Qatar’s QAR3.65m property tier offers residency privileges, not a card

Qatar ties residence to property at two price points. A home or unit valued at QAR730,000 or more qualifies its owner to apply for a residence permit that needs no sponsor; one valued at QAR3.65m or more qualifies its owner to apply for a residence permit carrying privileges similar to those of permanent residency.

Both permits come from the property framework built on Law No. 16 of 2018. Permanent residency itself sits in a different statute, Law No. 10 of 2018, with its own conditions and its own committee, and the Ministry of Interior’s list of those conditions does not name property.

Two statutes, two authorities

Law No. 16 of 2018 lets non-Qataris own and use real estate in areas, and on terms, that the Council of Ministers sets by decision. That decision is Cabinet Decision No. 28 of 2020.

Decision 28/2020 offers two forms of holding: freehold ownership, and usufruct — a right to use and let the property — for up to 99 years, renewable and passing to heirs. As issued, it opened nine freehold areas and 16 usufruct areas, and allowed units inside residential complexes and shops inside commercial complexes to be owned anywhere in the country.

The implementing decision was amended in June 2026. Cabinet Decision No. 21 of 2026, listed by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Aqarat) on 9 June, amends Decision 28/2020.

According to The Peninsula, Decision 21/2026 was published in Official Gazette Issue No. 9 of 2026, took effect the following day, extended the freehold list to ten areas by adding the Simaisma Resort and Beach Project, and gave the Ministry of Justice’s Real Estate Registration Department the registration of ownership and usufruct. The newspaper’s account does not mention the value thresholds.

Permanent residency belongs to the Ministry of Interior. Under Law No. 10 of 2018, a Permanent Residence Card Granting Committee inside the ministry reviews applications and recommends decisions to the minister.

What the property tiers offer

The regulator’s published answers set out the two tiers:

• QAR730,000 or more: a residence permit without a sponsor.
• QAR3.65m or more: a real-estate residence permit with privileges similar to those of permanent residency, which the regulator gives as healthcare, education and investment rights.

Both carry the same condition: the owner must reside in Qatar for 90 days a year, continuously or in parts. According to the regulator, the Minister of Interior may grant owners and usufruct holders a residence permit without a sponsor, valid for five years and renewable.

The regulator gives both thresholds as inclusive floors, QAR730,000 and QAR3.65m and above; the government’s instruction manual for Decision 28/2020 phrases them as values above each figure. Below QAR730,000 a non-Qatari may still buy, but the purchase brings no residence.

The same manual adds that the higher tier can be reached with several properties whose combined value comes to QAR3.65m, and places those benefits in Article 7(2) of the decision, describing them as healthcare, education and investment in some economic activities.

When the decision was issued in 2020, The Peninsula, citing Reuters and the state news agency, put the two thresholds at about $200,000 and $1m and reported that the lower tier covered owners’ families.

The application runs through Aqarat. Its investor page describes three steps: ownership approval, which the developer may file on the buyer’s behalf; the authority’s verification of the sale and purchase agreement; and a request to verify that the residence requirements are met. Vacant land carries an obligation to build within four years of registration, unless a committee extends it.

What permanent residency requires

The Ministry of Interior lists four conditions for the card under Law 10/2018:

• 20 years of legal residence for an applicant born abroad, or 10 years for one born in Qatar;
• income sufficient for the applicant and their family;
• good conduct, with no final conviction for a dishonourable offence in Qatar or abroad;
• sufficient knowledge of Arabic.

It then names six groups exempt from those conditions: the children of a Qatari woman married to a non-Qatari, the non-Qatari husband of a Qatari woman, the non-Qatari wife of a Qatari man, the children of naturalised Qataris, people who have performed great services to the state, and people with special capabilities the state needs. Property ownership appears on neither list.

Where the higher tier and the card overlap

Set side by side, the two documents name overlapping categories of benefit without establishing that the entitlements are the same.

The card, under Articles 5 to 9 of Law 10/2018, brings treatment and education in government institutions under conditions set by Cabinet decision, investment without a Qatari partner in sectors the Cabinet designates, and property ownership for housing and investment in specified areas, with the spouse and children under 18 sharing the residence, health and education privileges. The higher property tier names healthcare, education and investment in some economic activities.

The terms of holding differ as well. The card lets its holder enter and leave the country without permission while it is valid.

The property permit, as the regulator describes it, runs for five years, is renewable, and is held on condition of 90 days’ residence a year. The regulator describes its privileges as similar to those of permanent residency; it does not describe the permit as the card.

Questions the documents leave open

The documents read for this article do not say whether years spent on a property-linked permit count towards the 20 years of legal residence the card requires of an applicant born abroad. Nor does the regulator’s page for Decision 21/2026 carry the decision’s text, so its reach beyond the reported changes to the area list and to registration cannot be confirmed from it.

For an investor, the practical split is this: QAR730,000 is the published floor for a sponsor-free residence permit, and QAR3.65m the floor for the permit that adds healthcare and education privileges and investment in some economic activities, each held on 90 days a year in the country.

Neither threshold appears among the ministry’s published conditions or exemptions for the Law 10/2018 card, which list residence, income, conduct and Arabic, and six exempt groups.