Is a Dubai off-plan launch authorised? What a broker can verify

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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A launch in Dubai reaches a broker as a brochure, a price list and a payment plan. None of those shows whether the developer was allowed to sell. That question is settled earlier and elsewhere: in a register the Dubai Land Department keeps, on the folio of the plot, in a bank account opened in the project's name, in a permit for the advertising and in a marketing agreement lodged with the Department. The rules of the emirate say what happens when one of those pieces is missing, and they do not only speak to the developer. Two of them name the broker.

This guide follows the chain from the side of an agent asked to market a new project. It rests on three texts published on the Dubai Legislation Portal, namely Law No. (8) of 2007 on escrow accounts, Law No. (13) of 2008 on the Interim Property Register and that law's implementing by-law, and on three pages of the Dubai Land Department read on 10 October 2026: its answers to frequently asked questions, its advertising permit service and its service for paying money out of a project's escrow account. Every rule below is a rule of the Emirate of Dubai. Where those pages are silent, the guide says so instead of filling the gap.

Law No. (8) of 2007, Article 6; Dubai Land Department, frequently asked questions and Real Estate Ad Permit service page, read on 10 October 2026.

Three texts, and where the broker appears in them

The framework was built in three steps, and each text does a different job for a launch.

Law No. (8) of 2007 Concerning Escrow Accounts for Real Estate Development in the Emirate of Dubai was issued on 6 May 2007. Its Article 3 says whom it binds: developers who sell units off-plan in projects in Dubai and receive payments from purchasers or from financiers. It creates the register of developers, the rule on advertising, the escrow account and the criminal penalties.

Law No. (13) of 2008, issued on 14 August 2008, deals with the Interim Property Register, where off-plan sales are recorded. For a launch, its interest lies in three articles: the conditions a developer must meet before selling, the rule on marketing through a broker, and the fate of a contract signed too early.

Executive Council Resolution No. (6) of 2010, issued on 14 February 2010 and in force from that day, is the implementing by-law of the 2008 law. It turns the conditions into a list and adds the rule on where a broker must put the buyer's money.

The 2007 law defines a developer as a licensed person or entity that buys and sells real property for development, and says the term covers both the master developer and the sub-developer. The 2008 law separates the two: a master developer is a licensed developer that sells units to third parties, and a sub-developer is a licensed developer that sells units and carries out part of a master developer's project under an agreement between them. A real estate broker, in the 2008 law, is a person who carries on brokerage under By-law No. (85) of 2006. The "competent entities" are, in the 2007 law, the government bodies authorised to license developers and, in the 2008 law, the bodies authorised to license or register real estate development projects.

A developer on the register, with a licence

The first condition concerns the company, not the project. Under Article 4 of the 2007 law, the Land Department keeps a Register of Real Estate Developers, and a developer may operate only if it is entered there and licensed by the competent entities. The two conditions are cumulative: a trade licence alone is not enough, and neither is an entry without a licence.

The law treats the absence of a licence as an offence. Article 16 lists carrying out real estate development in Dubai without a licence first among the acts it punishes, and supplying the competent entities with incorrect documents or information to obtain a licence second.

A place on the register can also be lost. Article 17 has a developer struck off in five cases: it is declared bankrupt; it fails, without an acceptable reason, to start works six months after obtaining permission to sell off-plan; the licensing entity revokes its licence; it commits one of the offences in paragraphs 2 to 5 of Article 16; or it violates the laws or by-laws that regulate real estate development in the emirate.

The six-month rule ties the entry to what happens on site after permission to sell is given, so a developer's standing is not acquired once and for all. The pages read for this guide do not describe the Department's service for entering a developer on the register, its documents or its fee; that part of the procedure is left open here.

The land, the control and the approvals

The second condition concerns the plot. Article 4 of the 2008 law bars a master developer or sub-developer from starting a project or selling off-plan before it has possession of the land and the required approvals from the competent entities. The by-law's Article 4 breaks this into three things the developer must have done:

1. Taken possession of the land and received its demarcation certificate.
2. Obtained actual control of the land.
3. Obtained the approvals of the competent entities to start the project.

The register itself carries a trace of this. Article 4 of the 2008 law has the Department designate the property entry as under development, and Article 5 of the by-law says the Department annotates the folio of the land to show that it is a development project governed by the law. The entry is removed when the project is completed and its units are registered, or when the project is cancelled.

Where a sub-developer builds on a master developer's land, another layer applies. Article 8 of the 2007 law allows the Department to record, on the master developer's plot entry, that a sale to a sub-developer has been agreed in whole or in part. The by-law, in its Article 22, counts an off-plan sale by a sub-developer without the master developer's written approval among its examples of a developer's negligence. A launch by a sub-developer therefore rests on two sets of consents: those of the public bodies and that of the master developer.

