diff --git a/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java b/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java
index 1e9ebcb2ede0..6358a9daf740 100644
--- a/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java
+++ b/bigquery/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/BigQueryMetastoreCatalog.java
@@ -249,16 +249,8 @@ public boolean setProperties(Namespace namespace, Map<String, String> properties
 
   @Override
   public boolean removeProperties(Namespace namespace, Set<String> properties) {
-    if (!namespaceExists(namespace)) {
-      throw new NoSuchNamespaceException("Namespace does not exist: %s", namespace);
-    }
-
     Preconditions.checkNotNull(properties, "Invalid properties to remove: null");
 
-    if (properties.isEmpty()) {
-      return false;
-    }
-
     return client.removeParameters(toDatasetReference(namespace), properties);
   }
 
diff --git a/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryCatalog.java b/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryCatalog.java
index 23441d0db184..af3b8cfbb711 100644
--- a/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryCatalog.java
+++ b/bigquery/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/gcp/bigquery/TestBigQueryCatalog.java
@@ -22,11 +22,17 @@
 import static org.apache.iceberg.CatalogUtil.ICEBERG_CATALOG_TYPE_BIGQUERY;
 import static org.apache.iceberg.gcp.bigquery.BigQueryProperties.PROJECT_ID;
 import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.clearInvocations;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.spy;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.times;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.verify;
 
+import com.google.api.services.bigquery.model.DatasetReference;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Set;
 import org.apache.iceberg.CatalogProperties;
 import org.apache.iceberg.catalog.CatalogTests;
 import org.apache.iceberg.catalog.Namespace;
@@ -45,6 +51,7 @@
 public class TestBigQueryCatalog extends CatalogTests<BigQueryMetastoreCatalog> {
   @TempDir private File tempFolder;
   private BigQueryMetastoreCatalog catalog;
+  private FakeBigQueryMetastoreClient client;
 
   @BeforeEach
   public void before() throws Exception {
@@ -99,7 +106,7 @@ protected BigQueryMetastoreCatalog initCatalog(
       String catalogName, Map<String, String> additionalProperties) {
 
     String warehouseLocation = tempFolder.toPath().resolve("hive-warehouse").toString();
-    FakeBigQueryMetastoreClient fakeBigQueryClient = new FakeBigQueryMetastoreClient();
+    this.client = spy(new FakeBigQueryMetastoreClient());
 
     Map<String, String> properties =
         Map.of(
@@ -129,7 +136,7 @@ protected BigQueryMetastoreCatalog initCatalog(
             .build(),
         "project-id",
         "us-central1",
-        fakeBigQueryClient);
+        client);
 
     return tmpCatalog;
   }
@@ -208,4 +215,16 @@ public void testIsValidIdentifierWithEmptyNamespace() {
     assertThat(catalog.isValidIdentifier(TableIdentifier.of(Namespace.empty(), "table1")))
         .isFalse();
   }
+
+  @Test
+  public void removePropertiesLoadsNamespaceOnce() {
+    Namespace namespace = Namespace.of("namespace");
+    catalog.createNamespace(namespace, ImmutableMap.of("key", "value"));
+    clearInvocations(client);
+
+    assertThat(catalog.removeProperties(namespace, Set.of("key"))).isTrue();
+
+    verify(client, times(1))
+        .load(new DatasetReference().setProjectId("project-id").setDatasetId("namespace"));
+  }
 }