How to Buy Off-Plan Property in Dubai: Step-by-Step

Off-plan means buying a unit before it is complete — sometimes before construction has started at all — directly from the developer rather than an existing owner. Because there is no finished asset to inspect and no title deed yet to transfer, Dubai regulates the process differently from a secondary (ready) purchase: payments move through an escrow mechanism rather than changing hands in full at completion, and your interest sits on an interim register until the building is finished.

Off-plan has consistently made up a large share of Dubai's residential transactions in recent years. The scale involved is substantial: DLD recorded 60,303 transactions worth AED 252 billion in Q1 2026 alone, a 31% year-on-year increase (Dubai Land Department, Q1 2026) — part of why the process below is standardised rather than left to individual developers to define.

Ahead of a project's public launch, developers commonly take an Expression of Interest (EOI) — a refundable deposit that reserves your place in the queue for unit selection, without obligating you to buy. EOI amounts vary widely by project and are set by the developer, not by law, so treat any figure quoted as project-specific rather than standard practice. An EOI buys priority access on launch day; it is not itself a purchase, and you're free to walk away if nothing suits once units are released.

Once you've chosen a specific unit, you pay a booking fee — commonly in a 5-20% range of the unit price — usually non-refundable but credited toward your first instalment. You'll need identification (passport, and Emirates ID if resident) and proof of address.

Within a short window after booking — commonly days to a few weeks — you sign the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA), the binding contract between you and the developer. A properly drafted SPA sets out the unit and project specification, the full price and payment schedule, the anticipated completion date and its grace period, and default, termination and resale clauses. Read the completion-date and grace-period clause with particular care — it governs what happens if handover runs late, covered in more depth in our companion guide, Is It Safe to Buy Off-Plan in Dubai?

Oqood is DLD's interim property register, created under Law No. (13) of 2008 (as amended by Law No. (9) of 2009) specifically to regulate off-plan sales. The law is unambiguous on the point that matters most: a sale contract for an off-plan unit is void unless registered on this interim register. In practice, the developer submits your signed SPA to DLD for Oqood registration; once accepted, you receive a provisional e-certificate confirming your registered interest, unit and payment terms.

Registration itself is quick once submitted, though developers are commonly reported to have up to 90 days from SPA signing to submit it. The fee is 4% of the sale value plus a AED 10 knowledge fee and a AED 10 innovation fee (Dubai Land Department). Oqood is not the end state: it converts to a title deed once the developer holds a completion certificate and you've settled the payment plan.

Three structures are common, though the exact split is set project-by-project, not by law:

• Construction milestone-based — instalments release as the building reaches defined stages (for example, foundation, 30%, 50%, structure complete), with the balance due on handover.
• Date-based — fixed instalments on a calendar schedule regardless of build pace, more often used by developers with stronger balance sheets, since it decouples their cash collection from construction progress.
• Post-handover — a portion (commonly illustrated as around 60/40, though splits vary by project) is paid during construction, with the remainder spread over one to several years after you take possession.

Whichever structure applies to your unit, the developer cannot simply draw down your money on its own timetable — that is what the escrow mechanism below is built to control. If a buyer instead falls behind on the schedule, DLD requires a 30-day notice before the developer can act, and any retention of amounts already paid then scales with construction progress under Law No. (19) of 2017.

Every off-plan project selling units must run its collections through a dedicated escrow account under Law No. (8) of 2007. The account is opened in the name of the specific project, not the developer generally, and is "dedicated exclusively to the construction of that Real Estate Development project" (Art. 9). Funds are shielded from the developer's general creditors, and the escrow agent releases money only against verified construction progress, under DLD oversight. Once the developer secures its completion certificate, the escrow agent must still retain 5% of the account for a further year (Art. 14) — a deliberate holdback against post-completion defects and disputes.

Escrow law is a real, meaningful protection, and it is worth being precise about what it actually secures: the process your payments go through, not the outcome of your investment. It does not guarantee the unit will be worth what you paid at handover, and on its own it does not fix a delivery date — that sits in the SPA's completion clause instead. We go deeper on the limits of escrow protection, and how to vet a specific project against them, in Is It Safe to Buy Off-Plan in Dubai?

Once the developer obtains its building completion certificate, it issues a completion notice, which starts a limited window — commonly reported around 30 days — to complete snagging, settle any outstanding balance, and register title.

Snagging — inspecting the unit for defects in finishes, fixtures, plumbing, electrical and other systems — is not itself a legal requirement, but it is your only realistic opportunity to document problems before you sign the handover certificate. Once you do, ownership registers at DLD, utilities activate, and you receive keys and your title deed, which now supersedes the Oqood registration entirely.

Budget for the following on top of the unit price:

Together, these typically add up to somewhere in a 4-6% range on top of the purchase price. None of this is a developer fee you can negotiate away — it is the regulatory cost of registering the transaction. Confirm exact current charges directly with DLD or your Trustee Office before finalising a budget.

Before paying anything, including an EOI, confirm three things independently rather than taking a developer's or broker's word for it: that the developer is currently registered with DLD and holds a valid Trakheesi permit; that the specific project — not just the developer generally — is separately registered with an active, project-specific escrow account; and that the escrow account number on any documentation matches DLD's own record. The Dubai REST app and DLD website both support this lookup. Never transfer money to an account other than the registered escrow account, regardless of who is asking. We set out the full red-flags checklist — including how to read a delay clause and what genuine stalled-project precedent looks like — in Is It Safe to Buy Off-Plan in Dubai? How to Vet a Project