The consequence of selling before these steps is stated in two places. Article 10 of the 2008 law says developers and brokers may not sign private off-plan sale contracts for projects the competent entities have not approved, and that such a contract is null and void. Article 11 of the by-law says off-plan sales made before the competent entities approve the project and before it is registered with the Department are void, and it applies the rule to master developers, sub-developers and brokers alike.

The Land Department's answers to frequently asked questions put the timing in plain terms: a new project may be launched or announced only after all the registration steps are complete and the accreditation certificate has been obtained. On that wording, the test is not whether the developer has applied, but whether the certificate exists.

The eight items behind an escrow account

The third condition is the account. Under the 2007 law, an escrow account is the bank account of a real estate development project into which the payments of off-plan purchasers or of the project's financiers are deposited. Article 6 lists what a developer files to open one:

1. A membership certificate of the Dubai Chamber.
2. A trade licence.
3. The title deed of the land.
4. The contract between the master developer and the sub-developer.
5. The initial architectural designs and engineering plans, approved by the competent entities and by the master developer.
6. An estimate of the project's costs and revenues, certified by an accredited chartered auditor.
7. An undertaking to start works once the master developer approves off-plan sales, given by the sub-developer, or by the master developer where there is no sub-developer.
8. A standard sale contract between the developer and purchasers.

The Department's answers describe how the file moves. The developer submits its registration and project approval forms with the required documents; after approval by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, the account trustee opens the account on the basis of the project approval certificate. The same answer adds that the step is now automated: once the approval is recorded in the developer registry, the developer can open the account and select a survey company.

Article 9 of the law then fixes the nature of the account. It is held in the project's name and used only for that project, the developer's creditors cannot attach the payments in it, and each project needs its own account. A developer launching two buildings at once therefore has two accounts, and a broker working on both has two sets of payment details to keep apart.

The law also looked backwards. Article 18 gave developers already active six months from publication to comply, and the Department's answers say the law applies to projects announced before or after it was published. A developer that began selling before opening an account, those answers add, must deposit into it all the payments already received from buyers.

Who keeps the account, and what may leave it

The 2007 law calls the keeper of the account an escrow agent: a financial or banking institution accredited by the Department. Article 10 has the Department keep a Register of Escrow Agents and requires them to be qualified to manage the accounts. The Department's answers, which use the word trustee, add three conditions: the institution must be licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE to receive deposits from third parties, must operate in Dubai, and must be approved by the regulatory agency. They also say a trustee may provide development financing for the project it holds the account for.

On the agreement behind the account, the two sources do not read alike. Article 7 of the law speaks of a written agreement between the developer and the escrow agent, with a copy sent to the Department. The Department's answers say the developer and the regulatory agency sign a written agreement setting out the terms, and that the trustee manages the account under it. Both wordings are given here as they stand.

What goes in is broad. According to the answers, deposits include all buyer payments, including amounts paid by a buyer's mortgage lender, and any development financing. Article 13 of the law says the same of a lender to the project: where a developer mortgages a project to raise a loan, the lender must deposit the loan into the project's escrow account.

What comes out is narrow. The answers limit withdrawals to payments to contractors, to consultants and for marketing, and state that not every project expense qualifies. Marketing is capped at 5% of total sales. As a worked example, assume a project whose total sales come to AED 400 million: 5% of that figure is AED 20 million, the most that could be drawn from the account for marketing on that assumption. The figures are illustrative.

Payment follows construction, not the calendar. The trustee's agreement lists the main construction milestones. The developer's project manager reports that a milestone is complete and asks for payment, the trustee's engineer visits the site to verify it, and only then does the trustee pay the service providers.

After completion, a last control applies. Article 14 of the law has the escrow agent keep 5% of the account's total value once the developer holds the completion certificate, released one year after the units are registered in the purchasers' names; the Department's answers describe the year as running from the completion of the project. On an account that has received AED 300 million, to take an illustrative figure, AED 15 million would be held back. The Department's service for receiving a payment from a completed project's account is free and takes three business days, but it requires a no-objection certificate from the Jointly Owned Property Management and, where the land is mortgaged, a no-objection letter from the financing bank.

Permission to advertise, and what a permit costs

Advertising is the fourth condition, and the one a broker meets first. Article 5 of the 2007 law requires a developer to hold the Department's written authorisation before advertising off-plan sales in local or international media, or taking part in local or international exhibitions. The Department's answers state the rule in one line: a developer must obtain a permit from the regulatory agency to advertise real estate projects, and one that does not is legally accountable.

The permit is issued through the Trakheesi system. The Real Estate Ad Permit service page lists 14 kinds of activity, among them project launch events, real estate exhibitions, promotion platforms and seminars. A launch event needs the tenancy contract of the venue or a no-objection letter from the hotel. An advertisement, a billboard or a promotional campaign needs a copy of the advertisement itself. A promotion platform needs a design showing its size and the tenancy contract of the site.

A worked example gives the order of magnitude. Assume a launch with one launch event and three other permits, and assume the AED 20 fee is added to each permit. The event comes to AED 5,020. The three others come to AED 1,020 each, or AED 3,060. The total is AED 8,080. The page does not say how long a permit lasts, nor whether one permit can cover several media, so the number of permits a real campaign needs is not something this example settles.

