Sell Property in India from UAE: 2026 Guide for NRIs in Dubai

General information, not tax or legal advice. Rules as of October 2026. Your numbers depend on your residential status, dates and costs, so get advice on your own facts before you sign.

This guide is for Indian citizens and OCI cardholders who live in the UAE and own a flat, house, plot or inherited property in India. For the full India-side process from any country, start with our main guide to selling property in India as an NRI.

Can an NRI in the UAE sell property in India?

Yes. FEMA lets an NRI or OCI sell residential or commercial property in India to a resident, another NRI or an OCI. Agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses can be sold only to a resident Indian citizen. Nothing in the process requires you to be in India. Registration at the sub-registrar is the only step that needs someone present, and your PoA holder can do that for you.

Before you list the property, check three things:

• Title. Keep the sale deed, mutation records, an encumbrance certificate and the latest property tax receipts ready. Buyers' lawyers and banks ask for them first.
• Ownership. If the property is joint or inherited, every co-owner or legal heir must sign, directly or through their own PoA.
• How you paid. If you bought it with money remitted from the UAE or from your NRE account, keep the bank records. They decide how much of the sale money you can later send back to the UAE as repatriable.

Our documents list for NRI sellers sets out each paper and who issues it.

Step by step: selling Indian property while living in the UAE

›1. Sign a specific Power of Attorney and get it attested

The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so the apostille route used by NRIs in the UK, USA or Australia does not apply. Instead the PoA is attested by the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi or the Consulate General of India in Dubai. In Dubai, attestation is handled through the Consulate's outsourced service centre by appointment, and the Consulate can arrange a home visit for elderly or unwell applicants. Check the current documents, fees and whether the mission wants you to sign in front of its officer or to bring a document already notarised in the UAE, because requirements change.

Make the PoA specific: name the property, and give powers to sign the agreement and sale deed, appear for registration, deal with the society and municipal records, and receive payment only into your NRO account. Avoid a general PoA, which many sub-registrars refuse for sales. Our Power of Attorney guide for NRIs covers the wording.

1. 1Draft the PoA in India with the lawyer handling the sale, so it matches local sub-registrar practice.
2. 2Sign it and have it attested by the Indian mission in the UAE.
3. 3Courier the original to your PoA holder in India.
4. 4Your PoA holder gets it adjudicated and stamped at the local stamp office within 3 months of it reaching India.
5. 5Register or file it with the sub-registrar, if the state requires it.

›2. Agree the price and the TDS position with the buyer

Because you are a non-resident, the buyer must deduct TDS under Section 393(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (earlier Section 195) on the full sale price, not on your gain. For a long-term sale the rate is 12.5% plus surcharge and 4% cess, which reaches 14.95% when the price is above Rs 1 crore. For a short-term sale it is about 30% plus surcharge and cess. Put the TDS, the account the money goes to and the certificate timeline in the sale agreement. Our TDS guide for NRI sellers has the rate table.

›3. Apply for a lower TDS certificate on Form 128

This is the single most useful step for a UAE-based seller. Since there is no UAE tax to credit, any TDS above your real Indian tax is cash that sits with the Income Tax Department until you file and get a refund. Form 128 (earlier Form 13) asks the Assessing Officer to certify a lower rate that matches your actual gain. Apply on TRACES as soon as the deal is agreed, because processing usually takes weeks. See our Form 128 lower TDS certificate guide and estimate the effect with the Form 128 calculator.

›4. The buyer deposits TDS and files the return

A buyer who is not an individual, or an NRI buyer, needs a TAN and files a quarterly TDS return on Form 144 (earlier 27Q). From 1 October 2026, a resident individual or HUF buyer can deduct with their PAN on Form 141 instead, without a TAN. Either way, check that the credit appears against your PAN in your Annual Information Statement, and get the TDS certificate from the buyer.

›5. Register the sale deed and receive the money in your NRO account

Your PoA holder signs and registers the deed. The buyer usually pays stamp duty and registration charges. The sale price, net of TDS, must be paid into your NRO account. It can go to your NRE account only up to the amount you originally paid in foreign currency. See stamp duty and registration charges for 2026.

›6. File your Indian return

File an Indian return for the tax year of the sale even if TDS covered everything. It is the only way to recover excess TDS, to claim reinvestment exemptions and to keep the transaction clean for repatriation and future sales.

›7. Send the money to your UAE account

From the NRO account you can remit up to USD 1 million per financial year, covering sale proceeds and other NRO balances. The bank asks for Form 145 and, above the threshold, a CA certificate on Form 146 (earlier 15CA and 15CB). Money originally brought in through NRE funds or inward remittances can be repatriated against those records, usually for up to two residential properties. Our guide to repatriating property sale proceeds walks through the bank's checklist, and the repatriation calculator shows what is repatriable.

How much tax do you pay in India?

India taxes the gain because the property is in India, and the India–UAE tax treaty leaves that right with India. The rules are the same for every NRI:

• Long-term (held more than 24 months): 12.5% without indexation, plus surcharge and 4% cess. Surcharge is 10% when total income is above Rs 50 lakh and 15% above Rs 1 crore, and it is capped at 15% on these gains, so the top effective rate is 14.95%.
• Short-term (held 24 months or less): added to your other Indian income and taxed at slab rates, up to 30% plus surcharge and cess.
• The option of 20% with indexation for property bought before 23 July 2024 is written for resident individuals and HUFs. A non-resident seller cannot use it.
• Your cost includes the purchase price, stamp duty and registration you paid, and documented improvement costs. Brokerage and legal fees on the sale reduce the gain.

