Buying and selling off-plan property in Dubai
An off-plan purchase in Dubai is a contract, not yet a title deed, and almost everything that makes it safe or unsafe follows from that. Where the money sits, what is on the register in the meantime, how the contract changes hands before the building exists, and what happens when either side fails to deliver. The questions below are the ones that come up in that order.
9 answers, each with the official source it rests on · Last checked 6 September 2026
What an escrow account is, and what it does not cover
Money paid for an off-plan property in Dubai goes into a project escrow account rather than straight to the developer. The account is governed by Law No. (8) of 2007 and supervised by RERA, and money leaves it under that law's controls rather than at the developer's discretion. What it protects is your payments being spent on the project you bought into. What it is not is a completion guarantee or a refund guarantee — if a project is cancelled, refunds run through the escrow account under the cancellation rules in Law No. (19) of 2020.
Source: Government of Dubai — Legislation Portal — Law No. (8) of 2007 concerning Escrow Accounts for Real Estate Development · Correct as of 3 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
What Oqood is
Oqood is the Dubai Land Department's register for property bought before handover. An off-plan purchase is recorded there instead of with a title deed — the title deed is issued once the unit is completed and handed over. If you sell the contract before handover, the Oqood record is updated to the new buyer at the DLD Trustee Office as part of the transfer. The interim register is established under Law No. (13) of 2008.
Source: Government of Dubai — Legislation Portal — Law No. (13) of 2008 regulating the Interim Real Estate Register · Correct as of 3 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Checking a developer and project are registered
Dubai keeps an official list of who is allowed to sell property off-plan. Under Law No. (8) of 2007, the Land Department maintains a Register of Real Estate Developers, and no developer may engage in the development business unless they are recorded in it and licensed. The same law bars a developer from advertising or exhibiting units for sale before meeting its requirements. Individual projects are registered separately with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, and failing to register a project is one of the grounds on which the regulator can act against a developer. So there are two things to check rather than one: that the developer is on the register, and that the specific project is registered with an escrow account attached. Both are held by the Land Department, and you can ask them directly rather than relying on the seller's word.
“The Department will maintain a register known as the “Register of Real Estate Developers” in which are entered the names of Developers licensed to engage in the Real Estate Development business in the Emirate. No Developer may engage in such business unless he is recorded in that register and licensed by the Competent Entities in accordance with their relevant requirements.”
Source: Government of Dubai — Legislation Portal — Law No. (8) of 2007 concerning Escrow Accounts for Real Estate Development · Correct as of 17 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Selling an off-plan property before handover
You can usually sell an off-plan property before handover, but not freely — it depends on what your sale and purchase agreement says and how much of the price you have paid. There is no statutory minimum percentage in Dubai law: each developer sets its own threshold and writes it into the contract, so the figure that applies to you is the one in your agreement rather than a general rule you can look up. Once you meet it, the sale runs through the developer rather than privately: you need a No Objection Certificate from them, and the contract is reassigned to the new buyer and re-registered on the interim register that Law No. (13) of 2008 established for property sold before completion. The developer will charge for the NOC and may charge an administration fee for the transfer itself.
Source: distress.ae — How to exit an off-plan purchase in Dubai · Correct as of 3 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
How an off-plan assignment works
An assignment is how an off-plan purchase changes hands before the building exists to transfer. Rather than moving a title deed, you are passing your contract with the developer to a new buyer, and the record that changes is the interim register that Law No. (13) of 2008 established for property sold before completion. In practice the developer sits in the middle of it: they must consent, they issue the No Objection Certificate, the new buyer signs a contract with them, and the interim register entry is reissued in the new buyer's name. Whether you are allowed to assign at all, and at what stage, comes from your own sale agreement rather than from a general rule. Expect the developer to charge for the NOC and possibly for the transfer itself, and expect them to want their own outstanding instalments settled first.
Source: Government of Dubai — Legislation Portal — Law No. (13) of 2008 regulating the Interim Real Estate Register · Correct as of 17 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Moving your purchase to another unit with the same developer
If you have bought from a developer and then agree with that developer to move to a different unit, there is a Land Department service for carrying the registration across rather than treating it as an unrelated purchase. It applies where there is an agreement between the developer and the purchaser to transfer the purchaser from one property to another in the same developer's projects — so it is a route inside one developer's own portfolio, and not a way to move to another company's project. The paperwork is substantial: an approval letter from the Legal Affairs Department, a details table covering both properties, the signed settlement agreement, the new sale and purchase agreement, identification, and the old title deeds. On fees the page lists 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the purchaser, a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee, and a AED 1,000 fee where a developer registers the transaction themselves through the Oqood portal for a provisional sale. On the money already paid the page is explicit: fees shall be charged in case of an increase in the price of the property transferred to, as the fees shall be charged for the price increase only. So moving to a dearer unit is charged on the difference rather than on the whole of the new price.
