Buying a Dubai property without flying in: the power of attorney, its attestation, and who does what

The Land Department’s sale registration service registers a transfer between the seller and the buyer “or their legally authorized representatives, through the purchase of land, property, or a completed real estate unit”. Its FAQ sets out how: developers record their own sales through their self-registration system, and “For the rest of the transactions, owners or their representatives, based on an official power of attorney, and the presence of the parties at the Real Estate Registration Trustee centres located in different regions across Dubai.” So for a completed property, someone attends a trustee centre for you, and the power of attorney is what lets them.

The document sets the limits. “The legal proxy may, under a duly legalised and regulated power of attorney, transact the customer’s properties within the limits of the power of attorney granted as stated in the power of attorney.” Whatever the attorney has to do on the day, the power of attorney has to cover. The Land Department’s fully digital route, Buy or Sell Property via Dubai Now, where the contract is generated and signed online and the money passes through an escrow account, is not open to a buyer abroad without an Emirates ID: “The service is provided for individuals that only holds UAE ID.”

The FAQ gives two periods: “The validity of the power of attorney including the purposes of transactions such as sale, mortgage and grants shall be for two years. In case of purchase, it shall be for five years from the date of notarisation at the notary public.” An owner’s representative who approves a sale at auction needs a power of attorney whose date of issuance does not exceed two years. These are the Land Department’s answers in an FAQ rather than a published law or circular, and no service page repeats them, so confirm the period with a trustee office before a power of attorney is drawn up, and count it from the notary’s date, not from the day it reaches Dubai.

The Land Department’s rule: “Any power of attorney issued outside the UAE must be formally ratified to be accepted for completing the actions or transactions at the DLD, through ratifying the same by the notary public and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the country of origin, as well as the UAE Embassy in the country of origin, and finally the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE.” That is a notary, then your own foreign ministry, then the UAE embassy, then the UAE ministry, in that order.

The last step is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attestation service, which “certifies the authenticity of the signatures and seals on documents issued within or outside the United Arab Emirates.” For a document issued abroad, the Ministry directs applicants to its attestation through UAE missions abroad: “This service is available through selected UAE Missions abroad”, and where it is not available online, the applicant visits the mission in person. For attestation through an approved courier, the Ministry asks for “The original document in Arabic or English, or accompanied by a legally certified translation.” We found no Land Department rule on translating a power of attorney made by an individual.

Revoking one is simpler than making one. The Land Department’s power of attorney cancellation service notarises a cancellation “in order to prevent the authorized attorney from acting according to the power of attorney”, as a free service at its main headquarters, with Dubai Court as its partner, and it accepts a valid passport from a non-resident foreigner.

Buying off plan from abroad involves fewer people. The Oqood service “allows a real estate developer to register units sold off-plan or land plots whose value has not been fully paid at the provisional register”. The developer files it online, and the output is sent by email to the purchaser. An individual buyer supplies a copy of the sale and purchase contract, and a copy of a valid passport if not a resident. “The sale and purchase contract shall be signed by the developer and the purchaser”, and “shall be registered in the provisional register within 90 days from the date of signing the contract”. The page lists 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the purchaser, with AED 10 each in knowledge and innovation fees; our DLD fees and Oqood guide works the full cost through. The page does not say whether the contract may be signed electronically.

The Land Department’s FAQ also describes registering a sale by a recorded video call through a trustee office, with a route for a caller outside the country that runs by email to the centre’s directors. The answer is undated and written around the seller’s details, so ask the trustee office before you rely on it.

Off plan, the money goes to the project, not the developer. Article 7 of Law No. (8) of 2007 has the payments made by off-plan purchasers deposited “in an account opened with the Escrow Agent in the name of the Real Estate Development project”, and Article 9 adds that the account “will be dedicated exclusively to the construction of that Real Estate Development project.” The Land Department’s FAQ is as plain: “Yes, all payments received from buyers must be paid into the Escrow account.” A transfer to any other account is a question to put to the developer, and to us, before it is made. Our journal’s guide to escrow protections explains what the account guards against.

For a completed property, the sale registration page lists how its fees are paid: ePay, Dubai Pay, a Noqodi wallet or a manager’s cheque. It does not say how the price itself passes from buyer to seller at the transfer, which is a matter for the parties and their banks.

The sale registration page asks for the “Emirates ID of both the seller and buyer (for identity verification only; no copies are taken) Or a valid passport for non-resident foreigners”, and the Oqood page asks individuals for a copy of a valid passport if they are not residents. The UAE government portal states the ownership side: “Foreigners (who don’t live in the UAE) and expatriate residents may acquire freehold ownership rights over property without restriction, usufruct rights, or leasehold rights for up to 99 years” in Dubai’s freehold areas.

The cost of buying calculator adds the registration fees to a price, and the Dubai off-plan hub lists the projects we track. If you mean to buy through a company rather than in your own name, our company and foundation guide sets out what the Land Department asks of a company buyer, and our cancellation and refund guide covers what happens if an off-plan project stalls.

Everything below was either not on an official page we could read on 2 October 2026 or would need a reading we did not do, so it is not stated above.

• The Dubai Courts’ notary services, including any remote or video notarisation of a power of attorney, its documents and its fee: the Dubai Courts site refused every connection.
• The federal law on notaries and the federal law on electronic transactions, including whether a property sale contract may be signed electronically: the federal legislation portal refused our requests.
• Whether a power of attorney for a sale or purchase must be special to the transaction or name the property. The Land Department’s pages say only that the attorney acts within its limits.
• Whether an individual’s power of attorney made abroad must be translated into Arabic, and whether the UAE accepts an apostille in place of the attestation chain. No official page we read mentions either.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ attestation fees, which sit in a schedule we did not open.
• Whether the Land Department accepts the Ministry of Justice’s digital power of attorney, which is signed with UAE PASS.
• How the price of a completed property passes from buyer to seller at the transfer.