Three areas, two legal frameworks

Dubai South and Dubai Maritime City are in the Emirate of Dubai. Al Marjan Island is in Ras Al Khaimah – a different emirate, with its own land register administered by the Lands & Properties Sector of Ras Al Khaimah Municipality, and its own rules.

All the legislation cited across most of this site – Dubai's real property registration law, the escrow accounts law, the interim register, Article 11 – is Dubai legislation. It does not apply in Ras Al Khaimah.

So the comparison that matters is not between three areas but between two legal frameworks, one of which holds two of these areas and the other one.^13,1

This is the most useful difference between the two Dubai areas here, and it is almost never mentioned anywhere.

Dubai has no single consolidated official list of the areas designated for foreign ownership. There is Regulation No. 3 of 2006, and there is a series of resolutions adding land over the years, each naming specific plots. So for most areas you cannot say "this area is freehold" – you can only check a particular plot.

Dubai South is a rare case where the instruments can be pointed at directly: Resolution 8/2016 of 9 June 2016 added three plots in Madinat Al Mataar – 205, 206 and 207 – and Resolution 7/2021 of 3 March 2021 added a further 21 on the same rights, and validated earlier dispositions by the Dubai Aviation City Corporation in those plots.

Maritime City falls under the ordinary rule. There is no single resolution to put on the table, so the check is always the specific project's plot number.^4,5,2

A fair question, since Dubailand appears in the marketing of many projects – and has no area guide of its own here. The reason is specific, and it can be checked.

We looked for an official document defining Dubailand: a law establishing it, as Law 11/2015 establishes Dubai South and Law 11/2007 Maritime City, or an instrument designating plots within it for foreign ownership. We found neither.

What we did check, one by one: Regulation 3/2006, the founding instrument, names 23 areas, and Dubailand is not among them. The six resolutions adding land since then name plots elsewhere – Madinat Al Mataar (14/2015, 8/2016, 7/2021), Trade Centre Second and Zaabeel Second (14/2015, 18/2019), Jebel Ali Industrial Third, Ras Al Khor Industrial Third and Al Warsan First (25/2021), and Zabeel First (6/2022). Dubailand appears in none of them.

The conclusion is not that something is wrong with Dubailand. It is that Dubailand is a masterplan name rather than an administrative unit – the name spans several registered localities – and so it tells you nothing about ownership status. That is exactly the position described above for Maritime City, and it is the rule rather than the exception.^{2,6,4,7,5,8,9}