Is It Safe to Buy Property in Dubai? How Buyer Protection Works

Is It Safe to Buy Property in Dubai? How Buyer Protection Works

Is it safe to buy property in Dubai? The law does not answer that question with a yes or a no, and it promises no outcome to a buyer. What the Emirate’s law does provide is a set of named mechanisms: a Land Department register that records ownership, a separate escrow account for each off-plan project, licensing of developers, brokers and advertising, and defined courts and tribunals for disputes. This guide describes each mechanism as of 26 October 2026, with the law or the Dubai Land Department (DLD) page that creates it.

Readers who ask “is it safe to buy property in Dubai” will find here how a title deed differs from an Oqood interim registration, when money leaves an escrow account, which checks can be run on a developer, a project, a broker and a title deed, what happens if a buyer defaults or a project stops, and which risks stay with the buyer whatever the regulation says. Prices are shown in UAE dirhams with US dollars in brackets, using the fixed rate of 3.6725 dirhams per dollar that the Central Bank of the UAE uses in its published exchange-rate tables.

Is It Safe to Buy Property in Dubai? Key Facts at a Glance

Is It Safe to Buy Property in Dubai? What the Question Covers

The phrase “is it safe to buy property in Dubai” bundles at least five separate questions. The first is legal: will the buyer be recorded as the owner, and can anyone else claim the unit? The second is financial: will the money paid to a developer be used on that developer’s project? The third concerns the people involved: is the developer licensed, is the broker registered, and is the advert genuine? The fourth is physical: will the building be finished, and will its defects be repaired? The fifth is commercial: will the price, the rent or the resale conditions match what the buyer expected? Regulation addresses the first four in different degrees. It does not address the fifth, which is why no official body publishes a verdict on it.

This article keeps the questions apart. Sections on the register, escrow, registration and advertising describe legal and financial mechanisms that exist in statute. The checklist section turns them into actions a buyer can take before paying. The sections on default, stalled projects, service charges, mortgages and disputes describe where the law allocates risk to the buyer or to the developer. Price movements and forecasts are a separate topic, covered in the sibling article on whether the Dubai property market will crash.

Two general limits apply throughout. First, foreign nationals may own freehold only in areas the Ruler of Dubai designates, as the DLD’s investor guide explains, so a purchase outside those areas follows different rules; the guide to whether foreigners can buy apartments in Dubai and the one on freehold and leasehold in Dubai cover that. Second, the English texts of Dubai laws on the legislation portal are translations, and the portal states that the Arabic text prevails; the summaries below follow the English text.

Who Regulates What: DLD, RERA and the Courts

The Dubai Land Department was founded in 1960 and its present mandate comes from Law No. 7 of 2013, according to the DLD’s own description. Its work includes recording property transactions and issuing ownership documents. Several bodies sit inside or beside it, and a buyer meets different ones at different stages.

According to the DLD’s “About” page, RERA manages real estate licensing and training, regulates and supervises development escrow accounts, sets standards for owners’ associations and jointly owned property management companies, and handles investor inquiries and complaints. The same page reports about 132,500 off-plan project transactions in Dubai in 2025 and more than 100,000 new investors registering with the Department for the first time. For the first quarter of 2026, a DLD release dated 9 April 2026 reported 60,303 transactions worth AED 252 billion ($68.6 billion). Those figures show the scale of activity that the registration system handles; they say nothing about whether any single purchase turns out well.

Title Deed and Oqood: Proof of Ownership at Each Stage

A buyer’s protection depends first on where the purchase is recorded. Dubai keeps two registers. The Real Estate Register records rights in completed property. Law No. 7 of 2006 makes the Department the only body that may register real property rights, provides that deals which create, transfer, change or end such rights must be entered in the Register or have no legal effect, and gives title deeds, which are issued from Register data, conclusive evidential value in proving property rights. The Register itself can be challenged only for fraud or forgery, according to the law’s text.

