AED 353.5 Million in VAT Refunds for New Homes — What This Means for Your Business

By Consaya Editorial — 2026-07-27

The FTA confirmed 353.5 million dirhams refunded to 4,000 nationals for construction VAT in the first half of 2026. That's roughly 88,000 dirhams per application, more or less.

Why does this matter to you?

Because VAT refunds aren't random. They're part of the system. When nationals build homes, they pay 5% VAT on materials and labour. The FTA then refunds it through a formal scheme. The fact that this scheme processed that volume tells you the FTA's digital platform is handling refunds at scale. It's getting faster, clearer.

For your own business, this matters because refunds work the same way. If you've overpaid VAT — whether it's on imports, supplies, or capital goods — the FTA processes your claim against your quarterly filings. The speed and accuracy depend on whether your books are clean. If you've mixed income and expense categories, or if your quarterly VAT 201 returns are patchy, a refund claim gets held up. Sometimes for months.

The home construction refund scheme is FTA-led and straightforward. Your company's VAT refund claims are your responsibility to file correctly.

This is where the real work happens. You need to track which purchases qualify for refund, which don't, and ensure your VAT returns align. If you're filing quarterly VAT returns without a clear view of what's claimable, you're either leaving money on the table or setting yourself up for a query.

Consaya keeps your VAT records filing-ready and flags what's due each quarter — refund eligibility, recoverable inputs, the lot. It's not magic. It's just having the right data at the moment you need it.

That's the difference between refunds that come through and refunds that don't.