This is the whole process, in the order it actually happens, with the fees named at the point you pay them. If you have never bought in the UAE, start here and read it straight through. It takes about eighteen minutes.
1. Choose the project, then check the plot
Narrow to two or three before you look at anything in person. Every listing on this site carries the handover date, the payment plan and the size range, and where I have a verdict it is on the card, including the ones I would skip.
Then go and stand on the plot if you possibly can. Renders flatter everything. The difference between genuine row one and “sea view from the eighth floor” is obvious on the ground and invisible on paper, and on this archipelago it is most of the price difference.
2. Reserve the unit
Off-plan units are reserved with a booking deposit, usually 5–10%. That takes the unit off the market while the paperwork is prepared. You are not committed at this point in any meaningful sense, but you are exposed — read what you are signing rather than what you were told.
3. Sign the SPA
The Sale and Purchase Agreement is between you and the developer. You do not need to be in Dubai: it can be signed remotely with a power of attorney or notarised copies. Plenty of buyers never set foot on the island before handover.
This is the document that binds the handover date, the payment schedule and what happens if either side misses. It is the one thing in the process worth having read properly by someone who is not being paid by the seller.
4. Verify the escrow account before you transfer anything
Your instalments go into a project escrow account regulated by the DLD, not into the developer’s working capital. That is the protection, and it is real — but it protects against total loss, not against delay.
Ask for the escrow account number and check it against the project. I publish it on the project page wherever a developer has given it to me, which almost no other site does. If a developer will not give you one, that is your answer.
5. Register with the DLD
The property is registered and an Oqood — the off-plan title — is issued in your name. The 4% DLD transfer fee applies at this stage, plus about AED 4,200 in admin.
What it costs on top of the price
On a AED 2,000,000 unit, budget roughly AED 2,131,968 all in — about 6.6% above the price you were quoted:
- DLD transfer fee at 4%: AED 80,000
- Trustee and admin: about AED 10,200
- First year of service charge, payable at handover: about AED 21,768
- Snagging, utilities connection and Ejari: about AED 20,000
Agency commission is 2% on off-plan and the developer pays it. It does not come out of your pocket and it does not raise your price.
6. Follow the payment plan
Instalments are tied to construction milestones per the SPA schedule. Set calendar reminders — a missed instalment is a contractual default, and the remedies in most SPAs favour the developer heavily.
7. What happens if the developer delays
Assume some delay. On this archipelago the bridges and the metro are dated 2027–29, and developer handovers slip as a matter of routine rather than exception. With a developer whose record shows a third of completions running late, I underwrite two quarters beyond the published date.
The practical test is simple: if your payment plan or your mortgage offer cannot survive two extra quarters, the project is wrong for you regardless of how good the building is.
8. Reselling before handover
Most buyers never ask about the exit until they need it. You can usually sell before handover, but you will need developer consent and an NOC, both of which carry fees, and many developers require a minimum percentage paid before they will allow it. Ask what that threshold is before you buy, not after.
9. Handover and keys
Snagging inspection first, keys after final payment. Then utilities, Ejari registration, and a property manager if you are letting it out. Budget the first year of service charge at AED 22–26 per sq.ft rather than the 16 you may have been quoted verbally — on comparable Dubai waterfront completions the first-year charge came in 18–34% above the reservation figure.
Where I would slow you down
Three points. If the escrow account cannot be verified, stop. If the payment plan only works assuming handover lands exactly on the published date, stop. And if your horizon is under four years, this is not your trade — the infrastructure that closes the discount to the Palm has not landed yet, and until it does you are relying on someone else being more optimistic than you.