Project escrow account
A dedicated bank account where off-plan buyer payments are held, with developer drawdowns released only against RERA-audited construction milestones.
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Off-plan property
Property purchased before construction is complete — sold from the developer with payments staged against construction milestones.
An off-plan property is one purchased from the developer before construction is complete. Payments are staged against construction milestones — a typical Dubai payment plan is 20% on signing, 40% during construction (in tranches tied to RERA-audited milestones), and 40% on handover.
Off-plan buyer protection in Dubai comes from RERA-supervised escrow: developer drawdowns from the project escrow account are released only after RERA inspections confirm the construction milestone. This is structurally different from cash purchases of ready property — the investor's risk is execution risk (delay or cancellation) rather than market risk during the construction window.
Resale of off-plan units before handover requires the developer's NOC and the original buyer must have paid a minimum percentage (commonly 30-40%) before the unit becomes assignable on the secondary market. Each developer sets its own assignment policy.
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