The Interim Real Property Register serves property that is not finished. Law No. 13 of 2008 defines it as the Department’s records in which off-plan sales and other dispositions of units are logged before they move to the main register. Article 3 provides that a sale or other act transferring or restricting ownership of an off-plan unit is void unless it is entered in that register. Article 6 allows a unit in the interim register to be sold, mortgaged or otherwise disposed of. In DLD e-services the word Oqood is used for the developer portal and for provisional registration: the DLD’s mortgage registration page, for example, lists a separate service-partner fee of AED 5,000 plus VAT for a provisional (Oqood) mortgage.

The practical consequence is that an off-plan buyer holds a registered contractual position, and the title deed follows when the project is complete and the buyer has met the contract’s obligations. The DLD’s initial-procedures service requires that the parties are compliant with their contractual obligations and that the registration fee has been collected. Article 8 of Law No. 13 of 2008 ties the move to the main register to the same condition. A buyer who is behind on instalments should expect the title deed to wait.

Registration in the interim register also determines who may sell the unit before completion. Because the statute treats an unregistered off-plan sale as void, the registration entry, and not the reservation paperwork alone, is what a buyer should confirm. The guide to off-plan property in Dubai sets out the purchase sequence step by step, and the sibling article on Dubai property handover and snagging covers what happens between the completion notice and the keys.

Escrow Accounts Under Law No. 8 of 2007

Escrow is one of the mechanisms buyers ask about when they ask is it safe to buy property in Dubai for an off-plan unit, so it is worth reading what the law says and what it leaves out. Law No. 8 of 2007 applies to developers who sell units off-plan and receive money from buyers or financiers. The main provisions, in the English text on the Dubai legislation portal, are these:

• Article 4: the Department keeps a register of real estate developers, and a developer must be listed in it and licensed by the competent entities before operating.
• Article 5: a developer may not advertise or exhibit off-plan sales without the Department’s written authorisation.
• Article 6: a developer that wants to sell off-plan applies to the Department to open an escrow account, supported by eight items that include a Dubai Chamber of Commerce membership, a trade licence, the land title deed, the master-developer or sub-developer contract, approved initial designs and engineering plans, an auditor-certified cost and revenue statement, an undertaking to start construction, and the standard sale contract.
• Article 7: the account is opened under a written agreement between the developer and an escrow agent, and buyers’ and financiers’ payments go into an account in the project’s name.
• Article 9: each project has its own account, used only for that project’s construction, and the developer’s creditors cannot attach the money in it.
• Article 11: escrow agents give the Department regular statements of revenue and expenditure, and the Department may request information at any time and engage outside auditors.
• Article 12: depositors or their representatives may view and copy accounting records that relate to them.
• Article 13: where a developer mortgages the project to obtain a loan, the lender must deposit the loan into the project’s escrow account.
• Article 14: after the completion certificate is issued, the escrow agent holds back 5% of the account’s total value, and releases it to the developer one year after units are registered in buyers’ names.
• Article 15: if a project is left incomplete in an emergency, the agent consults the Department and acts to protect depositors, by ensuring completion or by refunding depositors.

Article 14 can be turned into a simple calculation. Take a hypothetical project account that has received AED 100,000,000 ($27,229,407) from buyers and lenders. Five per cent is AED 5,000,000 ($1,361,470), and that sum stays with the agent after the completion certificate until a year after the units are registered to the buyers. Under the article the retained sum goes to the developer, not to buyers.

The DLD’s own service pages show how money moves out of the account during construction. Under the “Escrow Account activation” service, a developer applies for the disbursement mechanism to be switched on. The page states that, where a bank guarantee backs the project, the account is activated for the value of the guarantee for construction work up to 20% completion, and that after 20% completion activation is a percentage of construction work, in each case based on a recent technical report issued by the DLD that is no more than 3 months old and shows no red flags in the final stages. The service is free and the DLD lists a processing time of 3 business days. A separate service for withdrawing project surplus requires, for an active project, that 5% of net collections stays in the completion escrow account, that the main escrow balance covers the remaining construction costs, and that the developer commits in writing to continue construction regardless of collections.

