What it really costs to buy property abroad

The price on the listing is rarely the number that decides a purchase. What separates these five markets is the friction around it: the tax to transfer, the cost to hold each year, and what the state takes when you sell. On that basis the field splits cleanly. Qatar is the cheapest to transact, at 0.25% to register, and the UAE is close behind on holding costs while carrying the heaviest single transaction levy. Montenegro is the higher-cost outlier, with the annual, rental and exit taxes of a European market. Oman sits in the middle and is the one to watch, because its cost base changes in 2028.

The through-line is simple. The Gulf states remain genuinely low-tax to hold, with no personal income tax and, for individuals, no capital gains tax. The cost there is concentrated at the moment of purchase. Montenegro reverses that: the purchase is competitive, but the recurring and exit taxes accumulate over a long hold.

The transaction tax is where the markets look least alike. Qatar charges 0.25% of value to register, the lightest levy of the five. Oman charges foreign buyers 3%, three times the 1% an Omani national pays, with 0.5% where the purchase is financed through an Islamic bank. Saudi Arabia applies a flat 5% RETT, which replaced the prior 15% VAT on real estate from April 2025. The UAE carries the heaviest single charge, the 4% Dubai Land Department transfer fee, legally split between buyer and seller but customarily paid in full by the buyer.

Montenegro is structured differently again. A resale carries a progressive transfer tax of 3% up to EUR 150,000, 5% on the band to EUR 500,000 and 6% above it. A new build from a developer carries no transfer tax but 21% VAT instead, which is usually already included in the advertised price. Agency convention also varies: in Montenegro the seller typically pays the roughly 3% commission, whereas across the Gulf the buyer commonly bears it.

Holding cost is the quiet variable that compounds. Across the Gulf it is close to nothing. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar levy no annual property tax and no personal income tax, so rent received in your own name is untaxed and there is no recurring charge simply for owning a home. The UAE's only recurring levy is a municipality housing fee of 5% of annual rental value, collected from the occupier through the utility bill, not a tax on the owner's capital.

Two exceptions to the Gulf's light touch are worth naming. Saudi Arabia has no recurring tax on an occupied home, but it does levy a White Land tax of up to 10% on undeveloped land and long-vacant properties, so vacant stock is not cost-free to sit on. Oman currently applies a 3% municipal lease fee on gross annual rent, a modest cost borne while a property is let. Montenegro stands apart: it charges an annual property tax of roughly 0.25% to 1% of value, set by each municipality, with coastal and prime areas at or near the top of that band.

Reading the transaction and holding costs together gives the truer picture. On a typical purchase the UAE round-trip runs around 6% to 8% of price, driven almost entirely by the 4% transfer fee and agency, since nothing recurs annually. Oman sits around 5% to 7% today, though a buyer holding past 2028 should now factor the new income tax on rent and gains into a long hold.

Montenegro is where the headline and the reality part company. A new-build purchase can look cheap, because the 21% VAT is already inside the advertised price, leaving only around 2.5% to 5% on top. A resale runs roughly 5% to 8%. But the annual property tax, the 15% on rent and the 15% on exit mean the lifetime cost is higher than the entry figure suggests. Saudi Arabia is front-loaded by design: the 5% RETT does most of the work at purchase, and almost nothing recurs on an occupied home thereafter.

For all the talk of Gulf tax reform, only one confirmed change alters the cost of holding property across these markets. From 1 January 2028, Oman introduces a 5% personal income tax under Royal Decree 56/2025, the first individual income tax in any Gulf state. It applies a flat 5% to annual income above OMR 42,000, roughly USD 109,000, and for the first time brings rental income and the proceeds of a real-estate disposal into charge.

The reform is enacted, but it is not punitive and it is targeted. The Tax Authority estimates that around 99% of Oman's population sits below the threshold, so it reaches high earners rather than ordinary owners. A primary residence sale, and a one-time secondary residence sale, are exempt, and interest on a primary-residence loan is deductible. Executive regulations were still being finalised in mid-2026, so the precise treatment of non-resident landlords and the exact definition of taxable disposal gains may be refined before the tax goes live. The other four markets carry no comparable change on the horizon: the Gulf's zero-income-tax position for individuals holds in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and Montenegro's settled European framework is unchanged.