Can I use the programme if I live abroad and want to buy in Dubai?

No. UAE residency is a stated eligibility condition and no non-resident route is published. Buying from outside the UAE is still perfectly possible, it just happens outside this programme, and the process and the financing side are covered on my pages on buying remotely and on non-resident mortgages.

How many first-time buyers have actually used it?

There is no figure published by the Department that I can find. Khaleej Times reported on 14 October 2026, from Land Department officials speaking at the RISE Summit, that more than 3,200 first-time buyers had completed purchases worth about AED 5 billion in the programme's first year. I am giving that as a reported figure rather than a published one, because I could not locate a Department release carrying it.

Answers · Buying basics

What is Dubai’s First-Time Home Buyer Programme, and do I qualify?

It is a free Land Department registration for UAE residents aged 18 or over who own no freehold residential property in Dubai and are buying below AED 5 million. It gives early access to launches, preferential pricing, instalments on the registration fees and preferential bank terms. It is not a fee waiver.

Updated October 2026

The programme was launched on 2 July 2025 by the Dubai Land Department together with the Department of Economy and Tourism. You register, and if you are eligible the Department emails you a First-Time Home Buyer QR code which you present to a participating developer or bank to access the benefits. The registration itself costs nothing, and the Department’s page says so in terms: there are no additional fees to apply or participate.

Who qualifies, and who does not

UAE residency is a stated condition, so an overseas buyer is outside the programme entirely, whatever the price of the unit and however many times they have bought nothing in Dubai before. No non-resident route is published. For a large share of the people who ask me about Dubai property this is the whole answer, and it is the part the summaries leave out.

The ownership test is narrower than people assume, though, and it works in your favour. The condition is owning no freehold residential property in Dubai. Property in another emirate does not disqualify you, and nor does property in a non-freehold area of Dubai. What does disqualify you is having used the programme once, because the status is spent on your first purchase through it and does not come back if you sell.

One thing to be clear about before you check yourself against the list: this is not a fee waiver, whatever the guides in circulation say. Standard registration fees still apply, and what the programme changes is when you pay them rather than how much.

What	As the Land Department states it
Age	18 or over
Residency	UAE resident, of any nationality
Ownership	Must not currently own any freehold residential property in Dubai
Property value	Below AED 5 million
Income	No income condition stated
Registration channel	The Land Department website or the Dubai REST app
What you receive	A confirmation email with your First-Time Home Buyer QR code
QR code validity	Valid until you purchase and register a property with the Department
Partners	21 developers and 5 banks, all named on the Department’s page
How many you can use	Benefits can be used with only one developer and one bank
Joint purchase	Permitted only between two individuals who are both eligible
Mortgage	Not required. Participating banks offer preferential rates and faster approvals
Off-plan or ready	Both. Developer offers on off-plan, bank terms on ready
After you buy	Your first-time status ends and you cannot participate again, even if you later sell
Cost to apply	No additional fees to apply or participate. Standard registration fees still apply

The registration fees, and the instalment plan

The Department’s page states that standard registration fees still apply, along with any developer or bank charges, unless a specific programme offer says otherwise. The 4% transfer fee is still 4% and the admin charges are still the admin charges.

What the programme actually offers on the fee side is a flexible payment plan for the registration fees through eligible credit cards, on interest-free instalments. Which means the cost does not change and the timing does. I would not be dismissive about that, because the registration fees fall due on transfer day in cash, at the same moment as the balance of the down payment, and transfer day is where a first purchase is tightest. Moving that line into instalments is a real benefit. It is just not the benefit it is being advertised as.

The one real trade in it

Here’s the issue, and it is the thing I would want anyone to understand before they build a plan around this. The benefits can be used with only one developer and one bank. You choose from the published list, and once you choose, the preferential price you are offered is quoted by the party selling you the unit, measured against that party’s own list price.

Which means the discount is worth whatever that one developer happens to be holding in the week you are ready to buy, and there is no published figure anywhere for how large a preferential price is. I went looking for one and no partner publishes it, and the Department does not either. So the honest way to use the programme is to register, take the early access, and then price the unit you are offered against comparable units outside the programme before you decide the benefit is real. The early access is unambiguously worth having. The pricing claim is the part you check.

And there is something the published material simply does not tell you. The Department’s page says Emirati citizens receive additional benefits and does not itemise them, and it states no required documents and no service time, so if you are an Emirati buyer the published material does not tell you what you are entitled to and the Department is the only place to ask.

My take

I think this is a good programme that is being oversold by everyone except the Department that runs it. Strip out the fee-waiver claim and what is left is early access to launch inventory, an interest-free instalment on the transfer-day fees, and a bank introduction. That is genuinely useful to a resident buying their first unit under AED 5 million, and it costs nothing to register, so there is no version of this where registering is the wrong move if you qualify.

There is a downside and it is worth saying plainly. Early access to a launch is only an advantage if the launch is worth buying into, and a programme that routes first-time buyers toward new inventory at a preferential price quoted by the seller is a programme that works best for the seller. That is not a reason to avoid it. It is a reason to do the same homework you would do without it.

Who it suits: a UAE resident with no freehold Dubai property, buying under AED 5 million, who is tight on transfer-day cash. Who it does not suit: anybody buying from outside the UAE, who is simply not eligible, and anybody who was planning to use the preferential price as the reason to buy rather than as a discount on a unit they had already decided was right.

So register before you start looking rather than after, because the status is one-shot and the QR code runs until you buy, and you want the early-access notifications arriving while you are still choosing rather than after you have committed.

Common questions

Can I use the programme if I live abroad and want to buy in Dubai?: No. UAE residency is a stated eligibility condition and no non-resident route is published. Buying from outside the UAE is still perfectly possible, it just happens outside this programme, and the process and the financing side are covered on my pages on buying remotely and on non-resident mortgages.
I own an apartment in Sharjah. Am I still a first-time buyer in Dubai?: On the published condition, yes. The test is whether you currently own freehold residential property in Dubai. Property in another emirate does not disqualify you, and nor does property in a non-freehold part of Dubai. The Department decides eligibility on your application, and if it declines, it tells you why and you can reapply if your circumstances change.
How many first-time buyers have actually used it?: There is no figure published by the Department that I can find. Khaleej Times reported on 14 October 2026, from Land Department officials speaking at the RISE Summit, that more than 3,200 first-time buyers had completed purchases worth about AED 5 billion in the programme’s first year. I am giving that as a reported figure rather than a published one, because I could not locate a Department release carrying it.

Dubai property answers · Dubai’s first-time buyer programme has published its first year, and the benefit is not a fee waiver · What is the real cost of buying property in Dubai? · What is the DLD transfer fee in Dubai? · Can I buy property in Dubai without being there? · What’s the minimum budget to buy property in Dubai?

Sources

If you want to work out whether a programme unit is actually priced well against what else is available, text me on WhatsApp.

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