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How to check a Dubai developer

Dubai has no official register that ranks developers or scores their reliability. What you can check yourself before paying is three things: that the project is registered with the Land Department, that your money goes into the project's escrow account rather than to the developer, and that the advertisement and whoever is selling to you carry a valid permit and licence on Trakheesi. None of this guarantees on-time delivery.

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How do you check a Dubai developer?

Dubai has no register that ranks developers and no trust score to look up. What it has is three facts verifiable about any project, all three open to you: that the project is registered with the Land Department, that it has an escrow account and your money is meant to go into it, and that the advertisement you saw – and whoever is talking to you – carry a valid permit and licence.

Those three checks do not tell you the project will be delivered on time. They tell you something narrower and no less important: that the project exists in the authority's eyes, and that your money is not supposed to reach the developer's own account.1,6,7

What Dubai law already requires of a developer

Law No. (8) of 2007 applies, by its own Article 3, to developers who sell units off-plan and receive payments from purchasers or financers. Two of its articles concern you directly.1

  1. The register of developers

    Article 4 provides that the Land Department maintains a register known as the Register of Real Estate Developers, in which the names of developers licensed to engage in real estate development in the emirate are entered — and that no developer may engage in that business unless recorded in it and licensed. A developer not in the register is not a developer as far as the law is concerned.1

  2. The escrow account

    Article 7 provides that the escrow account is opened under a written agreement between the developer and the escrow agent, and that payments made by off-plan purchasers are deposited into an account opened with that agent in the name of the real estate development project. A copy of the agreement is filed with the Land Department.1

Three checks you can run yourself before paying

  1. The project's status

    The Land Department runs an online service for enquiring into a real estate project's status, and its official Dubai REST application gives the same information from a phone. A project sold off-plan should be registered; a project you cannot find through that service is the first question to put to the developer, before going any further.4,5

  2. Where the money goes

    The Land Department's service for registering a project is also the service for opening an escrow account for off-plan sale — the two are done together. Ask for the project's escrow account details, and compare them against the details the payment is actually being requested to. If the two are not the same, stop here.6,1

  3. The advertising permit and the licence

    The Land Department's Trakheesi system validates real estate licences and permits. That extends to the advertisement itself: marketing a project requires a permit, and its number can be checked. The same tool validates the licence of whoever is talking to you — ours included.7

What project registration does not promise

The most honest answer to "can a registered project stall" is that Dubai established a special tribunal for exactly that. Decree No. (33) of 2020 created the Special Tribunal for Unfinished and Cancelled Real Property Projects.

That says nothing about any particular project or developer. It says something about the category: registration and supervision are a necessary condition, not a guarantee of outcome. Anyone selling you registration as though it were insurance is selling you something other than what the law built.3

In the other direction, registration does something very real: Law No. (13) of 2008 regulates the interim register, in which an off-plan purchase is recorded before any title deed exists. What that registration actually confers, and what happens if payments stop, is dealt with in the off-plan guide rather than here.2

What cannot be checked — by us either

This section exists because it is usually missing. Four things buyers expect to find and will not:

  • The developer's financial statements. Most Dubai developers are private companies and their financial position is not published. There is no public way to assess the strength of the company behind the project.
  • On-time delivery data. No official dataset publishes which developer delivered on schedule and which did not. Any such figure you meet was assembled from secondary sources, and we will not publish one here.
  • "Reputation". It has no register. What exists is an impression formed from coverage, advertising and conversation — all three of which can be bought.
  • Renders and marketing timelines. These are statements of intent by whoever published them, not undertakings to you. The only undertaking you have is the one written into the sale contract.

Why you will not find a developer ranking here

We market projects by some of the developers you are asking about. That makes us an interested party, and any league table we published would have to be read in that light — rightly.

So this page teaches checks instead of handing out scores. A check can be repeated without us and give the same answer; a score cannot. If you want an opinion on a specific developer, the address is a lawyer you engage yourself, unconnected to the selling side — ours included.

Common questions

Is there an official list of trustworthy developers in Dubai?
No. The Land Department maintains a register of developers, which is a different thing: it records who is licensed to engage in development, not who keeps to schedule. Law 8/2007 provides that no developer may operate without being recorded in it and licensed — that is an entry list, not a ranking.
Where is my money supposed to go when I buy off-plan?
Into an escrow account opened with an escrow agent in the name of the development project, under Article 7 of Law 8/2007 — not into the developer's own account. A request to send it anywhere else is a reason to stop outright, just like a project that does not appear in the register.
What is a Trakheesi permit in Dubai and why would I check it?
Trakheesi is the Land Department's system for validating real estate licences and permits, including the permit an advertisement itself requires. The check takes a minute and confirms two things at once: that the listing carries a valid permit, and that whoever is talking to you is licensed.
If a Dubai off-plan project is registered with the Land Department, is that enough?
No. Registration is a necessary condition, not a guarantee. A sign of that: Dubai established a Special Tribunal for Unfinished and Cancelled Real Property Projects by Decree 33 of 2020. Registration removes one kind of risk; it does not remove the risk that a project fails to finish as planned.

In the book (Hebrew) שלב 3 – בדיקת יזם · page 48

Sources

Every link here is to a publication of the issuing body itself. If something on this page looks wrong to you, the source governs – not us.

  4. Real Estate Project Status Enquiry – DLD online service

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

  5. Dubai REST – the DLD's official application

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

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