Two further points show the limits. First, the law stops a developer’s creditors from reaching the account, but it does not itself guarantee completion: Article 15 gives completion or refund as the options when a project stalls. Second, the escrow chain depends on lenders following the same rule. A report in Khaleej Times dated 23 September 2026 described a Dubai Court of Cassation ruling that a developer’s mortgage is void if the lending bank did not pay the loan into the project’s escrow account, with the court treating payment into escrow as a condition of the mortgage’s validity. The report quotes a lawyer who sees the ruling as supporting off-plan investors, because financing is then spent on construction.

Because the money should go only to the project account, the RERA Brokerage Practice Guide instructs brokers to tell buyers to deposit amounts only into the project’s escrow account. The sibling article on paying for Dubai property with crypto and other methods looks at how payment instruments fit that rule.

Developer and Project Registration Before Off-Plan Sales

Escrow follows registration, and registration has its own conditions. The DLD’s “Register Project” service lists them for real estate development companies, and the figures below are as stated on that page at the date of this article.

For a buyer, three of these items are visible after the fact. The escrow account and the completion percentage are visible in the Dubai REST app: the DLD describes the app as showing a project’s completion percentage, actual photos, escrow account number and payments due for projects a user has invested in. The land position is also relevant. The DLD’s registration service accepts a development agreement where the landowner is not the developer, and the DLD’s 2017 investor guide lists, among the questions a buyer should ask before signing, whether the developer owns the land or has such an agreement, whether the project and developer are registered with RERA, whether an escrow account exists with its number and agent, and the project’s completion percentage and expected completion date.

Law No. 13 of 2008 adds rules on the contract itself. Article 4 bars a developer from starting a project or selling off-plan units until it has possession of the land and the approvals required from the competent entities. Article 10 makes private off-plan contracts for projects the competent entities have not approved null and void. Article 12 presumes the stated area of a unit to be correct, prevents a developer from raising the price when the delivered area is larger, and requires compensation to the buyer when the area is smaller, unless the difference is insignificant. A buyer comparing the sale contract with the registered unit area has a statutory reference point.

The same law, in its 2008 text, requires a developer that sells through a broker to use a certified broker and to register the marketing contract with the Department. That rule leads to the next layer of checks.

Advertising Permits, Trakheesi and Madmoun QR Codes

Every real estate advert in Dubai needs a permit. The RERA Brokerage Practice Guide (second edition, November 2024) says brokerages must obtain a permit through the Trakheesi system for any real estate advertisement or marketing material, and that the permit number must appear on the advert. It lists fourteen permit categories, among them newspaper, SMS, outdoor, print, electronic and classified adverts, billboards, open days, exhibitions, project launches and seminars.

In April 2023 RERA added Madmoun, a service that generates a QR code for each advertising permit. According to a DLD release dated 26 December 2023, scanning the code shows company information, advertisement details, permit status and property value, so that a buyer can compare an advert with DLD records. RERA’s compliance checks look at four things: whether the code appears, whether the advertised data matches the code data, whether the permit is valid, and whether it was issued to the same advertising company. The release reported 411,608 advertising permits issued with a QR code, 1,980 warnings to companies that had not placed the code, and five violations recorded at AED 50,000 each, and it advised customers to engage only with adverts that carry the code.

A permit does not prove the unit exists or that its price is right. It does show that the advertiser holds a licence and that the advert’s data is held on a DLD system, which gives a buyer something to compare against the sale documents. The practical check is short: scan the code, read the advertiser, the property and the permit status, and see whether they match the person and the unit being offered.