“an agreement between the developer and the purchaser to transfer the purchaser from one property to another in the same developer's projects”
Source: Dubai Land Department — Transfer of registration fees from one property to another application · Correct as of 23 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Missing an off-plan instalment — what the developer may keep, and what the Land Department does first
If you cannot make a payment under an off-plan contract in Dubai, the developer cannot simply keep your money and cancel. Article 11 of Law No. (13) of 2008, as replaced by Law No. (19) of 2020, fixes the sequence. The developer must first notify the Land Department, on the Department's own form, of what you have failed to do. The Department then serves you a written, dated notice giving thirty days to perform — in person, by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, by email or another means it prescribes — and, where possible, mediates a settlement, which is attached to your contract as an addendum. Only if the thirty days pass with neither performance nor settlement does the Department issue the developer a document confirming the procedure was followed and stating the project's percentage of completion under RERA's standards. What the developer may then do depends on that percentage. Above 80% complete: keep the contract and claim the balance; ask the Department to sell the unit at public auction, with you liable for the costs; or terminate and keep up to 40% of the unit's price in the contract. Between 60% and 80%: terminate and keep up to 40%. Below 60%, with construction under way: terminate and keep up to 25%. Whatever exceeds the retained share must be refunded within one year of termination or within sixty days of the unit's resale, whichever comes first. If the developer never started work for reasons beyond its control, or RERA cancels the project, every payment must be refunded under the escrow law. The procedure is public order — a termination that skips it is void — and it does not remove your right to go to court or arbitration. The thirty-day window is when a settlement is still on the table; that is the moment to speak to the developer and the Department.
“serve a thirty (30) days' notice on the purchaser requiring him to fulfil his contractual obligations towards the Developer.”
Who to go to
The Dubai Land Department (RERA), which serves the notice, mediates and issues the completion document; and Dubai Courts or the arbitration forum named in your contract for any dispute. Whether a particular termination followed the procedure is for them, not for this card.
Source: Government of Dubai — Supreme Legislation Committee — Law No. (19) of 2020 Amending Law No. (13) of 2008 Regulating the Interim Real Property Register in the Emirate of Dubai · Correct as of 6 September 2026 · Applies: Dubai
If handover is late
A completion date in a sale agreement is a contractual promise, and what you can do about a missed one starts with what your own contract says about delay. Dubai law does give buyers one firm protection at the end of the process: once the project is complete and the completion certificate has been obtained, the developer may not refuse to hand over or register the unit in your name, provided you have met your own obligations under the sale agreement — and that holds even if you owe the developer money for something else. The unit and its amenities, parking included, must be registered in your name. Delays before that point are governed by your contract and, where the delay reflects something more serious, by the regulator's own powers over the project. If handover has passed and the developer will not complete, raise it with the Land Department.
“Upon completion of the development project and obtaining the completion certificate from the Competent Entities, the Master Developer or Sub-developer may not refuse to hand over or register the Real Property Unit in the name of the purchaser in the Property Register, provided that the purchaser has fulfilled all his contractual obligations even if there are other financial dues payable by such purchaser to the developer other than in connection with the sale agreement of the relevant Real Property Unit.”
Source: Government of Dubai — Executive Council — Executive Council Resolution No. (6) of 2010 approving the Implementing Bylaw of Law No. (13) of 2008 (Interim Property Register) · Correct as of 17 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
What happens if a development project is cancelled
Cancelling a development project in Dubai is a regulated decision, not something a developer announces. The Real Estate Regulatory Agency may cancel a project on the basis of a reasoned technical report, and the grounds are set out in law: the developer failing to start construction despite holding every approval, committing an offence under the escrow law, being shown to have no intention of implementing the project, losing the land plot through its own breach, or the plot being substantially affected by government planning. Buyers' money in these projects sits in a project escrow account governed by Law No. (8) of 2007, which exists precisely so that it is not the developer's to spend freely. What you are owed and how it is returned depends on the cancellation decision itself and on where the project had got to, and that is determined through the regulator and the courts rather than by the developer. If your project has been cancelled, or you believe it is heading that way, take it to the Land Department.
“RERA may, based on a reasoned technical report, decide to cancel the development project in any of the following circumstances: 1. if the developer fails, without any valid reason, to commence the construction works despite having already obtained all the required approvals from the Competent Entities; 2. if the developer commits any of the offenses set forth in Article (16) of Law No. (8) of 2007 Concerning Escrow Accounts of Real Estate Development in the Emirate of Dubai; 3. if it is proven to RERA that the developer has no intention of implementing the project.”
Who to go to
Dubai Land Department and its Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) for the cancellation decision and your position in it; the Dubai Courts for any claim arising from it.
Source: Government of Dubai — Executive Council — Executive Council Resolution No. (6) of 2010 approving the Implementing Bylaw of Law No. (13) of 2008 (Interim Property Register) · Correct as of 17 August 2026 · Applies: Dubai
Go deeper on this
These answer the question. The pages below walk the decision.
- How to exit an off-plan purchaseThe four ways out of a contract you can no longer carry, and what each costs.
- When handover is lateWhat the law gives you, and the point at which it becomes worth acting on.
- Off-plan below original priceResales priced under the developer's launch price, and how to judge one.
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