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Mortgage Calculator UAE — Repayments + DBR Affordability (2026)

Updated 28 October 2026 · Last verified 28 Oct 2026 — verify current rules at centralbank.ae

Before any bank discusses a UAE mortgage, two numbers decide everything: the loan-to-value cap that fixes your minimum down payment, and the 50% Debt Burden Ratio that fixes the largest monthly payment your salary can carry. This calculator applies both — the LTV caps from the Central Bank’s mortgage regulations and the standard annuity formula for the monthly payment — so you can price a loan the way a bank’s pre-approval team will. Enter the price, your down payment, a quoted rate and your income; the table updates on every keystroke and shows the arithmetic behind each line, including the DLD mortgage registration fee of 0.25% plus AED 290.

Nothing is submitted, stored or sent anywhere — every figure is computed in your browser. Where a value is a regulatory cap it is applied exactly; where it is a market figure (like the default 4.25% rate) the tool says so plainly. Results frame a budget, they are not a quotation or an approval, and your bank’s own valuation and credit scoring remain the final word.

The agreed purchase price or developer price for an off-plan unit.

Your savings going in. Under the caps on the right, the minimum for this scenario is AED 300,000.

Enter the rate your bank actually quoted — fixed start rate or the current variable (EIBOR + margin) rate. The default 4.25% is an illustrative market figure, not an offer.

Salary before deductions — for DBR banks use gross, including regular allowances you can evidence.

Loan instalments plus 5% of every credit card limit. Leave 0 if none.

Monthly payment

AED 6,501

Loan requested

AED 1,200,000

Within LTV cap

Debt Burden Ratio

26.0%

Passes 50% DBR

Loan your income supports

AED 2,307,388

Monthly payment is the standard annuity on the requested loan. DBR = (monthly payment + existing obligations) ÷ gross monthly income, capped at 50% by the Central Bank. “Loan your income supports” is the largest principal whose payment keeps total DBR at exactly 50% at this rate and tenure.

LineFigure
LTV cap for this scenario80%
Maximum loan at that capAED 1,200,000
Minimum down paymentAED 300,000
Mortgage registration (DLD)AED 3,290
Total interest over the full tenureAED 750,257
Total repaid over 25 yearsAED 1,950,257
Monthly payment = P × r(1+r)n ÷ ((1+r)n − 1), where r is the monthly rate and n the number of months. DLD registration adds 0.25% of the loan plus AED 290. Early settlement is capped by the Central Bank at 1% of the outstanding balance or AED 10,000, whichever is lower.

Central Bank LTV caps used by the calculator

ScenarioMaximum loan-to-value
Expat · ready · first property · price ≤ AED 5M80%
Expat · ready · first property · price > AED 5M70%
UAE national · ready · first property · price ≤ AED 5M85%
UAE national · ready · first property · price > AED 5M75%
Ready · second or later — expat / UAE national60% / 65%
Off-plan · first mortgage — expat / UAE national50% / 60%
Off-plan · second or later — expat / UAE national40% / 50%

Source: Central Bank of UAE mortgage regulations (standard TD/UAE/BS/3929 framework, as amended 2020). Banks may lend below these caps — never above them — and individual bank policies on income thresholds, property age and employer lists sit on top.

How the calculation works

The monthly payment uses the standard annuity formula: P × r(1+r)n ÷ ((1+r)n − 1), where P is the loan amount, r the monthly interest rate (annual rate ÷ 12) and n the number of monthly payments (years × 12). That single formula is what turns a rate quote into the figure that actually leaves your account every month, and multiplying the payment by n gives the total repaid, from which total interest falls out by subtraction. The eligibility panel then applies the Central Bank’s 50% Debt Burden Ratio: existing obligations plus the new payment may not exceed half of gross monthly income, and the “loan your income supports” figure inverts the same annuity formula to show the largest principal that keeps you exactly at the cap at this rate and tenure.

Three deliberate simplifications are worth knowing. The payment assumes the rate holds for the whole tenure, which is true of fixed-rate products but not of EIBOR-linked variable ones, where the payment resets with the benchmark. It also ignores the effect of voluntary overpayments, which early-settlement rules cap at 1% of the outstanding balance or AED 10,000 a year without penalty. And it prices the loan, not the transaction — the 4% DLD transfer fee, agency commission and trustee charges are handled by the separate DLD fee calculator.

