Tools · UAE
How much can I borrow for a mortgage in the UAE?
A mortgage affordability calculator for Dubai, the other way round from the usual one. Instead of a price in and a repayment out, put in what you earn, what you already repay each month and what you have for a deposit, and it works the three ceilings the Central Bank sets — the loan-to-value cap, the 50% debt-burden ratio with the stress test the regulation requires, and the years-of-income limit — names the one that stops you, and prints the price it reaches, the monthly repayment and the cash on the day. Then the Land Department’s register says where that price buys the home you want: every community whose median completed resale for that layout sits under it.
You
The loan
AED 1,200,000
You could borrow about
Your deposit is the limit. AED 300,000 down covers 20% of AED 1,500,000 — the deposit the cap asks of an expatriate resident, a first home up to AED 5m. Your income would carry more.
AED 1,500,000
Which buys a home at
The loan plus your deposit — 80% of the price borrowed, against a cap of 80% for an expatriate resident, a first home up to AED 5m.
AED 6,670
Monthly repayment
Over 25 years at 4.5%. Life and buildings insurance are on top.
AED 415,320
Cash on the day
Deposit plus AED 115,320 in fees: 4% DLD, 2.1% agency, the trustee, registration, valuation and the bank’s fee. None of it can be borrowed.
| The three ceilings | Most it allows |
|---|---|
| Your deposit, at the loan-to-value capthe limit | AED 1,200,000 |
| Your income, at the debt-burden ratio — 50%, tested at 6.5% | AED 1,555,078 |
| Years of income — 7× annual income | AED 2,100,000 |
A lender that skipped the stress test and sized the repayment at 4.5% would print AED 1,889,058 on the income rule. The regulation does not let it: Article 3.1 makes the test 2 to 4 points above the rate, and this page uses the floor. A bank applying 4, or its own income multiple, lands lower still.
Where it buys
AED 1,500,000 buys a one-bedroom apartment in 38 of 53 communities
Every community where 20 or more completed 1 bedroom apartments resold in the twelve months to 10 Sept 2026, and where the median price paid sits under the figure above — dearest first, so the top of the list is where the budget is stretched and the bottom is where it is comfortable. Recorded resales from the Land Department’s register, not asking prices; a median means half the year’s buyers paid less.
| Community | Median resale | Resales, 12 months | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Bay | 1,475,000 | 997 | Homes for sale → |
| Mohammed Bin Rashid City | 1,402,404 | 580 | Homes for sale → |
| Al Sufouh | 1,358,336 | 21 | Homes for sale → |
| Greens | 1,350,000 | 158 | Homes for sale → |
| Al Satwa | 1,339,233 | 47 | Homes for sale → |
| Al Jaddaf | 1,265,123 | 211 | Homes for sale → |
| Meydan | 1,188,003 | 309 | Homes for sale → |
| Jumeirah Lake Towers | 1,184,358 | 418 | Homes for sale → |
| Al Furjan | 1,068,500 | 200 | Homes for sale → |
| Dubai Science Park | 1,057,500 | 50 | Homes for sale → |
| Mirdif | 1,040,000 | 20 | Homes for sale → |
| Jumeirah Village Circle | 1,000,000 | 2,413 | Homes for sale → |
| Damac Hills | 990,000 | 198 | Homes for sale → |
| Arjan | 960,000 | 512 | Homes for sale → |
| Al Quoz | 950,000 | 57 | Homes for sale → |
And 23 more, cheaper still: Jumeirah Village Triangle (950k), Motor City (931k), Al Barsha (925k), Dubai Land (915k), Dubai Studio City (858k), Jumeirah Golf Estates (841k), Town Square (839k), Downtown Jebel Ali (800k), Majan (800k), Discovery Gardens (780k), Rukan (735k), Dubai South (Dubai World Central) (730k), Dubai Silicon Oasis (710k), Dubai Sports City (700k), Dubai Land Residence Complex (675k), Remraam (675k), Al Warsan (660k), Dubai Production City (IMPZ) (648k), Dubai Investment Park (DIP) (642k), Damac Hills 2 (616k), Liwan (595k), Jebel Ali (570k) and International City (450k).
A dated reading of the register, as at 10 Sept 2026; the community names and links are live. Off-plan sales are left out — an off-plan price is set to a developer’s schedule and would measure that rather than the market. A community under the floor of 20 resales is left out too, which is not a claim that nothing there is affordable. The whole layout, rent and sale, area by area →
It opens on a worked example — AED 25,000 a month, AED 2,000 of other repayments, AED 300,000 down, an expatriate resident buying a first home over 25 years — to type over. The caps and the ratio are the Central Bank’s, read from its rulebook on 15 Sept 2026; the rate is illustrative; what a lender adds on top is its own, and the figure it offers you will be at or under this one. The community medians are the register’s, dated beside them.
The rules
What the Central Bank fixes, and what the lender adds
The UAE Central Bank's mortgage regulations (Circular 31/2013, as amended in 2019 and 2020) size every home loan in the country before the bank does. What they fix is stated here as regulation, with the article; what they leave to the lender, and the market has settled by habit, as convention.
