Questions and answers · October 2026
Off-plan property in Dubai: payment plans, escrow, resale and risk
Three quarters of what registers in Dubai is off-plan. These are the questions to ask before you join them.
Off-plan made up 74 per cent of residential sales registered with the Dubai Land Department over the latest three months, and the off-plan market held up better than resales after the March war. It is also where most of the mistakes are made, usually by buying off a brochure price rather than off what has registered nearby.
Is off-plan cheaper than ready property in Dubai?
Not per square foot, on the registered numbers. Over the latest three complete months off-plan sales registered at a median of AED 1,727 per square foot against AED 1,419 for ready homes. New launches are priced as new stock in good locations and carry a premium for the payment plan. What off-plan offers is a lower entry payment and time, not a lower price.
How do Dubai payment plans work?
A plan is expressed as the share paid during construction against the share at or after handover: 60/40 means 60 per cent in instalments before completion and 40 per cent on handover; 80/20 the reverse weighting; a post-handover plan pays a portion, often 30 to 50 per cent, in instalments for two to five years after the keys. Instalments are tied to dates or to construction milestones. The 4 per cent Land Department fee is due at the initial registration, not at the end.
Is my money protected?
Buyers' payments go into a RERA-regulated escrow account held by a bank, opened per project, and the developer draws on it against certified construction progress under Law 8 of 2007. The project and the developer must be registered with RERA before sales open, and your purchase is registered as an initial sale with the Land Department. None of this protects you against a delay or a weak resale market; it protects the money from being spent on something else.
Can I resell before handover?
Usually, once a minimum of the price has been paid, commonly 30 to 40 per cent, with a no-objection certificate from the developer and payment of their transfer fee. The resale is registered at the Land Department with the 4 per cent fee payable again by the new buyer. Whether there is a buyer at your price is the question: a community that launched thousands of units in one year will have many sellers at handover.
Can I get a mortgage on off-plan property?
Yes, capped at 50 per cent loan-to-value under UAE Central Bank rules, with the bank advancing against construction milestones or at handover depending on the product. Most off-plan buyers rely on the payment plan during the build and refinance at handover if they need to.
Does off-plan count for the Golden Visa?
Yes, if the units total at least AED 2,000,000 and are bought from an approved local developer. Mortgaged units count if the loan is from an approved local bank. The Dubai Land Department processes the investor application.
What goes wrong?
Delay, which is common and rarely compensated beyond the contract's terms; a launch price that was never tested against registered sales nearby; a payment plan sized to the brochure rather than to your cash flow; and a handover into a community where hundreds of identical units are completing at once. Each is avoidable by comparing the launch against what registered in the same community in the last three months, which is what the index table shows.
Which are the best off-plan properties in Dubai right now?
The honest answer is the ones priced closest to registered resales in communities whose resale volume held this year. In the search data, developer and off-plan searches from the United States rose while everything else fell, which means more buyers are going direct to developers. Natalie compares launches across more than 90 developers against the registered numbers; ask for a shortlist for the community and budget you have in mind.
Related
- Off-plan acquisitions
- Mortgages and financing
- Dubai Property Index
- Developer-direct searches from the US are up
Sources
- Dubai Land Department: registering a sale (fees)
- UAE Central Bank: mortgage loan-to-value ratios
- ICP: UAE Golden Residency
- Dubai Property Index by Natalie Burešová
- Google search data for the UK, US, Czechia and UAE, pulled 17 October 2026
General information, not investment, legal or tax advice. Prices are medians of registered sales from the Dubai Land Department, updated 16 October 2026.
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