DIFC Wills for Dubai Property Investors: A Portfolio Investor's Guide

A will drafted and executed under, say, English, French, or Indian law is not automatically applied by a UAE court to UAE-based assets. DIFC Courts states the position plainly in its own Wills FAQ: "the laws of the local courts in the Emirate(s) where the assets are located will apply by default to anyone who dies without a DIFC Courts Will." A foreign will can potentially be recognised, but doing so typically means a foreign grant of probate being domesticated through a separate, slower court process, with no guarantee of a swift or predictable outcome for the UAE-based estate — precisely the delay and uncertainty a locally registered will is designed to avoid. For an investor whose main UAE asset is income-producing property, the gap between death and a recognised executor is the period when rental collection, tenant management, and any pending transaction are most exposed.

The DIFC Wills Service (long known as the DIFC Wills Service Centre) is a joint initiative between the Government of Dubai and DIFC Courts, in operation since May 2015. DIFC Courts describes its legal basis as Resolution No. (4) of 2014, with Dubai Law No. (15) of 2017 reaffirming DIFC Courts' jurisdiction over non-Muslim wills and probate matters.

Eligibility is set out by DIFC Courts in three tests: you are "not Muslim and have never been a Muslim"; you are "at least 21 years of age"; and you "own assets in the UAE and/or have minor children residing with you in the UAE." Critically, residency is not a requirement — DIFC Courts confirms "you do not need to be a resident of the UAE to register a DIFC Courts Will," which extends the service to overseas investors who own Dubai property but live elsewhere.

DIFC Courts currently lists several will products rather than one single template, each scoped to a different part of an estate:

Some DIFC Courts listings have also included a separate Digital Assets Will; confirm the current full product list on difccourts.ae, as it has been added to and adjusted over time.

For a property-focused investor, the Property Will is the natural entry point: it is available as an online, template-based application through the Property Will Portal, with registration fees of AED 7,500 for a single will or AED 10,000 for mirror wills (matching wills for a married couple), and a choice between self-completing the template or engaging a DIFC-approved legal draftsman. DIFC Courts is explicit that a will must meet its Rules' minimum requirements to be registrable, and that a will failing to do so "would be unenforceable" — which argues for at least a documented legal review, even for a self-completed template. An investor whose UAE real estate exceeds five titles will generally need a Full Will rather than the capped Property Will product, and should confirm the current position with a registered draftsman before choosing between the two.

This is where the picture has genuinely changed in the last few years, and it is worth being precise about it. Historically, non-Muslim expatriates who died in the UAE without a will risked their estate being distributed by local courts applying Sharia-derived forced-heirship principles — a default that could diverge sharply from what the deceased would have chosen, particularly around spousal and non-biological-child provisions.

Federal Decree-Law No. (41) of 2022 on Civil Personal Status changed the federal default specifically for non-Muslims. Since it took effect on 1 February 2023, non-Muslim UAE nationals and non-Muslim foreign residents fall under a civil, non-Sharia personal status regime for marriage, divorce, inheritance and wills, unless they choose to have their home country's law applied instead. Under this law's default intestacy rule, absent a will, half the estate passes to the surviving spouse and the other half is split equally among the children, with no distinction between sons and daughters. The same law also confirms testamentary freedom: a testator may leave a will covering all UAE-held property to anyone of their choosing, within the controls set by its Executive Regulations.

That means there are now, in effect, two non-Sharia legal routes available to a non-Muslim investor: a federal civil-law route through local UAE courts under Federal Decree-Law No. (41) of 2022, and the longer-established DIFC Courts route through the DIFC Wills Service. Precisely how the two interact, whether registering one affects standing under the other, and which a multi-property investor should prioritise, or whether both have a role, is not settled here: confirm directly with a UAE succession lawyer before treating this as settled guidance.

A single vacant holiday home and a portfolio of five tenanted apartments face the same legal starting point on death, but very different practical consequences. Once a Grant of Probate is in place, DIFC Courts states it is "normally issued within a matter of a few weeks" of the executor providing the required documentation, against an application fee of USD 1,500 — a materially different timeline from a contested or undocumented estate working through default succession rules asset by asset.

For a portfolio investor, the value of a will is less about who ultimately inherits and more about continuity in the interim: a named executor can keep managing tenancies, collecting rent, and handling renewals across an entire portfolio under one instrument, rather than each title potentially needing its own separate resolution. That matters in practice — rent still needs collecting, tenancies still need renewing under the notice rules that apply regardless of the landlord's personal circumstances, and a multi-property estate left in limbo creates far more operational exposure than a single unit does. A will that names an executor promptly, registered in a system built for exactly this purpose, is what keeps that income moving rather than frozen.

The UAE's property-based Golden Visa route grants a renewable 10-year residence permit to an investor holding UAE real estate worth AED 2 million or more, whether owned outright or via a qualifying mortgage arrangement, per the Dubai Land Department's own Golden Visa investor service and the Ministry of Economy and Tourism. That is, by construction, a long-horizon commitment of meaningful capital — which is why estate planning and Golden Visa investment are frequently discussed together in wealth-advisory commentary.

However, no DIFC Courts or federal government source states that holding a Golden Visa requires, or is formally linked to, registering a DIFC will, and no such link is being asserted. The realistic framing is practical, not regulatory: a 10-year, AED 2 million-plus property commitment is exactly the kind of holding where dying without a clear, UAE-recognised will creates the most disruption, both to the estate and to any dependants whose own residency may be tied to the investor's visa. Investors should raise the visa-and-succession combination directly with an immigration lawyer and a private wealth adviser, rather than assume a formal linkage exists.