Can I use a personal loan for my mortgage deposit?

This is one of the few questions in UAE mortgage lending with a flat answer. It is not a matter of which bank you approach or how strong the rest of your file is: every bank on every panel works to the same circular, and the deposit rule is not one they can price around.

In practice the check is straightforward. A personal loan taken in the months before an application shows in your credit report, and a deposit appearing in your account shortly afterwards invites the obvious question. Even where the timing is less clear, the new repayment lands in your debt burden calculation, which is capped at 50 percent of gross monthly income, so borrowing the deposit usually reduces the mortgage you qualify for twice over: once because the source is not permitted, and again because the repayment eats the affordability you were relying on.

Gifted funds are treated differently from borrowed funds, and most banks will accept a documented gift from an immediate family member with a signed letter confirming it is not repayable. That is panel practice rather than regulation, so it varies between banks and is worth confirming before you rely on it.

If the deposit is the obstacle, the useful move is to change the shape of the purchase rather than the source of the deposit: a different price band, a longer savings runway, or in some cases a property type where the cap falls differently. Which of those is open to you depends on your file, and that is a conversation rather than a calculation.

Gifted deposits are panel practice, not regulation, and the treatment differs between banks.