Golden Visa Guide · Updated 2026-10

Dubai Golden Visa by Buying Property: the AED 2M Rule, Explained for Indian Buyers

Own Dubai property worth AED 2 million — about ₹4.92 crore at ₹24.60/AED (October 2026, indicative) — and you may be eligible for the UAE's renewable 10-year Golden Visa, subject to government criteria. The property must be DLD-registered freehold; off-plan generally counts, and joint owners each need an AED 2M share.

What exactly is the AED 2 million rule?

The UAE grants a renewable 10-year Golden Visa to investors holding Dubai real estate worth AED 2 million or more — roughly ₹4.92 crore at ₹24.60/AED (October 2026, indicative). The property must be DLD-registered in a designated freehold zone, and eligibility is always subject to current government criteria, never automatic.

Dubai's 10-year Golden Visa has one headline route for property buyers: own real estate worth AED 2 million or more. At ₹24.60 per AED (October 2026, indicative), that is roughly ₹4.92 crore — before you add the 4% DLD transfer fee plus admin charges, and Oqood registration if you buy off-plan.

Three things the headline number hides:

It is a residence visa, not citizenship. Ten years, renewable, letting you live, work and study in the UAE. But the decision sits with the government at application time, subject to its criteria on that day. Nobody can "guarantee" you a visa — walk away from anyone who promises one.
The property must be DLD-registered freehold. Indians can buy outright in 50-plus designated freehold zones — Business Bay, JVC, JVT, Dubai Marina, Dubai Maritime City, Sports City and Dubai Silicon Oasis among them. No UAE residency needed to buy, no local partner, and a remote purchase through power of attorney is possible.
AED 2M is the property value threshold, not your day-one cash outlay. On an off-plan instalment plan you can hold a qualifying property while still paying it off — the fine print on that sits two sections down.

One more sanity check: the dirham is pegged to the US dollar, so your rupee cost moves with USD/INR. Budget with a cushion, not at today's rate.

Who in your family gets residency?

A Golden Visa holder may be eligible to sponsor a spouse and children for residence alongside the 10-year visa, subject to current government criteria. Each dependant application carries its own fees, medicals and Emirates ID. For any other family members, confirm the current dependant rules directly with GDRFA.

For most families we talk to in Indore, the visa is the point and the flat is the vehicle. So be precise about who gets what:

You, the owner: the 10-year renewable residence visa, if approved against the criteria in force when you apply.
Spouse and children: typically sponsored as your dependants — their residence rides on yours, with separate fees, medical tests and Emirates IDs per person.
A co-owner spouse who wants their own 10-year visa: their personal share of the property must itself be at least AED 2 million. A 50:50 split of an AED 2M flat gives each of you AED 1M — and neither qualifies.

That last point trips up more Indian buyers than any other, because husband-wife co-ownership is the natural way to fund the purchase from India (each co-owner gets their own LRS limit — the money section below covers this). Decide early whether you need one Golden Visa or two, and set the ownership split before you book, not after. Changing shares later means another DLD transaction with fresh fees.

Dependant categories and conditions get revised; before you count on any particular family member, confirm the current list with GDRFA.

Does off-plan property count?

Generally yes — practitioner guidance is that the Oqood (off-plan registration) value counts toward the AED 2 million threshold. Reports from February–April 2026 say the earlier 50%-paid condition for mortgaged and off-plan cases was eased, but sources conflict on the valuation basis — confirm the current basis with DLD/GDRFA before relying on it.

This matters because almost everything Danube sells is off-plan on instalment plans. The position as of October 2026:

Off-plan is generally eligible. When you buy off-plan in Dubai, the sale is registered as an Oqood with the Dubai Land Department, and practitioner guidance is that the Oqood value counts toward the AED 2M threshold.
The old rule many sites still quote: for mortgaged and off-plan cases, applicants previously needed 50% paid or at least AED 1 million paid in. Reports from February and April 2026 say this requirement was eased — but published sources conflict on the exact valuation basis for mortgaged units, so confirm the current basis with DLD/GDRFA before you rely on it. If a portal states the 50% rule as current fact without a 2026 date, treat the whole page as stale.
Your money is ring-fenced either way. Dubai off-plan payments go only into the project's DLD-registered escrow account and are released against construction milestones. We never collect money at Amberstone — every dirham goes to the developer's escrow or DLD.

