Off-plan property in the UAE: escrow, disclosure and termination across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the ADGM
Buying a unit that does not yet exist means trusting a developer with money for years. The UAE answers that risk with escrow, registration and disclosure, but the rules are not uniform: Dubai, onshore Abu Dhabi and the ADGM run three distinct regimes, and the first job is always to work out which one you are in.
What protects an off-plan buyer in Dubai?
Dubai builds its protection on three pillars. First, registration: the developer and the project must be registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA), and the buyer can verify both on the Dubai Land Department's public records. A sale by an unregistered developer or project is void, and can carry criminal exposure. Second, escrow: under Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 on Guarantee Accounts, all buyer payments and construction financing for a project must go into a dedicated escrow account held by a DLD-accredited agent, and may be used only for the project's construction and related financing, not for the developer's general purposes. The escrow account number belongs in the SPA, and the buyer should pay into it directly. Third, Oqood: the off-plan sale must be recorded in the interim register under Dubai Law No. 13 of 2008, or the disposal is null and void. Registration here is what gives the buyer's rights legal recognition before the building exists.
Abu Dhabi: the reformed Law No. 3 of 2015
Onshore Abu Dhabi regulates off-plan sales through Abu Dhabi Law No. 3 of 2015, significantly reformed by Law No. 2 of 2025 and a cluster of 2025 Administrative Decisions administered by the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC). The architecture rhymes with Dubai's but the detail differs. The developer and project must be registered and a project escrow account opened; crucially, escrow funds may be released only for construction, and generally not before 20% construction completion unless the developer posts a bank guarantee of at least 20% of construction cost, subject to strict eligibility. Developers must give buyers a prescribed disclosure statement (land use, site and strata plans, a finishes schedule, service-fee estimates and handover dates) before signing. And where a defaulting buyer's unit is cancelled and resold, refunds follow a published sliding scale keyed to construction progress, with larger deductions as the project advances. Buyers should insist on sight of the disclosure statement and confirm their contract is recorded in the Interim Real Estate Register.
The ADGM: a common-law off-plan regime
The Abu Dhabi Global Market is a separate, common-law jurisdiction with its own property law, and since 1 January 2025 it operates a modern off-plan framework: the Off-Plan Development Regulations 2024, the Real Property Regulations 2024, and the Registration of Future Interests Regulations 2024, with registrations run through the ADGM's AccessRP platform. The headline feature is the register of future interests: where a reservation or off-plan agreement is entered into, the developer must register it with the Registrar within 30 calendar days, and an agreement that is not so registered is void. Registration records the future interest but does not itself transfer any present interest in the land. The ADGM's geographic reach expanded on the same date to include Al Reem Island alongside Al Maryah Island, with transitional rules migrating or requiring the lodgement of existing agreements. For any Al Reem or Al Maryah plot, the first question is no longer onshore versus offshore in the abstract: it is whether the ADGM regime now governs.
Who can exit, and on what terms
Termination is where off-plan disputes concentrate, and the regimes diverge sharply. In the ADGM, a major change (including an area reduction of more than 5%) lets the purchaser terminate and recover its money within 60 days, while the developer may terminate only after defined missed instalments or a set proportion of the price left unpaid, and only after a formal demand and application to the Registrar. Onshore Abu Dhabi requires an out-of-court process for developer termination (notary or registered notice, a cure period, notification of the regulator and an attempt at settlement) before resale, with refunds on the statutory scale. Dubai's interim-register law likewise channels developer termination for buyer default and ties forfeiture and refund to construction progress. The common lesson for buyers and developers alike: the right to walk away, and the price of doing so, is fixed by the governing regime, not by whatever the sales brochure says.
In off-plan, the escrow account and the register do the protecting. The brochure does not.
Key instruments: Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 (Guarantee Accounts / escrow); Dubai Law No. 13 of 2008 (Interim Real Estate Register, as amended); Abu Dhabi Law No. 3 of 2015 (as amended by Law No. 2 of 2025) and its 2025 Administrative Decisions; ADGM Off-Plan Development Regulations 2024, Real Property Regulations 2024 and Registration of Future Interests Regulations 2024 (effective 1 January 2025). General information, not legal advice.