Brokers, Broker Cards and Contracts A, B and F

Bylaw No. 85 of 2006 regulates the Real Estate Brokers Register in Dubai, and RERA monitors brokers under it, according to the DLD’s investor guide, which says that buyers should not deal with brokers who are not registered with RERA. The broker card is issued through Trakheesi. The DLD’s service page lists a card fee of AED 500 ($136) and an exam fee of AED 700 ($191), plus small knowledge and innovation fees. It requires a certificate of good conduct from Dubai Police and proof of passing the annual test for the mediation profession, and it states that the card is valid only while the trade licence is valid. Exemptions from the exam exist for people over 55 and for brokers with five consecutive years in the same office.

The same Practice Guide describes three standard electronic contracts, which brokers must use:

• Contract A: an agreement to market a property between the seller and the brokerage.
• Contract B: an agreement of desire to purchase between the buyer and the brokerage.
• Contract F: an agreement to sell between the seller and the buyer.

The 2017 DLD investor guide describes Form F as the standard sale contract, to which parties may add their own terms provided they do not conflict with the standard terms. The Practice Guide also describes an amicable settlement service for disputes over Contract F: if the parties apply through Trakheesi, the concerned department holds a meeting to discuss the breach and tries to reach a settlement, and if none is reached the parties must go to the judicial authorities.

For off-plan marketing, the Practice Guide sets three further conditions on brokers: the project must be licensed and registered with RERA, an escrow account must be linked to it, and there must be a marketing contract between the developer and the brokerage. It points to the Dubai REST app (the project section named Mashrooi) as the place to validate that a project is licensed and registered. The DLD describes the same app as holding a brokers lookup that shows brokers and their performance levels. The sibling guide on how to sell property in Dubai explains how these contracts are used on the seller’s side.

Verification Checklist: Is It Safe to Buy Property in Dubai? Check These Items

The table below converts the sections above into checks. Each row names a source the buyer can open without an intermediary. The order follows a typical off-plan purchase; for a resale, rows on escrow and project registration are replaced by the title deed and NOC rows.

The title deed check deserves a note. The DLD’s “Verify Title Deed” page offers two modes: validate the property alone, using the deed number, the deed year and the property type, or validate the owner and the property, which adds the owner’s name. A captcha is required. If the details match, the page displays the deed information and describes the certificate as digitally validated by blockchain; if not, it shows a “No Data found” message. The page states no fee. Because the check covers only what the Department has registered, a matching result confirms the record; it does not replace reading the sale contract.

When a Buyer Defaults or a Project Stalls

Protection under the interim register runs in both directions, and buyers should know the developer’s rights as well as their own. Article 11 of Law No. 13 of 2008 was replaced by Law No. 19 of 2020, issued on 24 November 2020. The substituted article sets the procedure when a purchaser fails to meet obligations under an off-plan sale agreement.

The developer first notifies the Department on its prescribed form. After confirming the breach, the Department serves a written 30-day notice on the purchaser and, where possible, mediates a settlement that becomes an addendum to the agreement. If the 30 days pass without performance or settlement, the Department issues the developer an official document confirming that the procedures were followed and stating the project’s percentage of completion as calculated under RERA’s standards. The developer can then act without a court or arbitration award, within these limits:

For terminations, any excess over the retained amount must be refunded within one year of termination or 60 days after the unit is resold to another purchaser, whichever comes first. Article 11 also states that it does not prevent a purchaser from going to court or arbitration.

A worked example shows the arithmetic. A unit is priced at AED 1,200,000 ($326,753) and the buyer has paid 50%, which is AED 600,000 ($163,376). If the project is 70% complete and the buyer defaults, the developer may retain up to 40% of AED 1,200,000, which is AED 480,000 ($130,701), so at least AED 120,000 ($32,675) is returned (AED 600,000 minus AED 480,000). If the project is only 45% complete with work started, the cap is 25%, which is AED 300,000 ($81,688), and at least AED 300,000 ($81,688) is returned. The retention is a ceiling stated in the law, and the figure for a given contract depends on its terms. A buyer who has paid 30%, which is AED 360,000 ($98,026), would be below both ceilings, so there would be no excess to refund on those facts.

