Dubai · Guide · Off-plan buyers

Dubai off-plan homes: Law No. 8 of 2007 keeps buyers' payments in a separate escrow account for each project and holds back 5% from the developer until a year after the units are registered to buyers

Under Dubai's Law No. 8 of 2007, a developer who wants to sell units off-plan must first ask the Dubai Land Department to open an escrow account. Buyers' payments go into that account in the project's name, each project has its own account, and the money is reserved for building that project only.

Al Mithaq news desk · Published 11 October 2026 · Updated 11 October 2026 · Source: Dubai Legislation Portal: Law No. (8) of 2007 Concerning Escrow Accounts for Real Estate Development in the Emirate of Dubai

Artist's impression of apartment buildings beside the park at Dubai Hills Estate, an Emaar community in Dubai. Picture: Emaar, artist's impression

1separate escrow account for each project (Article 9)

5%held back after completion, released one year after units are registered to buyers (Article 14)

AED 15,000fee for an official completion report from the RERA technical auditor (DLD)

Before a single unit is sold

Law No. 8 of 2007, issued on 6 May 2007, says a developer may not advertise in local or international media, or take part in exhibitions, to sell units off-plan without written authorisation from the Land Department (Article 5). A developer who wants to sell off-plan must apply to the Department to open an escrow account, and the application includes the title deed of the land, initial architectural designs and engineering plans approved by the competent authorities and the master developer, a statement of the project's estimated cost and revenues certified by an accredited auditor, and a standard sale contract between developer and buyer (Article 6).

Where your payments go

The account is opened with an escrow agent in the name of the project, and the payments of off-plan buyers, and of any financiers of the project, are deposited in it (Article 7). If a developer has several projects, each must have its own account; the account is dedicated exclusively to building that project, and no attachment may be placed on the money in it for the benefit of the developer's creditors (Article 9).

At completion, and if the project stops

Once the developer obtains the completion certificate, the escrow agent must keep back 5% of the account's total value and release it to the developer one year after the units are registered in the buyers' names (Article 14). In an emergency in which a project is not completed, the escrow agent, after consulting the Land Department, must take the measures needed to protect depositors' rights and ensure that the project is completed or that depositors are refunded (Article 15).

What the Land Department tells buyers

The Department's questions page says buyers can follow a project's progress through its website or its smart application. Where the payment schedule is based on completion, the buyer has the right, on receiving a payment request, to know the current completion percentage, and can ask for a report on it prepared by the technical auditor of the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, for an audit fee of AED 15,000.

Why it mattersWhen you buy off-plan, you pay for years before you receive a key, so the real question is where your money sits in the meantime. In Dubai the law answers it: in the project's own escrow account, not in the developer's general funds. Our view: before any deposit, confirm that the project is registered with the Land Department and that your payments go to that project's escrow account, and when a payment request is tied to construction progress, ask for the current completion percentage, which the Land Department says is your right. Escrow protects how your money is used; it does not fix a handover date, so read the delivery clause in the sale contract as well.

What Al Mithaq adds

We sell homes in Emaar communities in Dubai. For any off-plan home you are considering, ask us and we will show you the project's registration, the payment plan and the handover date written in the contract, before you pay anything.