Emirates Hills

Dubai's Regulation No. 3 of 2006, which sets out where non-UAE nationals may own property, lists plots in areas it names Emirates Hills 1, 2 and 3, where they may hold freehold without time limit. Those are municipal area names, not a list of every plot in the community, so ask the Dubai Land Department to confirm the freehold status of the specific plot before you pay a deposit. The Land Department registers property rights here and issues the title deed. As so many sales here are registered as land, check exactly what the deed covers.

Not off-plan. Every sale the Land Department's register files under the Emirates Hills project for 2023 to 2025 was of existing property, and no off-plan project is registered there. Some portals market Ellington's Eltiera Views as Emirates Hills, but the register files it under the Jumeirah Islands master project. The route to a new house is a recently built one on the resale market, or a plot and your own build. Building needs the master developer's approval and a building permit, so check the community's design rules and how long a build takes before you buy a plot.

Because of how our sold prices section groups them. The Land Department's register files Emirates Hills in the Emirates Living master project, in the Land Department area Al Thanayah Fourth, and our sold prices section currently groups that area with The Views and The Greens. The Emirates Hills entry there counts registered villa sales only and leaves out plot sales, which in most years are the larger share of trades here, so it rests on roughly 15 to 30 sales a year. Like the wider community's medians, which mix in apartments and Springs villas, it is no guide to what a single house here is worth.