Oman's property law changed substantially in 2026. Two new laws came into force within ten weeks of each other, and between them they rewrote how ownership is registered, how apartment buildings are governed, and how off-plan buyers are protected.
The two laws people are confusing
Almost every article written about Omani property in 2026 blurs these together. They are separate instruments doing different jobs:
| Instrument | In force | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Decree 79/2025 — Law Regulating Real Estate | Around 10–13 March 2026 | Broker licensing, developer obligations, escrow accounts, owners' associations |
| Royal Decree 56/2026 — Law of the Real Estate Registry | 18 May 2026 | Title registration, electronic registers, the Preliminary Real Estate Register for off-plan units |
RD 79/2025 repealed three older laws outright: the Real Estate Brokerage Law of 1986, the Apartments and Floors Ownership System of 1989, and the Real Estate Development Escrow Account System of 2018. RD 56/2026 replaced the Real Estate Registry Statute of 1998.
RD 79/2025 requires its executive regulations within one year of entry into force — a deadline of around March 2027. As of August 2026 we found no evidence they have been issued.
That matters because the regulations are where the operational detail lives: how escrow withdrawals are approved, how owners' association service charges are set, how broker licensing works in practice. Until then, the framework exists but the mechanics are being run under transitional arrangements.
Freehold
Freehold — full ownership, indefinite, transferable and inheritable — is available to non-Omani buyers inside licensed Integrated Tourism Complexes. Our separate guide covers which complexes qualify and which parts of Oman are closed to foreign ownership entirely.
Whether ITC freehold is genuinely identical to Omani freehold is where the sources stop agreeing, and it matters most at the point of inheritance — covered below.
On mortgageability: the available sources indicate that ITC freehold is the only category of foreign-held property Omani banks will accept as mortgage collateral. We could not confirm this from a bank's own published criteria, so treat it as the working assumption rather than a certainty, and ask your lender directly.
Usufruct — and the route most people have never heard of
Usufruct is the right to use and benefit from a property for a defined period without owning the land outright. In Oman it appears in two quite different contexts.
Inside ITCs in Musandam
In Musandam governorate, even inside a licensed complex, what is available is a long usufruct rather than freehold title. The commonly quoted term is 99 years. We were not able to verify that figure against a primary source, and we would want it confirmed before anyone relied on it.
Outside ITCs, in Muscat — Ministerial Decision 357/2020
This is the genuinely under-reported one. Ministerial Decision 357/2020 allows non-Omanis to buy residential units on a usufruct basis in multi-storey buildings in Muscat Governorate, entirely outside the ITC system. As reported by Trowers & Hamlins:
- Initial term of up to 50 years, extendable to a maximum of 99 years
- Rights pass to legal heirs and can be sold
- The building must be multi-storey — four floors or more — with units of at least two rooms, and no more than four years old from its completion certificate
- No more than 40% of a building's units may be held by non-Omanis, and no single nationality may take more than 20% of that allocation
- The buyer must be at least 23 years old with two years of Omani residency, and may hold one unit only
- A minimum purchase price of around OMR 45,000 in Muscat Governorate
- A four-year lock-in before the unit may be leased or sold
The registration fees quoted for this scheme at the time were 3% payable by the seller and 5% by the buyer — but that is a 2020 figure and Oman has reformed property fees twice since, so do not budget from it.
Whether a usufruct can be mortgaged. One source states that only freehold qualifies as bank collateral, which would mean usufruct cannot. No law firm or official source confirmed this either way.
Whether the holder can build on it. No source we found addressed construction rights under a usufruct at all.
Both are material if you are considering this route. Put them to a lawyer before you commit.
Leasehold
Outside the ITC and usufruct routes, a non-Omani's options reduce to leasing, with ministerial approval and a minimum term of one year. This is the ordinary route for anyone renting rather than investing, and is covered separately in our guide to renting in Muscat.
