Published 19 July 2026 · Updated 19 July 2026

Property value calculator UAE: what your deposit and salary actually buy

By Fatima Al Rashid, Head of Mortgage Research · 9 min read

Say you've put aside AED 300,000. Not a salary figure, not a loan amount, just cash sitting in an account. What can that actually buy you in Dubai right now?

Most people answer this backwards. They fall for a property first, then go asking a bank whether the numbers work. Flip the order and you save yourself a lot of wasted viewings. A property value calculator starts from what you have, not from what you want, and gives you a ceiling to shop under before an agent ever shows you a floor plan.

The two ceilings that decide what you can buy

There isn't one number here. There are two, and the smaller one wins.

The first ceiling comes from your deposit: how large a property can your cash cover once the Central Bank's loan-to-value limit and the usual buying costs are factored in. The second comes from your salary: how large a loan your income can service without breaching the 50% debt burden ratio cap that every UAE bank applies. Buyers with a big deposit and a modest salary hit the salary ceiling first. Buyers with a strong income and a thin deposit hit the cash ceiling first. Work out both before you fall in love with a listing.

What your deposit alone can buy

The CBUAE sets loan-to-value caps by buyer type, and your deposit is simply 100% minus that cap. On top of the deposit, budget roughly 7.5% of the property price for buying costs: the 4% Dubai Land Department transfer fee, mortgage registration, agency commission, valuation and admin fees combined. Add the two together and you get the total cash a given property actually costs you upfront.

Run the maths yourself: divide your available cash by the total-cash percentage for your buyer type. AED 300,000 divided by 0.275 gets you to that AED 1,090,000 expat figure. Swap in your own deposit and the fraction that fits your profile, and you'll land on your own number in under a minute.

What your salary alone can support

Deposit sorted, now check the other side. UAE banks cap your total monthly debt payments, mortgage included, at 50% of your gross salary. They don't test that cap against the rate they're offering you either. They apply a stress-test rate 2 to 4 percentage points higher, so your real borrowing power is lower than a quick back-of-envelope sum would suggest.

Our salary-to-mortgage guide runs full tables by income band, but the shape of it: an AED 20,000 monthly salary with no existing debts typically supports a loan of roughly AED 1,500,000 to AED 1,700,000 at a 6.5% stress-test rate over 25 years. Convert that loan to a property value at 80% LTV and you're looking at a property somewhere between AED 1,875,000 and AED 2,125,000.

Which number actually wins?

Here's where the two sides meet. Take that same AED 20,000 earner with AED 300,000 in the bank, buying as an expat.

• Deposit ceiling: ~AED 1,090,000
• Salary ceiling: ~AED 1,875,000 to AED 2,125,000

The deposit is the binding constraint by a wide margin. This buyer isn't short on income. They're short on cash. Their honest shopping range tops out near AED 1.1M, not the AED 2M their salary alone could technically service. Reverse the numbers, a modest salary and a large deposit, say AED 800,000 saved on a AED 12,000 income, and the salary side becomes the wall instead. There's no substitute for checking both. Whichever number is smaller is the one that matters, full stop.

The valuation trap that shows up after you've already agreed a price

You've done the sums, found a unit, and agreed a price with the seller. One more variable can still move the goalposts: the bank's own valuation.

Every UAE lender commissions an independent valuation before releasing funds, and it lends against whichever is lower, the agreed price or the valuer's figure, never the higher one. Agree to pay AED 1,200,000 and the valuer comes back at AED 1,150,000, and your 80% LTV is calculated on AED 1,150,000, not AED 1,200,000. That AED 50,000 shortfall doesn't vanish. You fund it yourself, in cash, on top of the deposit you'd already budgeted.

Off-plan resets both ceilings

Buying off-plan changes the deposit side sharply. Every buyer type, national, expat or non-resident, is capped at 50% LTV on an off-plan unit rather than the 80% to 85% available on a ready home. A UAE national who'd normally put down 15% needs 50% instead the moment the property isn't built yet. Our off-plan property guide covers the construction-stage drawdown rules and how developer payment plans fit around this cap.

How to run your own numbers

1. Total your available cash. Savings only, not money you'd need to borrow from somewhere else to fund the deposit.
2. Divide by your buyer-type percentage from the table above to get your deposit-driven property value.
3. Check your salary ceiling against the salary-to-mortgage tables, then convert that loan figure to a property value at your LTV.
4. Take the smaller of the two. That's your real shopping ceiling, not the bigger, more flattering number.
5. Confirm the exact figures for your case on the mortgage calculator or with an eligibility check, which accounts for existing debt and age.

One number from a blog post is a starting point. It isn't a pre-approval. Treat this as the range to shop within, then let an actual bank confirm the figure before you sign anything.

Property value calculator: your questions answered

What is a property value calculator and how is it different from a mortgage calculator?

A standard mortgage calculator starts with a property price and works out your monthly payment. A property value calculator runs the other direction: it starts with what you actually have, your cash deposit and your salary, and works out the maximum property price those two numbers support. You need both directions before you start viewing property.

How much property can I afford with a AED 300,000 deposit in the UAE?

At the 80% loan-to-value cap for an expat buying a first home under AED 5 million, AED 300,000 in cash supports a property of roughly AED 1,090,000 once the 20% deposit and around 7.5% in buying costs are both accounted for. A UAE national at 85% LTV stretches the same AED 300,000 to about AED 1,330,000. Your salary still has to support the loan size that comes with it, so check both numbers, not just this one.

Why would a bank's valuation lower how much I can actually buy?

UAE banks lend against the lower of the agreed purchase price or their own independent valuation, never the higher figure. If you agree to buy at AED 1,200,000 but the bank's valuer assesses the unit at AED 1,150,000, your loan-to-value is calculated on AED 1,150,000. You must fund the AED 50,000 gap yourself, on top of your planned deposit, because the bank will not lend a single dirham above its own valuation.

Does a non-resident need a much smaller property value target?

Yes, considerably smaller. MortgageCompare.ae's eligibility engine caps non-resident borrowing at 50% loan-to-value regardless of property type, against 80% for a resident expat on a first home under AED 5 million. The same AED 300,000 deposit that targets roughly AED 1,090,000 as a resident expat targets only around AED 520,000 as a non-resident, once buying costs are folded in.

Is the property value calculation different for off-plan units?

Yes. Off-plan property is capped at 50% loan-to-value for every buyer type, national, expat or non-resident alike, rather than the 80% to 85% available on a ready home. That cuts the borrowing power a resident buyer normally gets in half, so the same deposit reaches a smaller off-plan property value than a ready one. Our off-plan property guide covers the construction-stage drawdown rules in full.