Stalled projects have their own forum. Decree No. 33 of 2020 renames the Special Tribunal for Unfinished and Cancelled Real Property Projects. Its jurisdiction under article 6 covers claims linked to unfinished and cancelled projects, the liquidation and settlement of rights after expenses, RERA referrals and the reassignment of completion to new developers, developers’ challenges to RERA cancellations, and the rights of investors and buyers. Under article 7 it can issue interim orders, mediate, appoint auditors at the developer’s cost and give orders to escrow agents or developers. Article 11 makes its decisions definitive, with no ordinary appeal, and article 13 exempts matters before it from judicial fees. DIFC projects are outside its scope. The DLD’s 2017 guide describes the investment arm’s “Tanmia” programme as matching stalled projects with investors, and describes Law No. 9 of 2009 as authorising RERA to cancel delayed projects.

These provisions show that the framework expects projects to stall or buyers to fall behind, and sets rules for both. Whether a particular project is at risk is a question about that developer’s finances and progress, which the escrow records and completion percentage help a buyer to read. The guide on distressed properties in Dubai covers auctions and resale at reduced prices.

Where Buyers Still Need Their Own Checks

Registration and escrow do not read the sale contract for the buyer, so the answer to is it safe to buy property in Dubai for any one purchase depends on checks that stay with the buyer. Several risks remain with the buyer under any regulatory system, and the DLD’s materials point to each of them.

Contract terms and payment plan

Form F is a standard form to which parties can add their own terms, provided they do not conflict with the standard conditions. Added clauses on delay compensation, assignment, area variation and default deserve a line-by-line read. Payment plans are set by the developer, and the escrow release schedule is separate from the buyer’s instalment schedule: the buyer pays on the contract’s dates, while the developer receives funds as the DLD’s technical reports allow.

Service charges and owners’ associations

Law No. 6 of 2019 on jointly owned real property, as published on the legislation portal, sets how service charges work. Owners pay an annual share based on the unit’s area relative to the total area. A management entity must have RERA approval before it collects charges, and RERA can approve only a budget certified by a RERA-recognised audit firm. Charges are paid into a dedicated account at a RERA-recognised bank, and the entity holds a lien on the unit: after a 30-day written notice, unpaid amounts can be pursued through the Rental Disputes Center’s execution judge, which can order a public auction of the unit. The rules on how a building’s budget is read, and how to compare rates per square foot, are covered in the sibling guide to Dubai service charges.

Defects after handover

Article 40 of Law No. 6 of 2019 makes the developer responsible for repairing defects in structural parts for 10 years from the date of the completion certificate. It also makes the developer responsible, for 1 year from handover of the unit, for defective mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sewerage installations; if an owner delays taking possession, the year runs from the completion certificate. Agreements made after the law took effect that conflict with article 40 are void, according to the text. A buyer who documents defects at handover, in writing and with dates, is placed to use these periods.

Resale conditions

On a resale, the DLD’s sale registration page requires an e-NOC from the developer for freehold areas, obtained through the Dubai REST app. The DLD investor guide says the NOC confirms that service charges are paid and there are no offences under the jointly owned property rules. The DLD lists a registration fee of 2% of the sale value for the seller and 2% for the buyer, fixed fees including AED 250 for the title deed and AED 10 each for the knowledge and innovation fees, and a service-partner fee of AED 4,000 plus VAT when the sale value is AED 500,000 or more. On a sale at AED 1,500,000 ($408,441), 2% is AED 30,000 ($8,169) on each side. The full cost build-up is in the sibling article on buying property in Dubai: fees and costs.

Residency expectations

A purchase does not give a visa. The UAE Golden Visa through property requires property value of AED 2,000,000 ($544,588) or more, in the wording used by the guide to the Dubai Golden Visa. The federal identity authority (ICP) states on its Golden Residency page that the properties’ total value must be at least AED 2,000,000, that the property must be fully registered in the investor’s name (a mortgage from an approved local bank is allowed), that off-plan units must be bought from an approved company authorised by the competent local authority, and that health insurance must be held.

