Off-plan payment plans are quoted as a pair of numbers — 70/30, 60/40, 80/20. The first is the percentage paid during construction, the second the balance at handover. What that does to your money is less obvious than it looks.
What each structure means
50/50 — half during construction, half on handover. Lowest cash requirement while you wait, largest lump at the end. Best if you are financing the back half or expect liquidity later.
60/40 and 70/30 — the common middle. More of your capital committed earlier, less to find at handover.
80/20 — the developer wants your money early. Usually the plan attached to the best headline discount, and the one that ties up the most capital for the longest.
Post-handover — payments continue after you have the keys, often over two to three years. Useful because you can be collecting rent while still paying, which changes the cashflow shape entirely.
The cost nobody quotes you
The real difference between these plans is the money you are not holding. AED 400,000 paid two years earlier than it needed to be is two years of whatever that money would otherwise have earned you — and on an off-plan property it earns nothing until handover.
So an 80/20 plan with a 5% discount is not automatically better than a 50/50 at list. Work out what the earlier money costs you and compare like with like. If the discount is smaller than what the capital would have made elsewhere, the “better deal” is worse.
The question that matters more
Can you service the plan if handover slips two quarters?
With a developer whose record shows a third of completions running late, I underwrite two quarters beyond the published date as standard. Construction-linked instalments do not stop because a project is behind — some milestones arrive anyway, and the final payment simply moves further out while your capital stays committed.
If your plan only works assuming the handover lands exactly on the published date, the project is wrong for you regardless of how good the building is.
Before you sign
Check whether instalments are tied to construction milestones or to calendar dates. Milestone-linked is better for you — if the building is behind, your money stays in your account. Date-linked means you pay on schedule whether or not anything has been built.