How to Buy Property in Dubai from India: LRS, TCS and Steps

The Reserve Bank of India's Master Direction on the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) lets a resident individual remit up to USD 250,000 per financial year (April to March), covering permitted current and capital account transactions together (paragraph A.1). Acquiring immovable property outside India is a permitted capital account use (paragraph A.6), subject to the Foreign Exchange Management (Overseas Investment) Rules, Regulations and Directions, 2022. The copy on the RBI website is marked as updated to 6 September 2024, so check it for later changes before you remit.

What your bank will ask for:

• Form A2, the form the RBI prescribes for buying foreign exchange under the LRS (paragraph A.15).
• Your PAN, which the RBI makes compulsory for every LRS remittance (paragraph A.16).
• A purpose code. Bank purpose-code lists, such as HDFC Bank's, give S0005, described as Indian investment abroad "in real estate". Your bank confirms the code it applies.
• Proof of funds. For capital account remittances, the RBI tells banks to take the previous year's bank statement, or a recent tax assessment or return if no statement is available (paragraph B.7). Ask your bank which property papers it also wants, such as the SPA or the developer's payment request.

Every LRS remittance has to go through one branch of an authorised dealer bank that you designate (paragraph A.15). For a property bought from a seller outside India, such as a Dubai developer, Rule 21 of the Foreign Exchange Management (Overseas Investment) Rules, 2022 and the RBI's LRS FAQ (updated 6 April 2023) let relatives who are resident in India combine their LRS remittances, as long as each of them meets the Scheme's conditions. "Relative" follows the Companies Act, 2013 definition. Ask your bank what it needs from each person who remits. Income earned abroad, such as rent, may be retained or reinvested, but foreign exchange that is received or realised and not reinvested or used must be repatriated and surrendered within 180 days (paragraph A.17).

How a typical plan fits the limit (illustrative example, not a real project). Of the 239 off-plan projects listed on Profound in October 2026, the median payment plan was 20% down, 30% during construction and 50% on handover. The table applies that split to an AED 1,500,000 unit, converted at the dirham's fixed rate of AED 3.6725 to USD 1, a peg in place since 1997 according to Gulf News.

Stage	Share	AED	About USD
Down payment at booking	20%	300,000	81,688
DLD registration fee, if your SPA passes the full 4% to you	4%	60,000	16,338
Construction instalments, often spread over two or more years	30%	450,000	122,532
Payment on handover	50%	750,000	204,221
Total		1,560,000	424,779

On these numbers one person could not pay the full amount within a single financial year. Because the cap resets every April, instalments spread over two or more financial years could stay within one person's limit, provided no single year's payments pass USD 250,000 and no other LRS remittance uses up that year's allowance. Your real dates are in the SPA; our off-plan payment calculator helps you lay them out.

Banks collect tax at source (TCS) on LRS remittances. Section 394(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (Table, Sl. No. 7), in force from 1 April 2026, sets TCS at 20% for any purpose other than education or medical treatment once your LRS remittances in a financial year exceed ₹10 lakh in total. A property purchase falls in that 20% group. The Finance Act, 2026 (No. 4 of 2026, signed into law on 30 March 2026) lowered the education and medical rate from 5% to 2% from 1 April 2026 and did not change the 20% rate.

The ₹10 lakh threshold counts all your LRS remittances in the year together, not each transfer separately. The Act's table does not say in terms whether the 20% falls on the whole amount or only on the part above ₹10 lakh. Tax commentators generally read it as the part above, and the illustrative figures below for FY 2026-27 follow that reading, assuming you send nothing else under the LRS that year. Ask your bank how it calculates the TCS on your remittances.

Total LRS remittances in the year	Amount above ₹10 lakh	TCS at 20%
₹8 lakh	Nil	Nil
₹25 lakh	₹15 lakh	₹3 lakh
₹50 lakh	₹40 lakh	₹8 lakh
₹1 crore	₹90 lakh	₹18 lakh

TCS is tax collected against your PAN, not a bank charge. How it is adjusted when you file is a question for your chartered accountant. Rates change through each year's Finance Act, so confirm the current figure with your bank or on the Income Tax Department's website before every remittance.

Not an Indian bank loan. The RBI's LRS Master Direction tells banks not to give resident individuals credit of any kind to fund capital account remittances made through the LRS (paragraphs A.12 and B.10). Buying property abroad is a capital account transaction, so an Indian bank cannot lend you money to fund that remittance.

Paragraph B.8 of the Master Direction lets a bank accept a credit, debit or prepaid card as payment for the foreign exchange it sells you, while paragraphs A.12 and B.10 bar banks from extending credit for capital account remittances. The Direction does not say how the two apply to a property payment, so get your bank's answer in writing before you put any part of one on a card.

Whether a resident Indian can borrow from a UAE bank for the purchase is a separate foreign-exchange question; raise it with your bank or adviser before you apply. For how UAE banks lend on off-plan units, see our off-plan mortgage guide.

Almost everything on the Indian side depends on your residential status. The LRS is open to resident individuals (RBI Master Direction, paragraph A.3), and India's tax schedules for foreign assets apply by tax residence. Foreign-exchange law and income-tax law each define residence in their own way, so confirm your status under both with your adviser.