If you are not sure whether your sale is long-term, read our explainer on the 24-month rule.

›Ways to reduce the Indian tax

• Reinvest in a residential house in India: Section 82 (earlier Section 54) exempts the gain if you buy one house within 1 year before or 2 years after the sale, or build one within 3 years. The exemption is capped at Rs 10 crore.
• Capital gains bonds: Section 85 (earlier Section 54EC) exempts up to Rs 50 lakh of gain invested within 6 months in specified bonds, with a 5-year lock-in.
• Selling a plot or other non-house asset: Section 86 (earlier Section 54F) applies when you reinvest the net sale price in a house.
• If you cannot buy before your return is due, park the money in the Capital Gains Account Scheme to keep the exemption open.

Compare the routes in our Section 54 vs 54F guide and the 54EC bonds guide, or model them with the reinvestment calculator.

Do you pay tax in the UAE on the sale?

Generally no. The UAE does not levy personal income tax or capital gains tax on individuals. UAE corporate tax at 9% applies to businesses; personal investment income of an individual, including a gain on property held in your own name, is generally outside it. Things are different if the property is held through a company or you deal in property as a licensed business, so take UAE advice in that case.

The practical result: there is no foreign tax credit to claim, and nothing to offset the Indian tax against. Every rupee of excess TDS is a pure cash-flow cost until India refunds it. That is why Form 128 and a prompt Indian return matter more for UAE residents than for sellers in the UK or USA, who can at least credit the Indian tax at home.

If you hold a US passport or green card while living in the UAE, the US still taxes your worldwide gains. Read our guide to selling property in India from the USA instead.

The deemed-residency trap for Indian citizens in the UAE

This is the point most UAE sellers miss. An Indian citizen is treated as a deemed resident of India for a tax year if their Indian-source income is above Rs 15 lakh and they are not liable to tax in any other country by reason of domicile or residence. People living in the UAE are the group this rule most often reaches, because the UAE has no personal income tax. A capital gain on Indian property is Indian-source income, so one large sale can push you over Rs 15 lakh on its own.

A deemed resident is treated as Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR). Your UAE salary and other foreign income stay outside Indian tax, but your status changes how the sale is handled:

• Your return is filed as a resident (RNOR), not a non-resident.
• The buyer will usually still deduct TDS at NRI rates, because your status is only certain at the end of the tax year. You reconcile it in the return.
• Some options written for residents, such as 20% with indexation for property bought before 23 July 2024, may then become relevant. Whether they apply to a deemed resident is a point to settle with a chartered accountant on your facts.
• Separately, if you visit India for 120 days or more in the year and meet the other conditions, the 120-day rule can make you resident too.

This area is not fully settled. In particular, whether a UAE Tax Residency Certificate shows that you are liable to tax in the UAE is debated, so do not rely on a TRC alone. Check your status with the residency calculator and read why 120 days in India can cost NRIs lakhs and our residential status guide.

Worked example: an NRI in Dubai sells a Hyderabad flat (illustrative)

The figures below are illustrative and rounded. They ignore brokerage, improvement costs and other Indian income, and they treat the seller as a non-resident; see the note on deemed residency after the table.

Rahul, an Indian citizen working in Dubai, bought a flat in Hyderabad in 2016 for Rs 50 lakh including stamp duty. He sells it in December 2026 for Rs 1.2 crore to a resident buyer. He has held it for more than 24 months, so the gain is long-term.

With a Form 128 certificate at a rate close to his real liability (about 8.3% of the price here), Rahul would receive roughly Rs 7.9 lakh more at the sale instead of waiting months for a refund. UAE tax on the gain: nil.

If he also invests Rs 50 lakh of the gain in Section 85 (54EC) bonds within 6 months, the taxable gain falls to Rs 20 lakh. His income is then below Rs 50 lakh, so there is no surcharge: tax is Rs 2,50,000 plus cess of Rs 10,000, a total of Rs 2,60,000.

Try your own numbers in the TDS calculator.

Timeline and costs

A clean, single-owner sale with a ready buyer typically takes two to four months from PoA to money in your UAE account. The longest waits are usually the PoA courier and adjudication, the Form 128 decision and the bank's repatriation checks. Budget for the lawyer and PoA drafting, consular attestation fees, the CA certificate for Form 146 and brokerage. See the NRI property sale timeline and costs for a stage-by-stage breakdown.

Common mistakes UAE-based sellers make

1. 1Assuming no UAE tax means no Indian paperwork. The Indian tax, TDS and return apply in full.
2. 2Skipping Form 128. With no foreign tax credit, excess TDS is simply locked-up cash.
3. 3Using a UAE-notarised PoA without the Indian mission's attestation, or missing the 3-month adjudication window in India.
4. 4Asking a buyer to treat you as a resident seller and deduct only 1%. The buyer becomes liable for the shortfall, and the deal can unravel at registration or later.
5. 5Ignoring deemed residency on a large gain, and filing as a non-resident without checking.
6. 6Having the proceeds paid into an NRE account or straight to a UAE account. They must go to the NRO account first.
7. 7Not keeping proof of how the property was paid for, which limits what you can repatriate.

What NRiSimplify handles for UAE-based sellers

We run the sale, tax, legal, banking and remittance work remotely, with one team and one person in charge: PoA drafting suited to attestation in the UAE, adjudication in India, title checks, the Form 128 application, your Indian return and refund, and the Form 145/146 repatriation to your UAE bank. See our property sale service, or read the guides for sellers in the UK, Canada and Australia.