Practical angle: if the visa is your priority, a nearer-handover project shortens the period you spend in off-plan grey zones. Oceanz 3 at Dubai Maritime City is Danube's nearest handover (from Q1 2027, per developer, Oct 2026) with 1BRs from AED 2.05M — over the threshold on a single unit.

Want the current list of visa-threshold units?

We'll send AED 2M+ inventory across Danube projects with live payment schedules — developer prices, nothing extra to you. We never collect money; payments go only to developer/DLD escrow. Replies 10:00–19:00 IST.

WhatsApp Amberstone

Joint ownership, LRS and the ₹4.92 crore funding math

AED 2 million is about USD 545,000. India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) allows USD 250,000 per resident individual per financial year, cumulative across all your banks, and overseas property is a permitted purpose (RBI/FEMA, 2026). So one person cannot remit the full amount in one year. Three legal routes:

Co-own with family. Family members who are co-owners of the property can each remit under their own LRS limit — four co-owners clear USD 1 million a year. Remember the catch from above: each co-owner's share must be AED 2M+ for that person's own Golden Visa.
Spread payments across financial years. Danube's instalment plans — typically around 10% booking and 0.5–1% monthly through construction — naturally stagger your remittances across two or three financial years. Compare live schedules on our payment plan comparison. A 1% monthly instalment on AED 1M is about ₹2.46 lakh (Oct 2026, indicative).
Above-limit remittance needs prior RBI approval. Rare, slow, and usually avoidable with routes 1 and 2.

Now TCS — and correct an error you'll see on many sites: many pages still say tax collected at source starts at ₹7 lakh. That threshold was raised to ₹10 lakh on 1 April 2025. Under the Income-tax Act, LRS remittances for property attract NIL TCS up to ₹10 lakh per financial year, then 20% on the amount above ₹10 lakh, tracked PAN-wide across banks.

You remit in one FY	TCS collected (20% above ₹10L)
₹50 lakh	₹8.0 lakh
₹1 crore	₹18.0 lakh
₹2.46 crore (≈ AED 1M)	₹47.2 lakh

TCS is a cash-flow item, not a cost — it is fully claimable as credit or refund in your ITR. Plan for it so it never surprises you mid-payment-plan, and run the whole structure past your CA before the first remittance.

The process, step by step

The typical path for an Indian buyer, assuming a straightforward file:

Shortlist a qualifying unit in a DLD-registered freehold project, and verify with DLD/GDRFA how its value will be counted (ready vs off-plan vs mortgaged — see the fine print above).
Book and sign the SPA. Off-plan money goes only to the project's DLD-registered escrow account; a ready resale involves the 4% DLD transfer fee plus admin, and usually a 2% agent fee (off-plan direct from the developer carries no agent fee to the buyer).
Get your ownership document — title deed for ready property, Oqood registration for off-plan.
Apply for the Golden Visa through DLD/GDRFA channels, then complete medicals, biometrics and Emirates ID. Plan at least one Dubai trip for this stage, and confirm current in-person requirements with GDRFA.
Sponsor your family as dependants once your own visa is issued.

On timing: buyers with clean files generally report the visa stage moving in weeks, not months — but processing times shift and we won't quote you a number nobody controls. Confirm the current timeline with GDRFA when you apply. The slowest step is usually not the government; it's buyers restructuring ownership shares after booking because the visa math wasn't planned first. Decide the split, the funding route and the visa goal together, on day one.

Which Danube projects have AED 2M+ units?

