October 2026
What does it cost a US buyer to purchase a Dubai home?
Dubai's buying cost is treated as one number. The Land Department publishes several, and they are small enough to add. On AED 2 million, 4% is AED 80,000, about $21,780 at the peg of 3.6725. That is the figure worth keeping. It is rarely the figure in the pitch.
1. What the schedule actually contains
Registering a sale costs 4% of the price. The trustee fee is AED 2,100 under AED 500,000 and AED 4,200 from there up. A map of an apartment or a building is AED 250. Two small fees, knowledge and innovation, are AED 10 each. Those were the lines on 16 October 2026. A broker's commission is not one of them. Neither is the building's service charge.
2. The sum, and nothing beside it
At AED 2,000,000, with no mortgage, the lines are 80,000, then 4,200, then 250, then 20. That is AED 84,470, about $23,000. It is a sum, not a quotation. If the seller still owes a bank, the same service adds a charge to release the mortgage. If the property is a plot rather than an apartment, the map line can move. Nothing else was included, because nothing else is printed there.
3. The buyer does not automatically pay the 4%
In May 2021 the department said the 4% follows whatever the buyer and the seller agreed, and that a developer who has collected it must pay it over. Buyers do often swallow the whole 4%. That is a habit. The notice points at the contract, and, for an off-plan sale, at the project's escrow as a proper place for the fee to land.
4. The other numbers come from somewhere else
A resale usually carries a brokerage percentage. It lives in the contract, not on a government tariff, so a figure in a message has no source until it is written down. Service charges begin after you own, and the building sets them. A US bank charges its own fee to send the wire. Fold any of those into AED 84,470 and you are no longer describing Dubai's fee. You are describing one deal.
5. America adds income, not a second stamp duty
There is no US version of the 4%. There is tax on the rent, and on a gain when you sell, because a citizen is taxed on worldwide income. The house itself, in your own name, stays off Form 8938 and off the FBAR. Wrap it in a foreign company and that comfort ends. The interest in the company can be reportable, even though the apartment still is not. The expensive surprise is a form, not another percentage.
AED 84,470 is what Dubai's own lines come to, at this price, on this date. Any larger number needs a document with someone's name on it.
Sources: Dubai Land Department fee schedule (4% of the sale-contract value) and the department's sale-registration service, checked 16 October 2026; Dubai Land Department notice of 31 May 2021; Central Bank of the UAE peg of 3.6725; IRS Form 8938 questions and the Form 8938/FBAR comparison. AED 84,470 is Moonlanding Group's addition of those published lines, shown as illustration only. This is not tax, legal, or investment advice.
This article reflects Moonlanding Group’s opinion and is for general information only. It is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice. Figures come from the sources named and may change. Consult a qualified professional before making any decision.
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