GDRFA Dubai confirmed this week that the AED 2M minimum-asset threshold for the property-investor Golden Visa stays in place. What did change is the eligible mix: off-plan units from approved developers now count toward the AED 2M, provided the developer is on the cleared list and the unit's payment plan covers a defined construction milestone.
In practice, this opens a route that was previously only available to ready-property buyers. Founders who want UAE residency tied to a real-estate footprint, but who are not ready to drop AED 2M on completed inventory, can now structure across two or three off-plan units with a development timeline of two to three years.
What this means for our clients
If you are an entrepreneur weighing Golden Visa vs investor visa under your free-zone company, the property route is now meaningfully more flexible. We see two profiles where this update changes the recommendation: families targeting Dubai schooling but who do not yet have a UAE company, and operators planning to relocate over a 24-month window who want residency locked in early.
Caveats worth flagging: the developer cleared list is not static. We check it on the day of recommendation, not at the time of contract signing. We also screen the payment plan — milestones tied to construction progress are accepted; milestones tied only to time elapsed are not.
The full GDRFA Dubai notice is linked below. If you want us to map this against your specific case (passport, household, capital), the 30-minute consultation slot is the fastest way in.