Register · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Payment plans on Dubai property: what the law fixes
Escrow, the interim register and the fees to enter it, what a bank lends against an unbuilt unit, and what the developer may keep if the buyer stops paying.
- Checked2026-09-12
- Documentslisted at the foot of the page
The short answer
The law fixes where the money goes, not how it is spread
A payment plan is a commercial offer, not a legal instrument: no Dubai law sets a schedule. What the law does fix is that every instalment goes into the project's escrow account, and that the sale exists only once it is entered in the interim register.
Two instruments do the work. Law 8/2007 puts the money into an account opened in the name of the project and used for nothing else. Law 13/2008 makes an off-plan sale void unless it is entered in the interim register — the entry buyers know as Oqood, which is the subject of Oqood, escrow and how to check a project.
The schedule itself — how much on booking, how much against each construction milestone, how much at handover — is negotiated with the developer and varies from project to project. We print no typical split, because we hold no document that fixes one.
The costs
Entering the register, and what a bank will add
Registering an off-plan sale is charged on the sale value and stated separately for each side, with two small statutory fees; a lender will go only half way against a unit that is not built.
The completed-sale rates, the trustee's fee and the title deed sit in the cost of buying; this page covers what is different before handover.
The Central Bank ceiling on an off-plan mortgage applies to every category of buyer, resident or not, first home or fifth. It is the one number on this page a bank cannot negotiate upwards.
- Registering the sale at the interim register, each side2%Land Department
DLD e-service «Request to register the initial sale»: the seller and the purchaser each, on the sale value.
- Knowledge fee, AED10Land Department
Same service page, fees section.
- Innovation fee, AED10Land Department
Same service page, fees section.
- Most a bank may lend against an off-plan unitup to 50%Central Bank
Central Bank Circular 31/2013 art. (3) item 2.C — «regardless of purpose, value, or category of purchaser».
- Paid into the developer's own accountnothing: the instalments go to the project's escrow account
Law 8/2007 art. (9).
- Notice the buyer gets before termination, days30Dubai law
Law 19/2020 art. (11)(a)(1)–(3), after the developer has notified the Department.
- Retained on termination, project well advancedup to 40%Dubai law
Law 19/2020 art. (11)(a)(4)(A)–(B), of the unit's contract value, where completion is above 60%Dubai law.
- Retained on termination, works started but earlyup to 25%Dubai law
Law 19/2020 art. (11)(a)(4)(C), where completion is below 60%Dubai law.
- Refund of the rest, within, years1Dubai law
Law 19/2020 art. (11)(a)(4)(A)(3) — or within 60Dubai law days of the unit being resold, whichever comes first.
The rules
What happens if the buyer stops paying
The developer cannot simply keep what has been paid. It notifies the Department, serves notice, and obtains a certificate of completion percentage — and that percentage decides how much it may retain.
The buyer is given 30Dubai law days to perform. Above 80%Dubai law completion the developer may terminate and retain up to up to 40%Dubai law of the unit's contract value, or sell the unit at auction, or keep the contract alive and recover the balance. Between 60%Dubai law and 80%Dubai law the ceiling is the same up to 40%Dubai law; below 60%Dubai law, where works have begun, it falls to up to 25%Dubai law.
What is not retained comes back within 1Dubai law year of termination, or within 60Dubai law days of the unit being resold, whichever happens first. Where the project itself is cancelled, everything paid is refunded.
- Law 8/2007 art. (9)An escrow account is opened in the name of the project and dedicated exclusively to building it; a developer running several projects keeps a separate account for each.
- Law 13/2008 art. (3)A sale that is not entered in the interim register is void — registration is not an administrative afterthought, it is what makes the purchase exist.
- Law 13/2008 art. (4)A developer may not start a project or sell units off plan before taking possession of the land it will be built on.
- Law 19/2020 art. (11)(a)(1)–(3)A buyer who stops paying is not simply cut off: the developer notifies the Department, the buyer is served notice to perform, and the Department certifies how far the project has got.
- Law 19/2020 art. (11)(a)(4)How much the developer may keep on termination depends on that percentage of completion, in three bands — and it may instead auction the unit or continue and recover the balance.
- Law 19/2020 art. (11)(b)If the project is cancelled by RERA, or never began for reasons outside the buyer's control, every payment is refunded.
- Law 19/2020 art. (11)(d)These rules are part of public order: a term of the contract that departs from them is void, and the parties cannot agree their way around them.
What we do not print
The two most quoted figures, and why neither is here
The split is a developer's offer, not a rule; the cooling-off period appears not to exist in Dubai law at all.
A plan advertised as a fixed division between construction and handover is one company's terms on one project. We hold no instrument fixing any schedule, so we print none and read the individual contract instead.
The legislation portal still serves the original Article (11) of Law 13/2008, superseded in 2020. A page that looks like the primary source is not always the law in force; the bands on this page come from the amending law, and anyone quoting a single lower retention figure is quoting the repealed text.
- A typical split between construction and handover—
the shapes quoted in advertising are one developer's offer on one project; no instrument fixes any schedule, and the same developer's next project differs
- A monthly instalment rate during construction—
the same reason: a commercial offer, not a rule, and not something we will restate as though it were the law
- A cooling-off period—
we found no right in Dubai law to withdraw within a set number of days; the article on termination describes the buyer's default only, and we will not import the European term
- A penalty for handing over late—
no general rule exists; the consequences of delay run through cancellation of the project by the regulator, or through the contract itself
Checked 2026-09-12
Documents
What this page rests on
Three instruments, one service page and the Central Bank rulebook, read on the day this page was built.
- Law
Law No. (8) of 2007 concerning escrow accounts for real estate development in Dubai, 6 May 2007
Where the instalments go and what the escrow agent may do with them.
- Law
Law No. (13) of 2008 regulating the interim real property register, 14 August 2008
Articles (3) and (4): registration, and what a developer may not sell before.
- Amendment
Law No. (19) of 2020 amending Law No. (13) of 2008, 24 November 2020
The Article (11) in force: notice, the completion bands, the refund windows.
- Service page
DLD e-service «Request to register the initial sale», read 12 September 2026
The fees for entering an off-plan sale in the interim register.
- Regulation
Central Bank of the UAE, Circular No. 31/2013 on mortgage loans, article (3), In-Force
The ceiling on lending against a unit still being built.
- As filesSend the documents
The instruments, as they stand today
Where the portal's published text and the amending law differ, this page follows the amending law and says so on its face.
Talk to us
Send us the plan you were offered
Name the project and the schedule you have been quoted. We come back with the register entry, the escrow account and the fees that attach to it.