Buying property in Dubai
Power of Attorney for Purchase of Property in Dubai
A buyer’s agent spends your money and puts an asset into a named person’s name. The document has to say whose name, what price ceiling applies, and which steps the agent may sign.
- Special agency wording
- Arabic legal translation
- We attend, you sign
What has to be right before you sign
A power of attorney for purchase of property has to be a special agency that names the act of buying. It also has to name the person the property is registered to, and say exactly which steps the agent may take on your behalf.
Type of agency
Special, naming purchase and the buyer
Who signs it
You, before a notary public
Language of the instrument
Arabic, with certified translation if foreign
Why a general power of attorney will not buy property
Buying property is not an act of management or preservation. Federal Decree-Law 25/2025, the Civil Transactions Law now in force, requires a special agency for any act outside management and preservation, and says that agency must specify the type of act and the dispositions it entails. A power of attorney written in loose general terms grants your agent the power to manage only. It will not carry a purchase.
Federal Decree-Law 25/2025, Article 870(1)
Any act that is not an act of management and preservation requires a special agency specifying the type of act and the dispositions it entails, particularly in donations, sale, settlement, mortgage, acknowledgment, arbitration, administering and accepting an oath, and pleading before the court.
What a power of attorney for purchase of property covers
A buying power of attorney is an agency contract. You are the principal, the person you appoint is the agent, and the agent acts in your place on the purchase. The scope is whatever the document grants and nothing more. If a step is not written in, the agent cannot take it, and the authority you handed over stops at that line.
Statute recognises four shapes of agency: general, special, conditional, or deferred to a future time. A purchase almost always needs the special form, and it can be made conditional or deferred if you want the authority to start only on a date or an event. Those are drafting choices with consequences, so decide them before the document is written, not after.
Ready property and off plan raise different questions
The two are not the same purchase. Decide which one you are buying before the wording is fixed, because the steps your agent has to sign are different.
Ready property
Buying a completed unit
The agent may need to sign the sale and purchase agreement, pay on your behalf, accept handover and appear before the authority that registers the transfer. Each is a separate power.
Off plan
Buying from a developer
An off plan purchase can run for years. Decide whether the agent may sign at booking, commit you to later payments, and act again when the unit is handed over.
Six things the wording has to settle
These are the points that get left out and then argued about later. Settle each one in writing before the document goes anywhere near a notary.
- Whose name the property is registered in, written in full and exactly as it appears on the passport.
- The act itself, named as purchase, so the agency is special and not a general grant of management.
- A price ceiling, if you want one, and whether the agent may agree a figure above or below it.
- Whether the agent may sign the sale and purchase agreement, or only carry out steps you have already agreed.
- Whether the agent may pay the deposit and the balance, and which account that money is to come from.
- Whether the agent may accept handover, and whether the authority ends on registration or carries on after it.
How we put the document together
We draft, translate, check and attend. The ratification itself happens before a notary public.
1
Take the instruction
We ask what you are buying, whose name it goes into, how the money moves and how far you want the agent to be able to act without coming back to you. That conversation decides the wording, so it comes first. If you are abroad we take it by call and email.
2
Draft the special agency
We write the purchase power as a special agency that names the act and the dispositions it carries, because a document written in general terms only gives your agent acts of management. Every power in the list above is either written in or deliberately left out, and we tell you which.
3
Arabic and the translation
The instrument a notary draws up is in Arabic. In Dubai a foreign language document is accepted only with an Arabic translation by a certified translator, with both versions signed. Documents going to the Dubai Courts service must be translated as legal translation approved by the UAE Ministry of Justice, and we provide that.
4
Check it, then attend
We read the final Arabic and English against each other, check the names and the passport spellings, and go with you to the appointment. The notary verifies identity from an ID card or passport, checks capacity and consent, and reads the content of the transaction out before it is signed.
What to have ready
Identity is the core of it, and a document signed abroad adds a chain of attestation on top. The Dubai Courts property route asks for a title deed to be uploaded, which a buyer will not have yet, so confirm with the notary office what it wants in its place.
