What the law actually gives a Dubai off-plan buyer, article by article

In the twelve months to 15 July 2026, Dubai registered 130,966 off-plan residential sales. That is 73 percent of the market buying a building that does not exist yet.

The rules that govern those purchases are not vague, and they are not buried. They sit in three pieces of Dubai legislation published in full on the emirate's own legislation portal. Most buyers never read them, so here they are, with what each one actually does for you.

1. Your money is not the developer's money

Law No. 8 of 2007 requires every off-plan project to have an escrow account, and Article 7 requires that your payments go into it rather than to the developer:

payments made by off-plan purchasers, or by the financers of the project are deposited in an account opened with the Escrow Agent in the name of the Real Estate Development project

The account belongs to the project, not the company. Article 6 sets out what a developer must submit before it may sell at all, including the land title deed, approved architectural plans, certified financial statements and a standard sale contract. Article 15 obliges the escrow agent, in trouble, to act to see the project finished or the depositors refunded.

The practical instruction: pay into the escrow account named in your contract, and nowhere else. A request to transfer to a company account, a "booking" account, or a personal account is not a variation on the rule. It is outside it.

2. Five percent of your money is held for a year after you get the deed

This one is genuinely little known, and it is in your favour. Article 14 of the same law requires the escrow agent to hold back 5 percent of the total value once the completion certificates are obtained, and to release it only:

one (1) year from the registration of Units in the name of purchasers

So for twelve months after title transfers, there is 5 percent of the project's value still sitting where the developer cannot reach it. That is the money that exists to answer defects found after handover. If you are told after moving in that there is no budget to fix something structural in the first year, that statement and Article 14 are hard to reconcile.

3. An unregistered off-plan sale is void, not merely risky

Law No. 13 of 2008 created the Interim Real Property Register, which is what the Oqood system records. Article 3 is blunt about the consequence of skipping it:

any sale or any other legal disposition that transfers or restricts ownership or any ancillary rights will be void unless entered in that Register

Not unenforceable. Not weakened. Void. Article 5 puts the duty to submit the registration on the developer.

The practical instruction: after paying your deposit, ask for the Oqood registration certificate showing your name against that specific unit. It is the document that makes you a buyer under Dubai law, and it is also what stops the same unit being sold to somebody else. A signed sale agreement without it is not the same thing.

4. If you stop paying, what the developer may keep depends on the build

This is the part most worth knowing before you sign, because the answer is a schedule, not a single number. Article 11 of Law 13 of 2008, as amended by Law No. 19 of 2017, is set out in the Dubai Legislation Portal's own Explanatory Notes on Article 11. After the required notice to cure, the outcome turns on how far the project has been built:

Completion of the unit	What the developer may do
Over 80 percent	May keep the contract alive, retain everything paid and claim the remaining balance from you; or sell at public auction; or terminate and retain up to 40 percent of the price
Between 60 and 80 percent	May terminate and retain up to 40 percent of the price
Under 60 percent, work commenced	May terminate and retain up to 25 percent of the price
Work never commenced, for reasons outside the developer's control	May terminate and retain up to 30 percent of amounts paid
Project cancelled by a reasoned RERA decision	Developer must refund all payments made by purchasers

Where the developer terminates and retains, the refund of the rest is due within one year of termination, or sixty days from a resale of the unit, whichever comes first.

Read the top row carefully, because it is the one that surprises people. Past 80 percent completion, walking away is not an option the buyer controls: the developer may elect to hold you to the contract and pursue the balance. The most expensive moment to run out of money on a Dubai off-plan purchase is the moment closest to handover.

Note also what the percentages are calculated on. In the first three rows the ceiling is a share of the price of the unit, not of what you have paid so far. On a plan where 20 percent is due at booking, a 25 percent retention can exceed everything you have handed over.

This is exactly why the structure of a payment plan deserves as much attention as its total. We counted what Dubai plans actually look like in our first data report: the most common structure is 20 percent to book, 30 percent across construction and 50 percent at handover.

5. Where a foreigner may own at all

Freehold ownership by non-nationals in Dubai is not emirate-wide. The UAE Government portal points to Regulation No. 3 of 2006, whose Article 3 designates the plots where it is permitted. Inside those areas, expatriates may hold freehold without restriction, or usufruct or leasehold rights for up to 99 years. Outside them, they may not.

Nearly every project marketed internationally is in a designated area, so this rarely becomes a problem, but it is a question with a documented answer and it is worth asking rather than assuming.

The five things to do, in order

1. Confirm the project is registered with RERA and has an escrow account, and pay only into that account.
2. Get the Oqood registration certificate in your name after the deposit, and keep it.
3. Before signing, find the cancellation clause and read it against the Article 11 schedule above.
4. Understand that your exposure grows as the building rises, not as it falls.
5. Remember the 5 percent held for a year after handover, because it is the answer to a defects conversation.

Our off-plan register carries the RERA permit number for projects that publish one, alongside handover dates and payment plans.

Read the law, not a summary

Every provision above is linked to the legislation it comes from. This article is a map, not a substitute: it does not cover your specific contract, it does not address DIFC-seated disputes, and it is not legal advice. On a purchase this size, read the source and take advice from someone who will be accountable for it.