Point	Resident Indian	NRI
Route for the money	LRS via one designated bank branch, with Form A2 and PAN	Outside the LRS when paying from income earned and held abroad
Annual cap	USD 250,000 per financial year	LRS cap does not apply to money already held abroad
TCS	20% on LRS remittances above ₹10 lakh in the year (FY 2026-27)	LRS TCS does not arise on money sent from outside India
Schedule FA in the Indian return	Required for a resident who holds foreign assets	Not required for a non-resident or not-ordinarily-resident filer
Dubai rent in the Indian return	Reported as foreign-source income (Schedule FSI)	Depends on residential status; confirm with a chartered accountant

The Schedule FA and Schedule FSI rows come from the Income Tax Department's ITR-2 help page. If an NRI wants to pay from money held in India, in an NRE or NRO account, separate RBI rules on repatriation apply, so check with your bank before you sign a payment schedule.

For a resident Indian it generally has to be reported in the Indian return. The Income Tax Department's ITR-2 help page says Schedule FSI, which covers income accruing or arising outside India, is for residents, and that Schedule FA, for foreign assets and income from outside India, need not be filled only by those who are not ordinarily resident or non-resident. Its page on choosing a return form rules out ITR-1 and ITR-4 for anyone holding an asset outside India.

On the UAE side, there is no personal income tax, according to PwC's UAE tax summary. Cabinet Decision No. 49 of 2023 adds that real estate investment income of an individual, where the activity does not need a licence, does not count as a business activity for UAE corporate tax. India and the UAE also have a double taxation avoidance agreement, listed on the Income Tax Department's treaty pages; ask your adviser how it applies to rent from a Dubai unit.

Disclosure carries weight. In November 2024 the CBDT said that filling in Schedule FA and Schedule FSI correctly is compulsory under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, and that it was writing to residents identified through information exchanged with other countries. Section 160 of the Finance Act, 2026 removed prosecution under sections 49 and 50 of the Black Money Act for undisclosed foreign assets worth up to ₹20 lakh in total, with effect from 1 October 2024, but that relief excludes immovable property, so it does not cover a Dubai flat left out of Schedule FA.

This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm your position with a chartered accountant before you file.

An off-plan purchase can usually be completed without a trip. The developer, not the buyer, registers the sale: under the DLD's initial-sale service, the developer files the signed SPA through the Oqood portal within 90 days of signing, and the DLD emails the buyer a provisional registration e-certificate. Many developers send the booking form and SPA for electronic signature; ask how yours works. Our Oqood guide covers the fees and how to check the record.

Payments go by bank transfer to the account named in your SPA. Under Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007, off-plan buyers' payments are deposited in the project's escrow account with an approved escrow agent, so make sure every payment request points to that account. Our escrow guide explains the protection.

A power of attorney (POA) is needed only if someone signs or acts for you, for example at handover or title deed stage. Law firm BSA reported in August 2025 that DLD Circular No. 29/R/2025, dated 16 July 2025, accepts a POA made outside the UAE only if it:

• was issued within two years before it is presented;
• has been notarised in the country where it was signed, then legalised by a UAE embassy or consulate, then attested by MOFA, the UAE foreign ministry;
• is the signed original, as scans are refused;
• has a full legal Arabic translation by a UAE-licensed translator if written in another language; and
• names the specific act it permits, such as a purchase or a sale, since broad management wording may be rejected.

The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention: it is absent from the HCCH status table for the Convention (last updated 30 June 2026), so an Indian apostille on its own will not do. India's Ministry of External Affairs offers normal attestation for countries outside the Convention and lists the UAE among them. Check with the UAE embassy in New Delhi, or the UAE consulate serving your state, which steps it wants completed before it legalises the POA.

The order below follows the DLD's registration process and Dubai's off-plan laws. Timings and amounts vary by developer, and your SPA governs.

Step	What happens	Money and paperwork from India
1. Checks	Confirm the broker's RERA licence, the project's registration and its escrow account	None yet
2. Reservation	Booking form signed and deposit paid to hold the unit	Passport copy; LRS remittance with Form A2 and PAN
3. SPA and down payment	Developer and buyer sign the SPA; the down payment falls due	Remittance to the escrow account named in the SPA
4. Oqood registration	Developer registers the sale within 90 days of signing; the DLD fee schedule shows 2% for the buyer and 2% for the seller, shared as your SPA says	DLD fee paid as your SPA directs; keep the e-certificate
5. Construction instalments	Paid on the dated schedule in the SPA	An LRS remittance for each instalment; watch the yearly cap and TCS
6. Handover	Final handover payment, inspection and keys	Attend, or appoint someone under an attested POA
7. Title deed	Under Article 8 of Law No. 13 of 2008, completed units are registered in the names of buyers who have met their obligations	Check the deed with the DLD's title deed verification service

For the full cost picture see our DLD fees guide, and before handover read the snagging checklist. Profound's team, a RERA-licensed brokerage (ORN 28087), can take Indian buyers through each step with the developer, while FEMA and tax questions stay with your bank and chartered accountant.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice; confirm the rules with your bank, a chartered accountant and the DLD.