Reading an off-plan project's risk from the public record

An off-plan purchase is a promise with a payment schedule attached. You pay in instalments for a building that does not exist yet, and most of what you are shown — renders, a show apartment, a handover date — comes from the party collecting the money. Dubai is unusual in one useful way: three facts about that promise sit on a public record that a buyer can check without the developer's help. This piece takes each in turn: what it is, where to look, and where its usefulness stops.

The escrow account

What it is. A developer who wants to sell units off-plan must ask the Land Department to open an escrow account for the project, and buyers' payments are deposited into it (Articles 6 and 7, Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 on escrow accounts, accessed 24 September 2026). The account is opened in the project's name and is "dedicated exclusively to the construction" of that project, and the developer's creditors cannot attach the money in it (Article 9). Once the completion certificate is issued, the escrow agent holds back five per cent of the account until one year after units are registered in buyers' names (Article 14). If a project is not completed, the escrow agent must, after consulting the Department, act to see it finished or to refund depositors (Article 15).

Where to check. Dubai REST, the Land Department's app, shows off-plan buyers the escrow account number for the projects they have bought into, alongside the completion percentage and the payments due (Dubai Land Department: Dubai REST, accessed 24 September 2026). The Land Department's project status enquiry, searchable by project name or number, also returns the project's escrow banking details (Dubai Land Department: Project Status Enquiry, accessed 24 September 2026).

What it tells you. That the project sits inside the regime: a named account, at a named bank, into which your instalments should go. The most useful single check follows from it. The account on your payment instructions should be the project's escrow account — not a developer's operating account, and never an intermediary's.

What it does not tell you. The balance, whether the money in it is enough to finish the building, or how the developer is faring on its other projects. Escrow controls where money goes. It does not make a thinly funded project well funded.

Oqood and the interim register

What it is. Oqood is the Land Department's portal through which developers register units sold off-plan in the provisional register (Dubai Land Department: registering the initial sale, accessed 24 September 2026). The law behind it is blunt: a sale or other disposition of an off-plan unit "will be void unless entered in that Register" (Article 3, Dubai Law No. 13 of 2008 on the Interim Property Register, accessed 24 September 2026).

Where to check. The Land Department states that the sale and purchase contract "shall be registered in the provisional register within 90 days from the date of signing the contract" (Dubai Land Department: registering the initial sale, accessed 24 September 2026). Ask for proof of registration and keep it with your contract.

What it tells you. That your purchase exists in the state's record — which matters most if the unit is later resold, mortgaged or disputed.

What it does not tell you. Anything about the building. A unit can be properly registered in a project that is running late.

The construction percentage

What it is. For off-plan projects, Dubai REST shows the percentage of completion and actual pictures of the project (Dubai Land Department: Dubai REST, accessed 24 September 2026). The project status enquiry adds the project's registered, start and completion dates.

Where to check. Either channel. Ask the developer, or your trusted partner handling the purchase, for the project number: it removes any doubt about which record you are reading.

What it tells you. Progress as the regulator's record shows it — the nearest thing to a neutral progress report available to a buyer who cannot visit the site.

What it does not tell you. Pace, or quality. A percentage is a snapshot. Read it twice, some weeks apart, and set the change against your payment plan: if instalments fall due faster than the percentage moves, you are funding ahead of construction. Nor does it say anything about finishes, defects or the developer's wider position.

Delay history

There is no single field headed "delay". The honest proxy is the gap between the completion date on the project record and the date in your contract, and whether the record's date has moved since you first looked. Take a dated screenshot on the day you commit. If the record changes later, you will know, and you will have the evidence.

Questions to put in writing before paying

• What is the project number, and does the escrow account on my payment instructions match the one on the Land Department's record?
• When will my contract be entered in the provisional register, and who pays the registration fees?
• What completion percentage does the record show today?
• Which instalments fall due before the next construction milestone?

None of these needs inside knowledge. Each can be answered from the public record or should be answered in writing by the seller. A seller who resists any of them has told you something the record could not.