Mortgage banks and lenders in the UAE

Discover which banks and lenders in the UAE offer mortgage loans. A must-read for buyers financing their property purchase with a mortgage.

There are 52 local and foreign banks providing financial services to customers in the UAE. Of these, 22 are national banks and 30 are foreign banks. However, only some of these banks offer mortgage loans. The first step when looking to finance a property purchase in the UAE for your dream home, vacation property, or investment property is determining which banks have mortgage loan offers.

Which banks offer mortgages?

Here’s a list of which UAE banks offer mortgage loans for nationals/residents and non-residents. Since banks regard non-resident lenders as higher risk as a result of their less substantial ties to the country, some decide to only offer loans to UAE nationals and residents.

Which loan types do banks offer? 

Islamic and conventional loans are the two main types of loans in the UAE. Banks are forbidden from charging interest on loans under Sharia Law, which applies to Muslim nationals. As an alternative, banks can offer Islamic loans where they either buy the property on behalf of the customer and charge monthly installments (Murabaha financing) or set up a buy-and-lease arrangement (Ijarah financing). UAE nationals and residents are eligible for Islamic loans, but non-residents are not. Banks can also still choose to provide conventional loans and charge interest on loan repayments. Conventional loans are available to nationals, residents, and non-residents, but individual banks may still not offer conventional loans to UAE non-residents as specified in the previous table.

Let’s look at which UAE banks offer Islamic and conventional mortgage loans.

Moving forward

You have more than a dozen banks to choose from when it comes to taking out a mortgage in the UAE. Depending on your residency and which loan type you are looking to take out, your options may be more limited. Either way, there are still a handful of banks to research in order to find the ideal loan offer for you. A mortgage broker like Kredium can make the search for a mortgage loan much more efficient. Instead of visiting each bank individually to get a loan offer, we search among all of the banks at once and provide you with multiple, personalized loan offers. All you need to do is contact us.  

Here are some other topics mortgage-related topics to read about:

• Residency by investment via the Dubai Golden Visa

• Mortgages for self-employed borrowers

• Mortgage rejection reasons

• And many more!

We can also help with your property search. Kredium is partnered with all of the largest and most popular developers in Dubai, offering more than 5,000 properties on our property portal. You can filter our properties by developer, price, size, property type, completion status, amenities, and location. Or if you already have a property in mind, use our mortgage calculator to estimate the mandatory, recurring, and optional monthly payments and begin planning your finances. Sign-up on our website to get started.

Photo credits:

• Photo from Central Banking