Mortgage limits that apply to buyers

Borrowing is a second source of risk, and the Central Bank of the UAE limits it. Its Regulations Regarding Mortgage Loans (circular 31/2013, in force) set maximum loan-to-value ratios and other ratios, which the CBUAE rulebook publishes.

The same rulebook article sets a maximum debt burden ratio of 50% of gross salary and regular income, a maximum loan tenor of 25 years, a maximum financing amount of up to 7 years of annual income for expatriates, and a requirement for lenders to stress-test the loan at 2 to 4 percentage points above the current rate. For an investment property, lenders must deduct at least two months’ rental income in the calculation. Applying the table to a price of AED 1,500,000 ($408,441): off-plan, the maximum loan is 50%, or AED 750,000 ($204,221), leaving AED 750,000 ($204,221) from the buyer’s own funds; a ready first home bought by an expatriate allows 80%, or AED 1,200,000 ($326,753), leaving AED 300,000 ($81,688); an expatriate’s investment property allows 60%, or AED 900,000 ($245,065), leaving AED 600,000 ($163,376). Fees come on top of the own-funds figure. The Central Bank states the off-plan limit applies “regardless of purpose, value, or category of purchaser”, reflecting the higher risk to completion. The guide to mortgages in Dubai for foreigners covers the application side.

The DLD’s investor guide adds that mortgage finance may come only from banks and financial institutions licensed by the Central Bank, and that a mortgage must be registered at the DLD to be valid. The DLD lists a registration fee of 0.25% of the mortgage value on its mortgage registration page.

Where Disputes Go

The route depends on the kind of dispute, which is why a buyer who has a problem should first identify its type.

The DLD’s complaint service states its limits plainly: it is for violations by real estate companies, and it does not handle financial claims, contract terms, reservations, cancellation or compensation. The Rental Disputes Center’s own page adds that, since 2019, it also handles disputes over jointly owned property under Law No. 6 of 2019. The DLD’s 2017 investor guide gives indicative court case durations and fees for the older regime; since they may have changed, the current Dubai Courts schedule should be read before budgeting for litigation.

What to Read Next

Anyone still asking is it safe to buy property in Dubai for a particular project can start with the registers above, and buyers who are weighing a purchase can read the country and city pages for the UAE and Dubai for the ownership rules by emirate and the projects listed. The rules for buying property in Dubai cover the transaction steps and documents. Profiles of seven Dubai developers, among them Emaar Properties and Danube Properties, are collected in the Dubai developer directory; the directory states that each company claim is attributed to a source with a last-checked date. Questions about taxes that follow a purchase are covered in the article on tax on Dubai property for foreign owners, and Dubai has no annual property tax, as the guide to property tax in Dubai explains.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it safe to buy property in Dubai as a foreigner?

No official source answers “is it safe to buy property in Dubai” with a verdict, but the law defines what protects a foreign buyer. Foreign nationals may hold freehold title in areas the Ruler designates, the Department’s register records ownership, and the title deed is conclusive evidence of the right according to Law No. 7 of 2006. Off-plan purchases are recorded in the interim register and paid into a project escrow account. The risks that remain are commercial and contractual, such as price, delay and charges.

Is it safe to buy property in Dubai off-plan?

Off-plan buying is the part of the market with the most statutory machinery: a registered project, an escrow account in the project’s name, and an interim-register entry without which the sale is void. The same machinery does not guarantee completion. Law No. 8 of 2007, article 15, provides for completion or refund if a project is left incomplete, and the Special Tribunal under Decree No. 33 of 2020 hears claims about unfinished projects. Reading the escrow details and completion percentage in the Dubai REST app before paying is the practical step.

What is the difference between a title deed and Oqood?

