Reviewed by Roksolana Pyrtko
ADGM freehold is an estate of indeterminate duration in real property inside the Abu Dhabi Global Market Area, and the Real Property Regulations 2024 let the ADGM Registrar record it on the ADGM Register: freehold in land since 1 October 2024 and, for Al Reem Island property, from 1 January 2025. Registration makes the owner’s title conclusive under Section 22, yet for Al Reem Island interests registered on the Abu Dhabi Real Property Register before 1 January 2025 the Registrar makes no representations and cannot be taken to Court over deficiencies.
What freehold covers in the Real Property Regulations 2024
Section 1 of the Real Property Regulations 2024 lists ten interests that can subsist at law in the Abu Dhabi Global Market; every other estate or interest takes effect in equity. Freehold appears twice: Section 1(a) covers freehold in land within the ADGM’s geographical limits, and Section 1(b) covers freehold in real property other than land, meaning fee simple and life estate interests. Section 182 defines freehold as an estate of indeterminate duration.
The other eight interests in Section 1 are future interests, joint estates, leasehold, strata interests, mortgage, statutory charge, easement and covenant. A building unit on Al Reem Island can therefore carry several registered interests at once, such as a freehold or strata interest, a leasehold under it and a mortgage over it, each recorded on the folio under its own category.
Section 182 also fixes the territory: the land on Al Maryah Island, further bounded to include Al Reem Island as described in Cabinet of Ministers Resolution (4) of 2013, as adjusted from time to time. ADGM’s consultation paper of 6 January 2015 on the first Regulations put the whole of Al Maryah Island at approximately 114 hectares and proposed that freehold ownership of that land would continue to be governed by the prevailing laws of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, with all other interests under the Regulations.
The 2024 text works differently. Section 184(5) repeals the Real Property Regulations 2015, and Section 1(a) lists freehold in land among the interests that exist at law, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Regulations. The ADGM Registration Authority, which acts as Registrar, describes its remit as supporting property ownership, registration, development, leasing and related services across Al Maryah and Al Reem Islands.
How Al Reem Island interests move onto the ADGM Register
Part 23 provides for Al Reem Island interests to move from the Abu Dhabi Real Property Register to the ADGM Register, the Regulations applying to the island from 1 January 2025. Ownership is registered as ownership (Section 173), leases as leases (Section 175) and musataha and usufruct interests as leases under memoranda of lease (Section 172). The Registrar can build folios from records supplied by Abu Dhabi’s Municipality or a successor (Section 26(3)).
The Registrar does not wait for owners alone. Under Section 26 it notifies the person who appears from its records to be the freehold owner and asks for the title documents, and the owner’s inability or refusal to produce them does not stop it creating the folio. For units in buildings, Section 28 allows a folio for each strata lot once the Relevant Authority has approved the strata plans and, to the extent required, the building plans. Section 178(2) required every registered owner and interest-holder on Al Reem Island to submit the applications and documents needed for compliance by 1 January 2025, and Section 179 lets the Registrar grant further extensions of time.
A memorandum of lease changes the label, not the contract. Section 172(2) leaves the rights and obligations under the original musataha or usufruct untouched unless the parties convert the instrument, and Section 154 directs the Court to apply Abu Dhabi law to the interpretation and nature of musataha and usufruct interests created before 1 January 2025.
Leases carry one special rule. Where the lessor of a lease registered on the Abu Dhabi register held only a management right under a power of attorney or a property management agreement, the Registrar registers the holder of the reversionary interest as lessor and the original lessee stays lessee. Claims under that lease, including any security deposit, are brought against the lessor shown on the ADGM Register (Section 175(2) and (3)).
Co-owners are registered as tenants in common unless all of them direct otherwise or the Court orders (Section 173(2)). For land gifted by the Government of Abu Dhabi, the Registrar may record restrictive covenants so that leasing, mortgaging and disposal follow the Government’s requirements (Section 174). Priority between instruments follows their dates of registration on the Abu Dhabi register (Section 177).
| Date | What the Regulations fix | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2024 | Regulations published and in force; the 2015 Regulations repealed | 184(3), 184(5) |
| 1 January 2025 | Regulations begin to apply to Al Reem Island property | 178(1) |
| 30 June 2025 | Last date for a primary application to create a folio | 27(1) |
| Six months from registration of the interest | Window to notify an error in an Al Reem Island record carried over | 176 |
As of 7 October 2026, the first three dates have passed. The six months in Section 176 run from the registration of each interest on the ADGM Register, not from 1 January 2025, and the Regulations do not tie that registration to a calendar date. For an interest registered on 1 January 2025 the window closed on 1 July 2025. A request to correct the Register costs AED 800 under the Real Property Regulations (Fees) Rules 2024.
What an ADGM Register entry vouches for
Registration of a person as owner is conclusive evidence that the person owns the interest and that the title is indefeasible, unless the registered instrument expressly makes it defeasible (Section 22). The owner holds subject to prior registered interests but free from others (Section 23), and a document issued by the Registrar is taken to be correct unless the contrary is shown (Section 152).
Registration also decides when an interest exists: an instrument that must be registered conveys no interest until it is registered, subject to Section 25 (Section 19), and the information recorded about a registered instrument is conclusive evidence of the registration, its time and the contents of the instrument (Section 18). Section 24 withholds the owner’s protection for seven categories:
- an easement or public right of way existing when the property became subject to the Regulations, to the extent an accurate survey or physical inspection could reveal it;
- any right of a Relevant Authority that binds the registered owner;
- easements implied under Sections 84 and 85;
- a statutory charge under Section 80;
- any matter registered by the Registrar under Section 9;
- an equitable obligation binding the owner because of the owner’s own conduct;
- where two or more persons are registered as owners of the same interest, the interest of the earliest-registered owner.
