Real estate
Paying for a Dubai property from overseas
A UAE purchase is settled with an instrument only a UAE bank can issue to its own account holder, and a buyer living overseas usually holds no UAE account. Opening one as a non-resident can take longer than the completion timetable allows. A regulated custody arrangement is the route that does not depend on it.
Planning the payment
Buying a property in Dubai or Abu Dhabi as a non-resident is straightforward. Finding it, agreeing the price and signing the sale agreement all work much as they would anywhere. The part that takes planning is the payment.
Completion happens in a single appointment. In Dubai that appointment takes place at a Real Estate Registration Trustee office, one of the private centres the Dubai Land Department approves to handle registration, and the seller is usually paid by manager's cheque: a cheque a UAE bank draws on its own funds after setting the money aside, issued to its own account holder against cleared funds in that account. The practical question is how the purchase funds reach a UAE bank account in time for a cheque to be arranged from them.
Opening a UAE account as a non-resident is possible. It requires its own documentation, and the account may not be open by the completion date. It usually asks for documentation a buyer assembling a purchase does not yet have, and the outcome is not certain at the point the completion date is being agreed. A buyer who begins the process when the sale agreement is signed may find the account is not ready when the appointment falls.
The alternative is to have a regulated firm receive the funds instead. Your money is held under client money arrangements, the source of it is documented at the outset, and Titanium arranges the manager's cheque in the payee and amount your instruction fixes, for the completion date. The terms of the sale are unchanged.
A manager's cheque is not the only payment method a transfer can involve. The Dubai Land Department accepts several methods for its own registration fees, and what the seller will accept for the purchase price is set by the sale agreement. Your conveyancer or authorised representative confirms what your transfer requires and supplies the exact payee and amount; Titanium acts on that documented instruction and calculates nothing itself.
The four terms that follow a buyer through this process, manager's cheque, source of funds, cleared funds and client money arrangements, are explained on the real estate custody page.
Your four steps
How the payment reaches completion
The same four steps, set out from funding through to delivery of the cheque.
Tell us about the purchase
The property, the completion date, the price and where the money is coming from. We confirm whether we can act before you send anything.
Complete identity and source of funds checks
Identification for every buyer named on the purchase, and evidence of where the purchase money came from. The custody arrangement is documented and you are given a named contact.
Transfer the purchase funds
You transfer the purchase amount in your chosen currency to the account confirmed to you. Receipt and clearance are confirmed back to you.
Titanium arranges the manager's cheque
The cheque is arranged in the payee and amount fixed in your documented instruction, for the completion date, and delivery is coordinated with your conveyancer or agent.
Onboarding
What you will need
These documents are assembled at the start of onboarding. Evidence of source of funds usually takes the longest to gather.
Valid passport or government photo identification
Identity verification, for every buyer named on the purchase.
Proof of address
A recent utility bill, bank statement or equivalent showing your residential address.
Evidence of source of funds
Bank statements covering the period the funds accumulated, a sale contract, employment or dividend records, or the documents evidencing an inheritance or a gift.
Sale and purchase agreement or MOU
Confirms the property, the parties, the price and the completion date.
Payee details for the cheque
The exact name and details the cheque is to be made out to, supplied or confirmed by your conveyancer or authorised representative. Titanium arranges the cheque on that documented instruction.
Corporate and trust buyers should tell us about the structure when they make contact, and we will confirm the applicable requirements. Do not send passports, bank statements or other sensitive documents by ordinary email: secure submission instructions are provided once your enquiry is received.
Who handles each part of the purchase
Paying for the property is one strand of a purchase with several, and each strand belongs to somebody different. Titanium holds one of them and no others.
Titanium's part is the money. It holds the purchase amount under the custody agreement and arranges the manager's cheque in the amount and to the payee fixed in your documented instruction, subject to applicable law and regulatory requirements. Its role is non-discretionary. If the purchase does not complete, the return of funds follows the mechanics documented in the custody agreement, which are agreed before anything is transferred.
Related
Where to go next
Manager's cheque in the UAE for a non-resident
What the instrument is, the four points that decide the timetable, and how the cheque is arranged for the appointment.
Manager's cheque mechanicsReal estate custody
The service page: what Titanium holds on a property purchase and how the arrangement is documented.
Real estate custodyVerified facts
The entity and permission facts with the source that confirms each one, and what Titanium does not publish.
Check the recordTitanium Financial Ltd, trading as Titanium Escrow, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market for Providing Custody and Providing Money Services, under Financial Services Permission number 200010. The authorisation is verifiable on the ADGM public register.
Tell us about your purchase
The property, the completion date and where the funds are coming from. We will confirm whether Titanium can act and what documents will be needed.