How to verify these rules yourself

  1. 1. Open centralbank.ae and search its regulations section for the mortgage LTV standards and the Debt Burden Ratio cap — both are published in full.
  2. 2. Match each cap in the table above against the regulation text, and ask any bank’s pre-approval team to confirm the LTV band for your scenario in writing.
  3. 3. For the registration fee, check the mortgage-registration line in the DLD tariff on dubailand.gov.ae — 0.25% of the loan plus AED 290 as last verified here on 28 October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is the 50% DBR rule and how does it limit what I can borrow?

The Debt Burden Ratio is the share of your gross monthly income already committed to debt repayments, and the Central Bank of UAE caps it at 50%. Banks add your new mortgage payment to every existing obligation — personal loans, car loans, and 5% of the limit on each credit card even if you pay in full — and the total may not cross half of what you earn. A salary of AED 25,000 with AED 2,000 of existing instalments therefore leaves roughly AED 10,500 a month for a mortgage payment, not AED 12,500. It is the single fastest way to estimate affordability before a bank ever sees your file, which is exactly what the calculator's income panel reproduces.

What LTV cap applies to me — expat or UAE national, first or second property?

Under the Central Bank's mortgage regulations (TD/UAE/BS/3929, as amended in 2020), expat residents can borrow up to 80% of the value of a first ready property priced at AED 5 million or below, dropping to 70% above that line; UAE nationals get 85% and 75% on the same bands. A second or subsequent purchase lowers the ceiling to 60% for expats and 65% for nationals. Off-plan purchases are capped lower still — 50% for expats and 60% for nationals on a first mortgage — because the collateral does not exist until handover. The calculator selects the right cap automatically from the buyer, property and mortgage-number inputs.

Why is the loan-to-value cap lower for off-plan property?

Until handover, an off-plan unit cannot be mortgaged in the ordinary sense: the buyer's exposure is a payment plan against a future title deed, registered interim through Oqood rather than through a completed DLD transfer. The Central Bank therefore treats construction-stage lending as higher risk and caps it at 50% LTV for expats and 60% for UAE nationals (40% and 50% respectively for a second off-plan purchase). In practice most off-plan buyers finance through the developer's own payment plan during construction and take a mortgage at or near handover, when the ready-property caps apply.

What interest rate should I enter?

Enter the rate the bank actually quoted you — for a fixed-rate product that is the fixed start rate, and for a variable product it is the current EIBOR benchmark plus the bank's margin. The default 4.25% in the calculator is an illustrative market figure, not an offer or an average; advertised rates move with the EIBOR cycle and each bank's funding cost. Because the monthly payment is computed on the full remaining balance, even a half-point difference compounds visibly over a 25-year tenure — try two or three rates to see the band you would live with.

Does passing this calculator mean the bank will approve me?

No. The calculator applies the same two hard constraints every UAE bank starts from — the LTV cap and the 50% DBR ceiling — so failing it means a bank will decline as things stand, but passing it only means you clear the regulatory floor. Banks then apply their own scoring on top: the AECB credit report, employment type and probation status, salary-transfer requirements, minimum income thresholds, property valuation, and age at maturity (most banks want the loan fully repaid by 65–70). Treat a green result as 'worth applying for', not as an approval, and get a pre-approval for a binding answer.

Which costs does this mortgage calculator leave out?

It prices the loan itself, not the transaction around it. Missing on purpose: the 4% DLD transfer fee, trustee and title deed charges, agency commission and the developer NOC — all of which are itemised in the separate DLD fee calculator — plus recurring life insurance (takaful or term), the bank's property valuation fee, and arrangement fees around 1% of the loan. For a financed purchase the DLD mortgage registration of 0.25% plus AED 290 is included in the breakdown table here, since it scales with the loan rather than the price.

From here, read our guide to mortgage down payment rules for expats, see how eligibility works for the self-employed and non-residents, or test the purchase-side costs in the DLD fee calculator — more buyer guides are on the Villavow blog.