much. Dubai's record office year, 2025, saw about 4,600 office transactions against tens of thousands of apartment sales, and the entire city's office for-sale stock on one major portal was 2,084 listings (one major portal, 10 August 2026). In the cheap segment the market is one building, not a district: all sixteen Dubai offices listed under AED 500,000 on that date sat in the same tower, and the whole Dubai Investments Park office stock is one business park. With no comparables there is no valuation anchor, which is what makes the cheap end the slow end. Re-letting runs on the same clock: an office tenant searches in months, so budget the void in months, and the bigger the lot, the shorter the list of buyers.

Full answer: Commercial vs Residential — §6, liquidity: what you pay for the spread