Buying Dubai property from Switzerland: the return and the cantonal checks

Zurich instructs owners to disclose foreign property and its income so the tax office can allocate the assessment. That is a useful practical starting point, not a substitute for your own canton’s rules. Ask how any exemption, progression and expense deductions apply to your circumstances.

Have a cantonal adviser review the proposed sale before assuming the gain is excluded from every Swiss calculation. Private ownership, business activity and ownership through a company can raise different questions. This guide does not establish the treatment of a foreign gain or its effect on the rate applied to other income.

Give your adviser the borrowing and interest figures alongside the property value. Ask how debts and deductions are allocated between Switzerland and foreign assets. Do not assume that a loan secured on one property determines where all its interest is deductible.

SIF confirms that the protocol signed on 5 November 2022 entered into force on 5 May 2025. Most amendments apply from 1 January 2026, with exceptions. The treaty and domestic law must be read together for the tax year and ownership concerned; the treaty is not irrelevant merely because an asset is abroad.

Foreign-property valuation and debt allocation require the rules of your canton. Request the applicable valuation method and any rate effect rather than assuming the purchase price, a discount or an exemption. The Zurich source is an example, not a nationwide valuation schedule.

Ask the sending bank to confirm the transfer route, documentation and applicable restrictions. Prepare source-of-funds evidence and verify the developer or registration trustee’s beneficiary details. No blanket statement about remittance permissions is made here.

Switzerland has no federal inheritance or estate tax. Where inheritance tax exists it is cantonal, and most cantons exempt a spouse and direct descendants, with variation for more distant heirs we did not verify. On succession law, Swiss private international law generally applies the law of the deceased’s last domicile to the worldwide estate, and Swiss law imposes compulsory portions for a spouse and descendants. A 2023 revision of the Civil Code changed those fractions and we have not read the current ones, so none is printed here.

Whether Swiss compulsory portions reach an apartment situated in a third state is a conflict of laws question nothing we read resolved, so do not assume they step aside. The fix on the Dubai side is the DIFC Courts Wills Service, established by Resolution No. 4 of 2014 of the DIFC President and reaffirmed by Dubai Law No. 15 of 2017, which lets a non-Muslim owner of UAE assets register an English language will recognised for probate in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah.

At AED 1 to CHF 0.2203, the mid-market rate reported for 7 September 2026, an AED 3,000,000 apartment is about CHF 660,900. A buyer carrying the whole 4 per cent transfer fee pays AED 120,000, about CHF 26,436. The registration trustee fee at this value is AED 4,000 plus 5 per cent VAT, so AED 4,200, roughly CHF 925, with AED 250 for the title deed and AED 10 each for the knowledge and innovation fees. Registration comes to about AED 124,470, some CHF 27,421, for a total near AED 3,124,470, about CHF 688,300, before agency commission, financing or service charges.

The franc figure is not a Swiss tax bill, because there is none on this purchase. It is the number that goes on the wealth declaration and therefore sets rates elsewhere in your return. The rate above is not official: the Central Bank of the UAE’s exchange rate page refused our request on 10 September 2026, so this is an aggregator figure, to be replaced with the Bank’s own before anything is signed. Run the numbers on the cost of buying calculator and see what is selling in the off-plan catalogue.

Foreign ownership here is a carve-out, not a general right. Article (4) of Law No. (7) of 2006 restricts real property ownership to UAE and GCC nationals and companies wholly owned by them, then permits freehold for non-UAE nationals “in certain areas determined by the Ruler”. Regulation No. (3) of 2006 fixes those areas by numbered land plot on attached maps, not by the names projects are marketed under, so ask for the plot in writing. Off-plan instalments sit in an account which Article (9)(1) of Law No. (8) of 2007 requires to be “dedicated exclusively to the construction of that Real Estate Development project”, beyond the developer’s creditors. That is ring-fencing, not a refund guarantee.

The Land Department publishes its transfer fee as 2 per cent from the seller and 2 per cent from the buyer, so a buyer carrying all 4 per cent follows market practice rather than the published rule. The government portal puts the property route to the golden visa at a “Minimum capital of AED 2 million”, with no duration printed here because two government pages disagree. Test the threshold on the golden visa calculator.

No canton-specific capital-gains computation, wealth-tax rate, valuation discount, borrowing allocation or inheritance entitlement is established here. Ask a qualified adviser in your canton to review those points. The protocol’s commencement is verified; its effect on a particular structure is not.

Currency examples remain historical illustrations. Original source dates remain for material not rechecked. Confirm current exchange rates, title and plot eligibility, fees and succession arrangements before committing funds.