- The deposit
- Regulation
- Article 3.2 caps the loan against the value of the home. For a first home an expatriate may borrow 80% up to AED 5,000,000 and 70% above it; a UAE national 85% and 75%. Each borrower may claim one home under that heading. A second or subsequent home, or an investment property, is 60% for an expatriate and 65% for a national at any price; off-plan is 50% for everyone. The rest is the deposit, and a lender may ask for more of it but not less. The step at five million is why a deposit can be enough for exactly AED 5,000,000 and not for a dirham more.
- Your income
- Regulation
- Article 3.1: the repayment, together with every other loan and card you carry, may not take more than 50% of gross salary and any regular income from a defined source. Two things in the same article that most calculators leave out: the lender must stress-test the loan at 2 to 4 points above its rate — against the rate it reverts to, where the opening rate is introductory — and on an investment property it must take at least two months' rent out of the year's income for the void. This page tests at 2 points, the floor. It is the rule that decides most buyers' loans.
- Years of income
- Regulation
- Article 3.4: the loan may not pass 8 years' annual income for a UAE national or 7 years' for an expatriate, whatever the repayment looks like. It rarely binds before the debt-burden ratio does at today's rates, but it is the ceiling on a long, cheap loan against a large salary.
- The term, and your age
- Regulation
- Article 3.3: 25 years at most. The age at the last repayment is left to each lender's own policy — the regulation says so in as many words — and most set 65 for the salaried and 70 for the self-employed, so a buyer of forty-five is commonly offered twenty years. Where a loan runs past the expected retirement age, Article 3.1 makes the lender check that what is still owed then can be paid from half of the post-retirement income.
- What counts as income
- Regulation
- Article 3.5: repayment comes from salary or verifiable business or rental income. The end-of-service benefit may not be counted, and neither may a bonus a lender cannot see repeating. A housing or transport allowance written into the contract usually is counted; a variable commission is taken at a discount, or not at all.
- A non-resident
- Convention
- The regulation's table is by nationality and says nothing about a buyer with no UAE visa; who lends to one, and on what share of the price, is each bank's policy. The market commonly advances half the price, sometimes a little more for a strong file — this page uses 60% — on a completed freehold home, with the income underwritten where it is earned. The mortgage brokers page carries the file.
- What the bank adds
- Convention
- The regulation is the ceiling, not the offer. Most lenders set a minimum salary — commonly AED 10,000 to 15,000 a month — a list of employers they lend to without question and a longer list they do not, their own income multiple under the Central Bank's, a minimum loan, and a stress rate at the top of the band rather than the bottom. Two banks will give the same file two different figures; a broker's job is knowing which.
Checked 15 Sept 2026 against the Central Bank’s rulebook — Regulations Regarding Mortgage Loans, Circular No. 31/2013 (consolidated 8 April 2020); Regulations Regarding Bank Loans and Other Services Offered to Individual Customers, Circular No. 29/2011. The Central Bank reserves the right to alter any of the ratios; the page prints the date so a reader can weigh it. The mortgage brokers page carries the same rules beside what buyers in each district actually borrowed, and the mortgage calculator runs the other direction — a price in, the repayment out.
What salary you need
The city's median home, layout by layout, as a monthly income
What the median completed resale of each layout asks of a first-time expatriate buyer at the 80% cap: the deposit, the loan, the repayment at 4.5% over 25 years, and the income the debt-burden ratio then needs with the repayment tested at 6.5% and no other debts.
| The home | Median resale AED | Deposit at 80% | Fees on the day | Repayment a month | Income needed a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio7,963 resales | 560,000 | 112,000 | 48,204 | 2,490 | 6,050 |
| 1 bedroom apartment14,724 resales | 1,050,000 | 210,000 | 83,190 | 4,669 | 11,343 |
| 2 bedroom apartment9,249 resales | 1,959,216 | 391,843 | 148,108 | 8,712 | 21,166 |
| 3 bedroom apartment2,546 resales | 3,518,740 | 703,748 | 259,458 | 15,647 | 38,014 |
| 3 bedroom villa1,917 resales | 3,250,000 | 650,000 | 240,270 | 14,452 | 35,111 |
| 4 bedroom villa1,310 resales | 4,150,000 | 830,000 | 304,530 | 18,454 | 44,834 |
Medians of completed resales registered in the twelve months to 10 Sept 2026 for the apartments and 10 Sept 2026 for the villas, from the pages that carry each layout. The deposit column is the cap’s share of the price: the villa rows sit under AED 5,000,000 and take 80% like the rest. Fees are 4% to the Land Department, the deed, the trustee, 2% commission with VAT, the loan’s registration and the bank’s illustrative valuation and arrangement charges — cash on top of the deposit, and the cost of buying explainer itemises them. The income column is the debt-burden ratio alone; a lender’s own minimum salary, employer list and income multiple sit on top of it.
