Answers
Can my bank stop me moving my mortgage to another bank?
A short answer, with the article it comes from.
The answer
No. The Central Bank says there should be "no impediment for borrowers to refinance with other institutions", and lenders must let you transfer a loan without undue delay. Your bank may charge the capped early settlement fee and any fixed rate break cost your contract allows, but it cannot block the move.
CBUAE Circular 31/2013 Article 4; CBUAE Consumer Protection Standards Clauses 5.1.3.3 and 7.1.1.6; CBUAE Regulation 29/2011 Appendix 2 items 35, 36 and 42; Dubai Land Department, Request for Mortgage Transfer; checked 7 October 2026. AED 580 is the fixed DLD service fee as confirmed by The Lending Tree.
Article 4 of the mortgage circular sets the principle, and the Consumer Protection Standards make it operational: banks "must in accordance with Article 7 and without undue delay, allow Consumers to transfer their loan/financing from any bank or finance company operating in the UAE", and may require an early settlement fee "as prescribed by the Central Bank".
On a conventional home loan, that fee is capped at 1 percent of the outstanding balance or AED 10,000, whichever is less, plus VAT. The paperwork has capped fees too: a liability letter costs at most AED 85 and a clearance letter AED 95, both before VAT.
The new bank, for its part, must give you a written comparison of the total interest on your existing loan against the new one before it refinances you, with its assumptions stated. At the Land Department, transferring the mortgage costs 0.25 percent of the mortgage value, plus the DLD service fee of AED 580 and a service partner fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT at a trustee office.
The right to move is clear; whether it pays is not. A specialist can compare your current loan with what the panel offers today and tell you plainly if staying is better.
Rules are the easy part. Your file is the question.
Thinking of moving your mortgage? Talk to a Specialist first.