Apartment ownership: what replaced the 1989 system
The Apartments and Floors Ownership System of 1989 governed how common areas, shared costs and building management worked in multi-unit developments. RD 79/2025 repealed it.
What replaces it is a framework of owners' associations with legal personality and financial and administrative independence, supervised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning. The stated policy purpose is to stop overcharging and ensure service-charge funds are properly allocated.
Interestingly, the groundwork was laid before the repeal: Ministerial Decision 204/2024 issued standard bylaws for real estate owners' associations, so the model constitution existed a year before the law that requires it.
What we could not find is any concrete rule on how service charges are now calculated or capped. If you are buying into a building with an owners' association, ask to see the association's bylaws, its budget, and its reserve fund position before you sign.
Escrow protection for off-plan buyers
The 2018 escrow law was repealed — which sounds alarming until you read what replaced it. RD 79/2025 re-legislates escrow and, on the reporting available, tightens it:
- A separate, independent escrow account for each project
- Buyer payments must be deposited into it
- Withdrawals restricted to approved construction phases
- Mandatory developer financial guarantees for project completion
- Periodic disclosure obligations to the ministry
Alongside this, RD 56/2026 created a Preliminary Real Estate Register which allows an off-plan buyer to record their interest before construction is complete — a registration-side protection that did not previously exist.
Escrow protects the flow of your money against misuse. It does not guarantee that the project will be completed, that it will be built to the quality promised, that it will be delivered on time, that it will let or resell, or that it will produce residency.
Those are commercial risks you carry regardless of how well the account is regulated.
Inheritance: a contradiction we cannot resolve
This is the most consequential open question in Omani property for foreign owners, and we are going to show you the disagreement rather than pick a side.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Property advisory sources | ITC owners have full rights to sell, gift or bequeath the property |
| Trowers & Hamlins, 2020 | For ITC property there is no automatic right of inheritance, even if specified in a will, and the property may in certain circumstances transfer to the ITC management company and the Ministry of Finance |
On general succession the same law firm is reassuring: Omani courts do not usually apply Sharia rules to non-Muslims, and will generally give effect to a foreign testator's home-country succession law where a properly executed, witnessed, translated and legalised will exists. The firm strongly recommends every non-Muslim expatriate have one. It also notes that bank accounts, including joint accounts, freeze on death pending distribution.
But the same article appears to carve ITC real estate out as an exception to that generally foreign-friendly position. That article is from 2020 and predates RD 79/2025 and RD 56/2026 by years, so it may well be superseded. We could not find a current source that resolves it.
If you own or are buying ITC property in Oman, get a current written opinion from an Omani lawyer on how it will pass on your death, and make a will that Omani courts can act on.
This is not a hypothetical filing exercise. The difference between the two positions above is the difference between your family inheriting the property and not.
What else RD 79/2025 changed
- Broker licensing is now mandatory. Anyone conducting real estate brokerage needs a ministry licence and must meet professional standards, with a national registry of licensed brokers. Violations carry fines and licence revocation.
- Developers must register off-plan units with the ministry within six months of the law taking effect — a deadline falling around September 2026.
- The ministry gained supervisory and enforcement powers to inspect, audit and penalise.
Two things we specifically looked for and did not find: any valuation regime — licensed valuers, methodology, dispute mechanism — and any real-estate-specific dispute resolution process under RD 79/2025. Neither appeared in any source. That may reflect a gap in the reporting rather than in the law, and may be filled by the executive regulations when they arrive.
Can a foreigner buy freehold property in Oman?
Can I buy an apartment in Muscat outside a tourism complex?
How much does an apartment have to cost to qualify under the Muscat usufruct scheme?
What is the difference between freehold and usufruct in Oman?
Will my family inherit my property in Oman when I die?
Can I get a mortgage on property I own in Oman as a foreigner?
At least one property website states that RD 79/2025 also repealed the Land Law of 1980. The official record of the decree lists three repealed laws, and the Land Law is not among them. Do not rely on that claim.