Signing here in Dubai
What the principal brings
- Your Emirates ID or passport, which the notary checks to verify identity
- The agent’s Emirates ID number, or a copy of their Emirates ID or passport
- Your written instruction on price, payment and whose name the property takes
- The Arabic draft and its English counterpart, both ready to be signed
Signing outside the UAE
MOFAIC attestation is AED 150 for individual affairs documents, AED 2,000 for commercial
- Attestation by the foreign ministry of the country where it was signed
- Attestation by the UAE embassy or consulate in that country
- Attestation by MOFAIC once the document is back in the UAE
- An Arabic or English original, or a legally certified translation, and not laminated
Facts the draft needs
Decided before, not at the counter
- The full legal name of the person the property is to be registered to
- The price ceiling, if you want one written into the document
- Which steps the agent may sign, and which are deliberately held back
- The date or the event the authority is to start and end on
What makes a purchase power of attorney fail
Most failures come from wording that was too loose, or from an assumption about the law that is no longer true. Both are avoidable at the drafting stage.
- General terms with no named act, which grant acts of management and nothing else
- No named buyer, so the document never says where the property is meant to end up
- Silence on payment, so nobody can tell whether the agent may move your money
- Relying on a fixed validity period, when no statute sets one for an agency
- Citing Article 955 of the repealed 1985 Civil Code instead of the law in force
- Assuming an apostille will do, when the UAE is not a party to that convention
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often on this one.
Can a general power of attorney be used to buy property in Dubai?
Not on its own. The Civil Transactions Law says an agency expressed in general terms, without specifying what is intended, grants the agent the power to perform acts of management only. Buying is not an act of management. You need a special agency that names the purchase and the dispositions it carries.
Whose name does the property go into?
Whoever the document names, which is why the name has to be written in full and spelled exactly as it appears on the passport. An agent buying under a power of attorney is spending your money and putting an asset into a named person’s name. If the document is vague about which person that is, fix it before signing.
How long is a purchase power of attorney valid?
There is no statutory validity period. An agency ends when the work is completed or when the term written into it expires. Commentary on Dubai Land Department Circular 29/R/2025 reports that a power of attorney used in a property transaction must have been issued within the previous two years. That is reported, it is one authority’s acceptance rule rather than a general validity period, and you should confirm it.
Can I sign the power of attorney from outside the UAE?
Yes, but it has to travel through the attestation chain. The document is attested by the foreign ministry of the country where it was signed, then by the UAE embassy or consulate there, then by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the UAE. The UAE is not a party to the Apostille Convention, so an apostille does not replace that chain.
What does the notary charge for a power of attorney?
Under the federal fee schedule in Cabinet Resolution 19/2024, a general or special power of attorney is AED 100 per party, and notarising a translation included in the instrument is AED 50 per page. Dubai Courts runs its own schedule. Its published figure was AED 100 per party plus a Knowledge and Innovation fee, but that comes from a February 2023 archived page, so check the live one.
Does the document have to be in Arabic?
The instrument the notary draws up is in Arabic. Dubai Law 4/2013 allows a foreign language document only when it comes with an Arabic translation by a certified translator, and both versions are signed by the parties. Documents submitted to the Dubai Courts power of attorney service must be translated as legal translation approved by the UAE Ministry of Justice.
What if I do not speak the language of the appointment?
The notary has to read the content of the transaction out to you and reveal its effects before you sign. If the notary is not familiar with your language, the federal notary law requires an interpreter whose name is on the Ministry’s Interpreter Register, present while that is done. Interpretation at the appointment is a separate thing from translation of the document.
Can I cancel the power of attorney once the purchase is done?
Yes. The principal may revoke or restrict the agent’s authority at any time, unless the agency involves the right of a third party or was issued in the interest of the agent. Revoking at an inappropriate time or without acceptable justification can make you liable to compensate the agent. Revoking a principal agency also revokes any sub-agency derived from it.
Start here
Talk to us before the wording is fixed
Send us what you are buying, whose name it goes into and how far you want your agent to be able to act. We draft the special agency, prepare the Arabic and the certified translation, check both versions line by line and attend the appointment with you. The ratification is carried out by a notary public. Everything up to that point is ours.
Tell us what the document has to do
Say who will receive it and what you need it to allow, and you will get a straight answer on the wording, the government fees and what to bring. You can also send it through the contact form.
Call us
Speak to the person who will handle your file and get an answer on the same call.
Send photographs of your passport, your Emirates ID and anything the matter attaches to.
Best for a company matter, or anything that runs to several documents.
Visit the office
Jebel Ali area, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. Come in, or have it handled remotely and only turn up to sign.
Opening hours. Monday to Thursday, 9:00 to 18:00. Friday, 9:00 to 12:00. Saturday, 9:00 to 18:00. Sunday, closed.