Section 23(3)(b) adds an eighth limit: the protection falls away if the Registrar has reasonable suspicion that either party to the underlying transaction meant to take part in or further a money laundering or terrorism financing scheme. The Registrar may also correct the Register under Section 144 when the Register is incorrect and the correction does not prejudice the rights of a registered owner or any other person.
A person who reasonably believes the Registrar failed to perform a duty correctly may require written grounds, which the Registrar must give within 30 calendar days, and may then apply to the Court (Section 150). An official search under Section 153 needs evidence that the applicant is the registered owner or holds an interest in the property, or the written consent of the registered owner given no more than 60 calendar days before the application. A lawyer acting for a person who obtains the search is not liable for loss from relying on it (Section 153(3)).
Where the Registrar’s responsibility stops for pre-2025 Al Reem Island records
For instruments and information on Al Reem Island property registered on the Abu Dhabi Real Property Register before 1 January 2025, Section 151(4) states that the Registrar makes no representations as to completeness or accuracy. It also bars any application to the Court against the Registrar over deficiencies in the Register or in an official or limited search certificate, whether or not the applicant has suffered loss, as the consolidated text reads.
Section 151(4)(a) keeps one duty in place: where the Registrar becomes aware of deficiencies, it takes whatever steps it considers necessary to correct the Register under Sections 143 to 145. The provision does not mention Sections 22 and 23, so the Regulations do not say how far the conclusive effect of registration reaches the same records.
Lenders meet a second Al Reem Island rule. A mortgagee under a mortgage registered over Al Reem Island property before 1 January 2025 may not exercise any of its powers under Section 72(1), including sale and foreclosure, without first obtaining a Court order (Section 72(3)(b)). When such property is sold, the Registrar needs a copy of the Court’s order before registering the transfer (Section 75(1)). Every mortgagee, wherever the property lies, must first give the mortgagor 30 calendar days to remedy a default (Section 72(3)(a)).
| Rule | Al Reem Island, registered before 1 January 2025 | Other property on the ADGM Register |
|---|---|---|
| Registrar’s representations on completeness and accuracy | None (Section 151(4)(a)) | No equivalent exclusion in Section 151 |
| Court application against the Registrar over deficiencies | Barred (Section 151(4)(b)) | Route under Section 150 after written grounds |
| Mortgage enforcement | Court order in addition to the 30-day default notice (Sections 72(3) and 75(1)) | 30-day default notice (Section 72(3)(a)) |
| Errors in carried-over records | Six months from registration on the ADGM Register (Section 176) | Registrar’s power to correct (Section 144) |
Where the ADGM Register and the Abu Dhabi register can disagree
Section 3(2) sets the rule for a conflict between the Abu Dhabi Real Property Register and the ADGM Register over who owns a freehold interest. The ADGM Registrar reviews the inconsistency on becoming aware of it, may determine the question itself or apply to the Court, and may then take the steps it reasonably requires to clarify ownership on the ADGM Register.
Section 182 defines the Abu Dhabi register as any register of real property or real property interests kept by the Municipality of Abu Dhabi or a successor body, including Tawtheeq. On Al Reem Island the ADGM Register was built from the Abu Dhabi register (Sections 26(3) and 173), so the two records start from the same entries.
Freehold outside the ADGM Area under Abu Dhabi Law 19 of 2005
Freehold in an Abu Dhabi investment zone outside the ADGM Area rests on the emirate’s own law, not on the Regulations. Abu Dhabi Law No. 19 of 2005 defines investment zones as zones designated by a resolution of the Executive Council, and its Articles 3 and 4 were replaced in 2019.
Law No. 13 of 2019, issued on 16 April 2019, made the replacement. Its new Article 3(2) entitles non-citizens, natural or legal persons, to acquire “all original and collateral in-kind rights” over property in investment zones and to dispose of it, as the English text and the Arabic text in the Official Gazette of 30 April 2019 both show.
What the Register leaves for the owner or lender to price
The Regulations decide by date. An Al Reem Island interest first registered on the Abu Dhabi Real Property Register before 1 January 2025 sits under Sections 151(4), 72(3)(b) and 75(1), while an interest registered on the ADGM Register later, and any other property in the ADGM Area, sits under the general rules in Sections 22, 23, 150 and 152.
Three clocks govern the transition: 1 January 2025, 30 June 2025 and, for each interest, six months from its own registration. A holder or lender deciding how far to rely on an ADGM search certificate for an Al Reem Island asset therefore starts from the date of the interest’s first registration, and from whether the mortgage was registered before 1 January 2025.
As of 7 October 2026, the Real Property Regulations (Fees) Rules 2024 put numbers on the asset side: as a general rule a transfer of a freehold interest costs the transferor 2% of the greater of the real property value or the fair market value (the same Schedule sets other amounts for some transfers), registering a mortgage costs 0.1% of the mortgage value, and a search certificate application costs AED 100, against AED 800 for a request to correct the Register. Neither the Rules nor the Registration Authority page gives a folio count or a transaction value for Al Reem Island, so none appears in this text.
This material was reviewed by Roksolana Pyrtko, who is the CEO of the Lviv shopping and entertainment centers “Roksolana” and “Spartak”, an attorney, and a specialist in commercial real estate analytics and development.
This material is informational in nature and does not constitute legal, tax or financial advice.