Sidra

Off-plan means contracting with the developer before the building is finished. In outline: you reserve the unit, sign the developer’s Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA), and pay in instalments tied to construction milestones rather than in a single sum at the start.

Buyer payments on an off-plan sale in Dubai are made into a project escrow account regulated under Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007, and are released to the developer against verified construction progress. The developer registers the sale with the Dubai Land Department. The contract is between you and Emaar; we act as broker, not as principal.

The Dubai Land Department charges a property registration (transfer) fee of 4% of the price recorded on the contract, plus a fixed administrative charge. That is the rate in force as at July 2026. The statutory position splits the fee between buyer and seller; established market practice in Dubai is that the buyer pays the whole 4%.

Developers sometimes offer to absorb part or all of it on off-plan sales. Treat that as real only where it is written into the sale documents, not where it appears in marketing. Budget separately for the registration trustee charge, the Oqood registration fee on off-plan units, and — if you are borrowing — mortgage registration at 0.25% of the loan amount.

No. Oqood is the Dubai Land Department’s registration system for property that is not yet complete. When you buy off-plan, the developer lodges the SPA through Oqood, your interest is recorded on the interim property register, and you receive an initial registration certificate.

The title deed is a separate and later document, issued once the project is complete and the unit is formally transferred into your name. An off-plan purchase that is never registered leaves you off that interim register, so ask for evidence of Oqood registration once your first payment has cleared.

In Dubai’s designated freehold areas, yes. Regulation No. 3 of 2006 sets out the areas in which non-UAE nationals may hold freehold title or a long lease; outside those areas ownership is restricted to UAE and GCC nationals. Ownership does not depend on holding UAE residency, and no local partner is required.

Tenure attaches to the plot rather than to a development’s marketing, so confirm what is recorded against the specific unit — freehold or leasehold, and the remaining term if leasehold — before you sign.

Once the building is complete and the completion certificate issued, you are called for handover: you inspect the unit (the snagging inspection), the developer addresses the defects listed, you settle the final instalment and any outstanding fees, and the unit is transferred into your name with a title deed issued.

Annual service charges begin at handover. They are levied per square foot at a rate approved by the regulator, so they are a recurring cost rather than a one-off. If you intend to let the unit, allow for the interval between handover and the first tenancy — a vacant unit earns nothing, and gross yield is annual rent measured against the purchase price, before those costs are taken off. Emaar gives completion for Sidra as May 2023; off-plan completion dates can move, and the SPA governs the position.

They are drawn from the Dubai Land Department’s public transaction register — sales actually registered against Sidra, rather than asking prices, portal listings or developer price lists. They are a dated extract of the register, not a live query: the extract date is printed with the figures, and everything on this page is calculated from that single extract.

The number of sales behind every figure is shown alongside it. A median drawn from a handful of registrations carries far less weight than one drawn from several hundred, and should be read that way.

Mitchell’s Commercial Real Estate is the trading brand of Stephen James Mitchell, RERA-licensed broker BRN 68593.

On developer off-plan sales the commission is paid by the developer. On resale transactions the brokerage fee is agreed with you in writing before terms are signed. We will confirm how we are paid on any specific transaction before you commit to it.