Five current Danube launches have visa-threshold units, as published by the developer and Property Finder, October 2026. Rupee figures at ₹24.60/AED, indicative:

Project	Qualifying entry	AED (Oct 2026)	≈ ₹
Oceanz 3	1BR	2.05M	₹5.04 Cr
Diamondz	2BR	2.10M	₹5.17 Cr
Bayz 101	1BR	2.27M	₹5.58 Cr
Bayz 102	Every unit (from)	2.40M	₹5.90 Cr
Greenz	Villas, every unit (from)	3.70M	₹9.10 Cr

How to read this: in Bayz 102 and Greenz, anything you buy clears AED 2M on a single unit. In Oceanz 3, Diamondz and Bayz 101, the project starts below the threshold — AED 1.2M, 1.1M and 1.175M respectively — so you must pick the larger unit type deliberately, not the entry unit the ads lead with.

All of these sit in designated freehold zones, sell at developer prices (buying through a channel partner like us costs you nothing extra), and run instalment plans — typically ~10% booking, 0.5–1% monthly, often with a post-handover tail. Schedules vary per project and tranche; the live side-by-side is on our payment plan comparison.

Budget under AED 2M? Take the 2-year visa instead

Here's the correction most ranking pages haven't caught up with: until this year, Dubai's 2-year property investor visa needed a property worth at least AED 750,000. In April 2026, DLD removed that minimum for sole owners entirely. If a page still quotes AED 750K as current, it's stale.

The 2-year rules now, in brief:

Sole owner: no minimum property value — the property must be freehold residential and DLD-registered.
Joint owners: each applicant needs a stake of at least AED 400,000 (about ₹98.4 lakh at Oct 2026 indicative rates).
Mortgaged property: needs a bank NOC.
Dubai-specific: this is a DLD scheme; other emirates run their own rules.

What this means in practice: every current Danube entry point can anchor a visa conversation — Timez from AED 871K (≈ ₹2.14 Cr), Aspirz from AED 879K, Sparklz from AED 900K (developer-published, Oct 2026). A 2-year visa renews on a shorter cycle and carries fewer privileges than the 10-year, and as always it's subject to government criteria — but it gets a family resident at roughly half the Golden Visa ticket.

We've broken down that route separately — eligibility, documents and the renewal rhythm — in our 2-year Dubai investor visa guide.

What can go wrong — read this before you book

We'd rather lose a booking than skip this section.

Oversupply is real. Analyst reports (2025–26) put roughly 100,000 units scheduled for 2026 handover and ~75,000 more in 2027 — though historically only about 48% deliver on time. Two-thirds of the pipeline is studios and 1BRs concentrated in five districts, including JVC/JVT, Business Bay and Dubailand. Prices rose ~13% in 2025, but the pace is decelerating (+22% in 2023, +18% in 2024). Our position: buy for payment-plan affordability, rental yield and the visa — not for a quick flip — and prefer nearer-handover projects.
Yields are good, not magic. 2025 market data shows gross apartment yields of roughly 6–8% depending on district. Net of service charges and vacancy, expect about 4.5–6%. That's market data, not our projection, and nothing here is a guaranteed return.
Currency cuts both ways. Your instalments are in AED (dollar-pegged). If the rupee weakens mid-plan, every future instalment costs more in ₹. Budget at a buffer, not at ₹24.60.
Visa rules move. 2025–26 alone saw the TCS threshold change, the 2-year minimum scrapped and the Golden Visa off-plan conditions eased. What's true at booking may differ at application — verify with DLD/GDRFA when you apply.
India-side compliance is non-negotiable. Foreign property must be disclosed in Schedule FA of your ITR — non-disclosure attracts penalties under the Black Money Act. Rental income is taxable in India for residents, with DTAA credit for UAE-side position; NRIs are treated differently. Consult your CA — we don't give tax advice.

And our own fine print: Amberstone is a registered Danube channel partner. We work at developer prices, and we never collect money — payments go only to the developer or DLD escrow.

FAQs

Is the Golden Visa guaranteed if I buy an AED 2 million flat?

