Muscat

Yes — but only inside designated Integrated Tourism Complexes (ITCs). Within these master-planned communities (such as AIDA, Muscat Bay, Jebel Sifah and The Sustainable City – Yiti), foreign nationals of any nationality can hold 100% freehold title, or long-term usufruct rights, with the ability to sell, rent and bequeath the property. Title is registered with Oman's Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. Outside the ITC zones, freehold ownership is generally reserved for Omani and GCC nationals, so the ITC route is the standard path for international investors in Muscat.

Prime Muscat yields run roughly 6–8% gross. Apartments in well-located ITC schemes tend to outperform villas, which typically land around 4–5%, while professionally furnished and managed short-term / holiday lets can reach 8–10% gross given the city's growing tourism flows. These are gross figures — after service charges and management fees (often around 20–30% of gross income), net yields are lower. Demand in Muscat is anchored by its role as the capital and a large expatriate workforce, which supports the long-let market year-round.

Muscat is the largest real-estate market in Oman. Muscat Governorate recorded roughly OMR 1.25 billion of real-estate trading in 2024 — the highest of any governorate — within a national total of OMR 3.38 billion (National Centre for Statistics and Information). The capital rebounded strongly through 2025 on the back of higher buyer activity, and market analysts project a further 5–10% price increase across 2026, with prime ITC apartments potentially running ahead of that range. Liquidity is concentrated in the prime ITCs, where well-priced units in the best schemes typically sell faster than the wider market.

Oman has no personal income tax, no capital-gains tax and no inheritance tax — inheritance follows the laws of the investor's home country rather than local rules. That makes the holding and exit economics unusually clean for a GCC market. The costs to budget for are transactional: a 5% VAT on the purchase price and a 3% Ministry of Housing registration fee on title-deed issuance, plus ongoing service charges inside the ITC. There is no recurring annual property tax on the asset itself.

Yes. A qualifying real-estate investment inside an ITC from OMR 200,000 grants a 10-year renewable investor (Golden) residency, with unlimited inclusion of first-degree family members, fast-track lanes at airports and border points, and the right to sponsor visit visas for relatives. A smaller ITC purchase can secure a 2-year renewable residency. The residency is tied to continued ownership of the qualifying property, and the family benefit makes Muscat attractive to investors relocating with dependants.

Off-plan purchases in Oman's ITCs are protected by mandatory escrow. Licensed developers must route buyer payments through a regulated escrow account, with funds released against verified construction progress and backed by a registered sale-and-purchase agreement — so your instalments are ring-fenced rather than handed directly to the developer. Buyers should still confirm the developer's licence, the escrow arrangement and the SPA terms before committing. Foreign-friendly mortgage finance has also opened up, with non-resident lending available up to 50% of value (capped) through select Omani Islamic banks.

Muscat's foreign-ownership inventory sits inside its ITCs. On Palmera these include AIDA (DarGlobal's clifftop city with Trump-branded golf and cliff villas), Muscat Bay at Bandar Jissah, the government-led new city of Sultan Haitham City, The Sustainable City – Yiti, the marina-and-golf resort of Jebel Sifah, and branded residences along Shatti Al Qurum. Each blends a different profile — clifftop luxury, marina lifestyle, sustainable living or seafront branded residences — but all share the same core advantage: full freehold title for foreigners, residency eligibility and Muscat's capital-city fundamentals.