Buying off-plan safely: the escrow & RERA checklist

Dubai's off-plan protections are stronger than most first-time buyers realise, and stronger than in many markets buyers are moving from. Every off-plan project must sell through a RERA-registered escrow account, meaning your payments sit with a regulated trustee and are released to the developer only against verified construction progress, not simply because a milestone date on a payment plan has arrived.

That protects your capital, but it doesn't protect your judgement, and the questions worth asking before signing are rarely about the escrow itself. Ask who the trustee bank is and confirm it independently. Ask to see the project's DLD registration, not just marketing collateral. Ask what happens to your payments, specifically, if the developer misses a construction milestone, and get that answer in writing rather than a verbal assurance from a sales desk.

The red flags tend to repeat across the market: pressure to pay outside the escrow structure, reluctance to confirm the DLD registration number, or a payment plan structured so most of the price is due well before any escrow-protected construction milestone. None of these are visible to a buyer moving quickly, which is exactly why we walk every off-plan client through this checklist before, not after, a reservation form gets signed.