Luxury Property for Sale in Dubai 

An off-plan resale is the sale of the owner's contract on a unit that is still being built. The owner signed a sale and purchase agreement with the developer, has paid some of the price under that agreement, and now sells the unit on before handover. The buyer steps into the owner's position: the unit, the contract and the instalments that remain.

Because the unit is not yet complete, it is recorded in the Dubai Land Department's Interim Property Register, the register DLD keeps for units sold before they are built. Entries are made through Oqood, the registration route by which off-plan sales are entered in that register. This matters because Article 3 of Law No. 13 of 2008 provides that any sale or other legal disposition of an off-plan unit that transfers or restricts ownership is void unless it is entered in the Interim Property Register. A resale of an off-plan unit is such a disposition, so the transfer has to be recorded there before it carries legal weight. Our RERA, Ejari and Oqood guide sets out the articles in full.

Once the building is finished and the developer receives its completion certificate, the unit moves from the Interim Property Register to the main Property Register. Under Article 8 of the same law that conversion is a duty on the developer, and the Land Department also has its own power to make the entry. That is the point at which the title deed is issued in the name of whoever then holds the contract.

A ready resale is a completed unit that has already been handed over. The unit sits on the Property Register, and the sale is the re-registration of it into your name at a Registration Trustee office, one of the transfer offices DLD lists for this purpose. Article 9 of Law No. 7 of 2006 provides that dealings creating, transferring, amending or extinguishing real property rights are valid only once recorded in the Property Register, and the date you take title is the date the register shows.

A ready unit can be viewed as it stands, so what you inspect is what you buy. That is a practical advantage for an end-user, and for a landlord it shortens the distance between completion of the purchase and a tenant in the unit.

On an off-plan resale the total price has two parts that go to different places. Where a listing shows the split, payable to the seller is the part of the asking price that is paid to the seller; the remainder is the balance still owed to the developer under the existing payment plan, which the buyer takes over.

Reading the two together tells you how much cash you need on transfer and how much you are committing to over the following months. Two units with the same total price can ask for very different amounts up front. Check the split first, then ask for the instalment dates before you compare units against each other. We confirm the split and the instalment dates with the owner when you enquire.

The Dubai Land Department publishes a free Property Status Enquiry. You can search by title deed number, property number, Makani number or municipality number, or select the plot on a map. The result carries a Freehold or NonFreehold flag, where Freehold means purchase is allowed for all nationalities. As our ownership guide notes, the enquiry also shows property blocking, municipality violations, rental dispute cases and the title deed explanation.

Whether a particular unit is open to you as a non-UAE national depends on the plot. Article 4 of Law No. 7 of 2006 allows non-nationals to take freehold, usufruct or leasehold up to 99 years only in areas the Ruler of Dubai has designated. Check the specific plot before you commit, and ask us to help with it.

Many units in this section are in buildings that are still under construction. For an off-plan building, the developer's renders show the building and its typical interiors, so listings in the same development often share the same images.

Where a unit is ready, the description supplied with the listing is the guide to its present condition, and we recommend a viewing before an offer. Whichever type you are looking at, the project brief linked from a listing carries the developer's published material for the building.