A title deed is issued from the Real Estate Register and is conclusive evidence of the property right. Oqood is the name used in DLD e-services for the developer portal and for the provisional registration of an off-plan sale in the Interim Real Property Register. Under Law No. 13 of 2008 the sale must be entered there or it is void, and the title deed follows after completion once the buyer has met the contract’s obligations.

How do I check that a developer’s money is held in escrow?

The DLD says the Dubai REST app shows an off-plan project’s escrow account number, completion percentage and photos. The RERA Brokerage Practice Guide tells brokers to instruct buyers to deposit amounts only into the project’s escrow account. A buyer can therefore compare the account number in the app with the payee on the payment instruction before transferring anything.

How can I verify a Dubai title deed?

Use the DLD’s Verify Title Deed page or the Dubai REST app. Enter the deed number, the deed year and the property type; a second mode also validates the owner’s name. If the details match, the page shows the deed information with a blockchain validation mark, and if not it shows “No Data found”. This confirms the record, and the sale contract still needs reading separately.

Can the developer cancel my off-plan contract?

Only in the circumstances the law lists. Under article 11 of Law No. 13 of 2008, as replaced by Law No. 19 of 2020, the developer must notify the DLD, the DLD serves a 30-day notice and may mediate, and only then can the developer terminate, retaining up to 40% of the unit’s value at 60% to 80% completion or up to 25% below 60% completion with work started. Any excess is refunded within one year or 60 days after resale. The purchaser can still go to court or arbitration.

What happens to my money if the project is cancelled?

Part of the answer to is it safe to buy property in Dubai off-plan is what happens on cancellation. If RERA cancels the project by a final reasoned decision, or the developer has not started work for reasons beyond its control, article 11 requires a refund of all payments under Law No. 8 of 2007. Where the project is unfinished, the escrow agent consults the Department and acts to protect depositors by completing the project or refunding them (article 15). The Special Tribunal can hear claims on the rights of buyers.

Which rules apply to a defect after handover?

Under article 40 of Law No. 6 of 2019 the developer is responsible for structural defects for 10 years from the completion certificate and for defects in mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sewerage installations for 1 year from handover. Contract terms that conflict with article 40 are void in agreements made after the law took effect. Written, dated records at handover support a later claim.

Does buying property in Dubai give a visa?

No purchase gives a visa by itself. The UAE Golden Visa through property needs property value of AED 2,000,000 ($544,588) or more, plus the other conditions on the ICP page, including registration in the investor’s name and health insurance. Off-plan units count only if bought from an approved developer authorised by the competent local authority.

Where do I complain about a broker or developer?

Complaints about violations by real estate companies and brokers go to RERA through the DLD website or the Dubai REST app. The service does not consider transactions older than six months, expects to respond within 5 working days and does not cover financial claims or contract disputes. Those go to the courts or, for stalled projects, the Special Tribunal. Rules differ by person and by contract, so the documents of each purchase decide which route applies.

Last checked: 26 October 2026. Sources: Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 (escrow), Law No. 13 of 2008 (interim register), Law No. 19 of 2020, Law No. 7 of 2006 (registration), Law No. 6 of 2019 (jointly owned property), Decree No. 26 of 2013 (Rent Disputes Settlement Centre), Decree No. 33 of 2020 (Special Tribunal), DLD Register Project service, DLD escrow activation service, DLD withdrawal of project profits, DLD Verify Title Deed, DLD initial procedures service, DLD Property Sale Registration, DLD mortgage registration, DLD broker card service, DLD real estate violation complaint, DLD Dubai REST, DLD Madmoun release, DLD About page, DLD Q1 2026 release, RERA Real Estate Brokerage Practice Guide 2024, DLD and Al Tamimi, Know Your Rights (2017), Rental Disputes Center, CBUAE Rulebook, mortgage regulations art. 3, CBUAE exchange-rate table (3.6725), ICP Golden Residency, Khaleej Times, 23 September 2026.