Escrow and Oqood: how your money is protected when buying off-plan

Off-plan buying is a simple bargain: you pay for something that does not yet exist, in exchange for a lower price and a payment plan. The whole model depends on two questions. Where does my money sit until the building is finished? And what proves that the unit is mine before a title deed can be issued? Dubai answers them with an escrow account and the Oqood register. This guide explains both, in enough detail that you can check them yourself, because the protection only works for buyers whose money and whose purchase are actually inside the system.

Why Dubai built these protections

Dubai's off-plan market is large. Off-plan sales made up roughly 70% to 76% of all Dubai property transactions in the first half of 2026, around 58,800 deals worth about AED 139.8 billion, according to Dubai Land Department figures reported by Gulf News and others. Most buyers are investors, many are overseas, and a growing number are first-timers: the DLD counted 29,312 first-time investors in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

A market that size, built on advance payments, cannot run on trust. After the 2008 downturn, when several projects stalled with buyer money inside them, the emirate put a legal structure around off-plan sales. Two laws do most of the work: Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007, which created mandatory escrow accounts for real estate development, and Law No. 13 of 2008, which created the interim real estate register that the market calls Oqood. Both have been amended since; the mechanics below describe how they operate today, and where a detail could have changed we say so.

The escrow account

What it is

For every off-plan project it registers, a developer must open a dedicated escrow account with a bank approved by the DLD. The account belongs to the project, not the developer. Payments from buyers for that project go into it, and nothing else does.

What the developer can and cannot do with the money

The developer cannot simply withdraw buyer funds. Releases from the account are tied to construction progress: the project's consultant certifies how far the build has reached, and the escrow bank releases a corresponding tranche to pay contractors and suppliers. Money for a tower that is 20% built cannot be used to fund a land purchase elsewhere, a marketing launch, or another project that is running late.

Under the escrow law a portion of the funds is also held back after completion to cover defects and finishing. The figure commonly cited is 5% for one year after the completion is registered. Treat that number as something to confirm in your own SPA rather than rely on from a guide.

Who supervises it

RERA, the Real Estate Regulatory Agency inside the DLD, supervises escrow accounts. It approves the banks, receives the progress reports, and can freeze releases if a developer breaches its obligations. If a registered project is cancelled, RERA audits the account and manages refunds to buyers from whatever remains.

What escrow does not do

Three honest limits:

• It does not guarantee completion. A developer that runs out of money, loses its contractor or mis-plans the build can still be late. Escrow keeps the buyers' money in the project; it does not add money the project never had.
• It does not protect money paid outside it. A "booking fee" transferred to an agent's company account, a cash discount paid directly to the developer, or an expression-of-interest cheque made out to anyone other than the project escrow account is outside the protection entirely.
• It is only as good as the registration. An unregistered project has no escrow account, whatever the brochure says.

How to check the escrow account

1. Ask the developer, in writing, for the project's DLD registration number and the escrow account details: bank, account name and account number.
2. Open the Dubai REST app (the DLD's official app) and look up the project. The project record shows its registration status and escrow account.
3. Cross-check against the DLD projects dataset on Dubai Pulse, which lists for each registered project its status, percentage completed, last inspection date and escrow account number. We use this dataset for the verification block on our project pages.
4. Pay only to that account, by bank transfer or manager's cheque, and keep the confirmation.

If any of those four steps fails, stop. That is not caution for its own sake; it is the entire protection.

Oqood: the interim register

What it is

A title deed can only be issued for a property that exists. Until then, the DLD keeps an interim register of off-plan sales. Registering your purchase in it produces an Oqood certificate, which records you as the owner of a specific unit in a specific project during construction. The name is the Arabic word for "contracts".

Under Law No. 13 of 2008, an off-plan sale that is not recorded in the interim register is not enforceable against the DLD, which is a polite way of saying that, legally, an unregistered buyer owns a piece of paper and a hope. Registration is what converts the SPA into a recognised property interest.

What registration gives you

• A recorded ownership interest in the unit, in your name, held by the regulator.
• Protection against double-selling. Once a unit is registered to you, the developer cannot register it to someone else.
• The ability to resell before completion. A pre-handover sale is recorded as a transfer in the register, with the developer's NOC.
• The basis for a mortgage. Banks that finance off-plan register their charge against the Oqood record.
• A clean path to the title deed. At completion the interim registration converts into a title deed without a second sale.

The fee

The Oqood registration fee is 4% of the purchase price, the same rate as the DLD transfer fee charged on a completed property, plus administrative amounts that are small by comparison. In practice developers collect it from the buyer alongside the first instalment and remit it to the DLD. Some developers advertise "DLD fee waived" promotions; read that as a discount funded by the developer, and check that the registration still happens. Our fees guide lists every cost line.

How to check your Oqood registration

Ask the developer for the Oqood certificate for your unit, not a receipt for the fee. The certificate carries the project, the unit number and your name. Then check the record through the Dubai REST app, which shows the DLD's own data rather than the developer's. The registration should be in place within a reasonable period after you have signed the SPA and paid the first instalment; if months pass without it, chase in writing and, if that fails, raise it with RERA.

If you fall behind on payments

The same law that protects your ownership also sets out what a developer may do if you stop paying. Since the 2017 amendment to Law No. 13 of 2008, the developer's remedies depend on how far the project has progressed. In outline, as published: where the building is substantially complete the developer may require you to complete the purchase or sell the unit at auction to recover what is owed; where construction is less advanced the developer may cancel the contract and keep a defined share of the amount you have paid, with the share decreasing the less has been built; and where construction has not started at all a smaller retention applies. The exact percentages and the notice procedure through the DLD are set out in the law and in your SPA. Confirm the current text with the DLD before you rely on any figure, and read the default clause of your contract before you sign it.

Where the system breaks down

In the cases we see, buyers lose protection for one of four reasons:

1. The project was never registered, often a "pre-launch" sold on renders with a promise that registration follows.
2. Money went outside escrow, usually a booking amount paid to an intermediary.
3. The unit was never registered in Oqood, because the buyer did not ask and the developer did not volunteer it.
4. The buyer could not evidence what they paid, because receipts were informal or the bank transfer went to an unrelated account.

All four are avoidable with the checks above, and all four are far more common among overseas buyers who rely on a single intermediary for everything.

A note on handover and the title deed

At completion, the developer obtains the building completion certificate, the DLD inspects, and the project is registered as complete. Your Oqood registration becomes a title deed in your name once the final payment is made and any handover charges settled. If a mortgage was used, the bank is recorded on the deed. From that point the property is a ready unit, with service charges and the ordinary rules of ownership.

What to do before your first payment

• Get the project's DLD number and escrow account details in writing.
• Check both in the Dubai REST app and the Dubai Pulse dataset.
• Confirm the developer's registration with RERA.
• Pay only into the escrow account, and keep the bank confirmation.
• Ask when the Oqood registration will be done, and follow up until you hold the certificate.

Our project verification guide turns this into a checklist that also covers the developer, the agent and the advertising permit.