Where it buys
The community list, and what it is
The half of the answer a loan figure never comes with: for the layout you chose, which communities that price reaches, by what buyers there actually paid.
Every completed home resold in Dubai is registered with the Land Department at the price paid, and this site reads that register by layout — the studio, the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment, the villa by its bedrooms — and by community, taking the median of the year’s resales wherever a community cleared a floor of them. The list under the calculator is those medians, filtered to the ones under your price and turned dearest-first, so the top of it is where the budget is stretched and the foot is where it is comfortable. A median means half the year’s buyers there paid less than the figure, and half paid more.
It is not an asking price and not a valuation of any home. An advert asks what a seller hopes for; the register records what a buyer paid, and the two can sit a fifth apart in the same tower. Off-plan sales are left out of every median, because an off-plan price is set to a developer’s launch and payment schedule and would measure that rather than the market. On the worked example — AED 1,500,000 for a one-bedroom apartment — the list runs to 38 of the 53 communities with 20 or more one-bed resales in the year, from Business Bay at the top to International City at the foot.
- The floor
- A community needs 20 completed resales of the layout in the year for an apartment median, 10 for a three-bed and 5 for a villa by bedroom count. Under it the median would be one or two deals, and the page says nothing rather than something thin. A community missing from the list is not a claim that nothing there is affordable.
- The dates
- Each layout's reading is a dated snapshot of the register, printed beside its list; the community names and links are live. Twelve-month medians move slowly, and the bedroom pages carry the regeneration.
- What it links
- Each community opens its area guide — both registers, the buildings, who holds the most stock — and its homes for sale with us today. The page survives our stock going to zero: the register is the substance, the listings are the door.
- What it cannot say
- Which building, which floor, which view. A community's median spans its dearest tower and its cheapest; the guide's building league is the next step down, and the building's own page the one after that.
The same shelf ranks the cheapest areas in Dubai by the square foot, and each layout has its own page — the studio, the one-bed, the two-bed, the three-bed and the villa — with rents beside the prices. Every community’s overall figures, by the square foot, are on the Dubai property prices page.
Questions
How much you can borrow in the UAE, answered
How much can I borrow for a mortgage in the UAE?
The lowest of three ceilings set by the Central Bank. Your deposit at the loan-to-value cap: for an expatriate resident's first home that is 80% of the price up to AED 5,000,000 and 70% above it, so AED 300,000 down reaches AED 1,500,000. Your income at the debt-burden ratio: the repayment, with every other loan and card, may not pass half your gross monthly income, and the lender tests it 2 to 4 points above the rate. And the years-of-income cap: 7 years' annual income for an expatriate, 8 for a UAE national. On the worked example — AED 25,000 a month, AED 2,000 of other repayments, AED 300,000 down — the deposit binds first, at about AED 1,200,000.
What salary do you need for a mortgage in Dubai?
Enough that half of it covers the repayment tested at 2 points above the rate, after every other loan and card. The city's median completed resale of a one-bedroom apartment was AED 1,050,000 in the year to 10 Sept 2026; at a 80% loan over 25 years the repayment is about AED 4,669 a month at 4.5%, about AED 5,672 at the 6.5% test, so a lender is looking for roughly AED 11,343 a month with no other debts. A studio needs about AED 6,050, a two-bed about AED 21,166. Most lenders also set a minimum salary of their own, commonly AED 10,000 to 15,000 a month.
What is the maximum mortgage in Dubai?
There is no cap in dirhams. The regulation caps the loan against the price — 80% for an expatriate's first home up to AED 5,000,000, 70% above, 60% for a second or investment property, 50% off-plan; UAE nationals five points more on a home and 65% on a second — against income, at 7 years' pay for an expatriate and 8 for a national, and against the repayment, at half of monthly income. The term is 25 years at most. Whichever of the three is lowest is the maximum for you.
Can a non-resident get a mortgage in Dubai?
Yes, from a shorter list of UAE lenders on terms each sets itself. The Central Bank's caps are written by nationality, not residency, so on paper a non-resident expatriate sits under the same 80%; in practice the banks that lend abroad advance commonly half the price and sometimes a little more — this calculator uses 60% and says so. The debt-burden ratio and the years-of-income cap still apply to the income where it is earned, the rate is usually a little above a resident's, and the 4% transfer fee, the commission and the bank's charges are cash on top. The mortgage brokers page carries the file and the lenders.
Where this leads
The rest of a buyer’s reading
With a price in hand, the mortgage calculator turns it into the repayment, the interest over the term and the cash on completion day, and the cost of buying explainer itemises every fee with a worked example. What a broker does between the pre-approval and transfer day, how a buyer abroad borrows, and what buyers in each district actually borrowed — from the Land Department’s own mortgage register — is on mortgage brokers in Dubai; who can buy, and where, is in buying property in Dubai as a foreigner. If the question is still whether to buy at all, the rent vs buy calculator sets the repayment against the rent. The other calculators are on the tools page, and what is for sale with us today is on Buy.