No, and be suspicious of anyone who says otherwise. Owning AED 2M+ of DLD-registered freehold property makes you potentially eligible — the UAE government decides each application against the criteria in force on the day you apply, and those criteria have changed more than once in 2025–26. What you control: buy in a designated freehold zone, keep the title deed or Oqood clean and in the right name, make sure your personal share (not the family's combined share) crosses AED 2 million, and keep every payment receipt tied to the DLD escrow account. What you don't control: the approval itself. Amberstone will map your purchase to the current rules and point you to the official DLD/GDRFA channels, but we never promise a visa outcome — nobody legitimately can.

Can I get the Golden Visa if I buy off-plan and my payment plan is still running?

Generally yes — off-plan purchases are registered as an Oqood with the Dubai Land Department, and practitioner guidance is that the Oqood value counts toward the AED 2 million threshold. The complication is the older rule for mortgaged and off-plan cases, which required 50% paid or AED 1 million paid in before applying. Reports from February–April 2026 say that requirement was eased, but published sources conflict on the exact valuation basis for mortgaged units. So treat it as an open item: before you book with the visa as your goal, confirm the current valuation basis with DLD/GDRFA in writing. If you want fewer moving parts, pick a nearer-handover project — Oceanz 3 (from Q1 2027, developer-published, Oct 2026) has 1BRs at AED 2.05M that clear the bar on a single unit.

How do I legally send ₹4.92 crore from India?

Through the Liberalised Remittance Scheme. Each resident individual can remit USD 250,000 per financial year (cumulative across all banks), and overseas property purchase is a permitted purpose under RBI/FEMA rules (2026). AED 2M is about USD 545,000, so one person can't do it in a single year. The standard routes: family members who are co-owners can each remit under their own limit (four co-owners clear USD 1 million a year), or you let a 0.5–1% monthly instalment plan spread payments across two or three financial years. Anything above the cap needs prior RBI approval. On TCS: nil up to ₹10 lakh per financial year (the threshold rose from ₹7 lakh on 1 April 2025 — many sites are outdated), then 20% on the excess, fully claimable as credit in your ITR. Structure all of this with your CA before the first remittance.

My budget is around AED 1.2 million. Is there any visa route for me?

Yes — Dubai's 2-year property investor visa, and the rules just moved in your favour. In April 2026, DLD removed the AED 750,000 minimum property value for sole owners (most websites still quote the old threshold). You need freehold residential property, DLD-registered, held as sole owner at any value; joint owners need a stake of at least AED 400,000 each, and a mortgaged property needs a bank NOC. It's a Dubai-specific scheme, renewable on a 2-year cycle, with fewer privileges than the 10-year Golden Visa — and like every visa, it's subject to government criteria, so no one can promise an approval. At current Danube pricing (developer-published, Oct 2026), entry points like Timez at AED 871K or Sparklz at AED 900K sit comfortably in this lane. See our 2-year investor visa guide for the full breakdown.

Will my spouse and children get visas too?

As a Golden Visa holder you may be eligible to sponsor your spouse and children as dependants, subject to current government criteria — their residence runs alongside yours, with separate fees, medicals and Emirates IDs per person. Two distinctions matter. First, a dependant visa is not the same as your spouse holding their own 10-year visa; if they want one in their own right as a co-owner, their personal share of the property must itself be at least AED 2 million. Second, dependant categories and conditions get revised, so for anyone beyond spouse and children, confirm the current rules with GDRFA before you plan around them. Decide whether your family needs one Golden Visa or two before you fix the ownership split — changing shares after registration means a fresh DLD transaction and fresh fees.

What do I owe the Indian taxman on a Dubai property?

We're not tax advisors, so take the structure to your CA — but know the three non-negotiables. One: any foreign property must be disclosed in Schedule FA of your income tax return, and non-disclosure attracts penalties under the Black Money Act, so this is not optional paperwork. Two: if you're an Indian tax resident, rental income from the Dubai flat is taxable in India, with credit available under the India-UAE DTAA; NRIs are treated differently. Three: the TCS collected on your LRS remittances (20% above ₹10 lakh per financial year, under the Income-tax Act) is a prepaid credit, not a sunk cost — claim it against your tax liability or as a refund in your ITR. A CA who has handled LRS property files will fold all three into one clean annual routine.

Put it into practice