UAE DBR calculator: check your mortgage eligibility

Add up the monthly payments on all your existing loans, plus 5% of your total credit card limits (common UAE bank practice), divide by your gross monthly income and multiply by 100. For example, AED 6,000 of payments on a AED 20,000 salary is a DBR of 30%, which leaves up to AED 4,000 a month for a new mortgage payment under the 50% cap. Banks also test that payment at a rate 2 to 4 points above the actual rate, as the Central Bank requires.

UAE Central Bank regulation caps DBR at 50% of gross monthly income for retail lending, including mortgages (CBUAE Rulebook, Article 3). Individual banks may apply their own, sometimes stricter, internal limits on top of this cap.

In line with standard UAE bank practice, this calculator counts 5% of your total credit card limit, not your outstanding balance, as a monthly debt obligation, reflecting the minimum payment banks generally assume you could owe.

Take 50% of your gross monthly income and subtract the repayments you already make, counting 5% of your credit card limits. What is left is the most a new mortgage payment can be. This calculator shows that amount and a rough loan size for it, checked at a 6% stress rate over 25 years. For the monthly payment on a specific property, use our mortgage calculator.

Yes. The Central Bank’s 50% cap applies to everyone. What differs is the loan size: a mortgage can be at most 8 years of income for UAE nationals (96 times the monthly salary) and 7 years for expats (84 times), and on a first home of AED 5 million or less nationals can borrow up to 85% of the price and expats up to 80%.

Pay off loans that are close to finishing, lower or cancel credit cards you don’t use (5% of every card’s limit counts as debt), add a co-applicant’s income, or choose a longer loan term so the new payment is smaller. An advisor can tell you which step helps most for your file.