Exhibitions carry the clearest link between the permit and the escrow account. The page says that in Dubai, off-plan properties not registered with the Escrow Account Department cannot be showcased, that only preliminary reservations may be taken and no sales made, and that the documents must be submitted at least one month before the exhibition. The same page asks a broker, for most permit types, to supply a copy of the marketing contract with the property owner.

Three conditions for marketing through a broker

When a developer uses a broker, the texts add requirements that concern the broker directly. Article 9 of the 2008 law says a developer that markets a project through a real estate broker must contract with a broker certified under By-law No. (85) of 2006 and register that contract with the Department. Article 10 of the by-law sets out three conditions.

The order of the list is worth noticing. Registration of the project comes before the contract with the broker, so a marketing agreement signed for a project that is not yet registered does not meet the first condition, whatever its terms.

The second condition has a criminal counterpart. Among the acts Article 16 of the 2007 law punishes is that of a developer dealing with a real estate broker who is not entered on the Department's Real Estate Brokers Register under the 2006 by-law. The developer thus has its own reason to ask for proof of a broker's registration, and the broker's file for a launch is incomplete without the registered marketing agreement.

The price goes to the project, not to the broker

One rule is addressed to the broker alone. Article 12 of the by-law says a broker must deposit the sale price into the project's escrow account. The broker may not place the price in its own account, and may not deduct its commission before making the deposit. Any agreement to the contrary is void.

The buyer's money thus belongs in the account that Article 9 of the 2007 law reserves for that project. The texts read for this guide do not say how or from what funds a broker's commission is paid.

Two further limits protect the buyer the broker introduces. Article 7 of the 2008 law bars developers from charging fees on the sale, resale or other disposition of a unit, apart from administrative costs the Department approves, and Article 8 of the by-law repeats that nothing beyond what the Department has approved may be charged to a purchaser for a disposition. And Article 12 of the 2007 law gives depositors, or their representatives, the right to see and copy the account records that concern them.

What the law provides when a rule is broken

The sanctions sit at three levels, and they do not all fall on the developer.

The first is criminal. Article 16 of the 2007 law provides for imprisonment, a fine of at least AED 100,000, or both, for seven acts. Besides the two licensing offences already described, they include knowingly selling units in fraudulent projects, misappropriating project money, fraudulent reports by an auditor or a consultant and, seventh, a developer's dealing with an unregistered broker. The article sets a minimum for the fine.

The second is administrative. Besides the striking-off in Article 17, the by-law fines a developer AED 10,000 where an off-plan disposition is filed for registration after the deadline, while the Department still registers it. Article 13 of the 2008 law covers both trades: where the Department establishes that a developer or a broker has breached the law, its Director General prepares a report and refers the matter to the competent entities for investigation. The article names no amount.

The third is civil, and it is the one that reaches a broker's client: the nullity of a contract signed before approval, and of a sale made before approval and registration.

When a registered project stops

Authorisation at launch is not a guarantee of delivery. Article 22 of the by-law lists conduct treated as a developer's negligence, including a failure to give the regulatory agency the data needed to approve the project, a failure to register the project with the agency, and a failure to disclose the project's financial statements to it. Article 23 lists nine grounds on which a project may be cancelled, among them a failure to start construction without justification after the approvals were obtained, an offence under Article 16 of the 2007 law, gross negligence and bankruptcy.

The Department's answers describe the practice. Where a project stands at 5% completion or below and has stalled, the agency contacts the developer and sets a period to put things right and the answers say the cancellation process takes at least three months. If the escrow account then falls short, Article 26 of the by-law has the developer refund purchasers within 60 days, unless the agency extends the period.

An authorised launch leaves traces a broker can ask to see: a certificate, an account in the project's name, a permit and a registered marketing agreement.

What the pages read leave open

Several points an agent would want settled could not be confirmed from the pages read on 10 October 2026.

The first is the developer's own entry on the register: the conditions, documents and fee of that service were not read. The second is the cost and the conditions of registering a project. The Department's answers mention a bank guarantee released when the technical report shows 100% completion, and a development contract fee of 4% where the company that owns the land and the company that develops it are different parties, but they give neither the registration fee nor the size of the guarantee, and the Department's service page for registering a project could not be opened. The third is the "permission to sell off-plan" from which Article 17 of the 2007 law counts its six months: the answers speak of an accreditation certificate and a project approval certificate, and no page read says whether these are the same document.

Two differences between the law and the Department's answers also remain. The law counts the year of the 5% retention from the registration of units to buyers, the answers from completion. And the law says it takes effect on publication in the Official Gazette, without giving the date, while the answers give 28 June 2007.

Last, the 2006 by-law on the brokers' register, to which both laws refer, was not read for this guide, and neither were the Department's circulars on the marketing of projects. A broker's own duties under those texts are outside what is described here.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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