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Glossary: buying property in Dubai

Your contract will be in English, and its terms do not always mean what they appear to mean. Each one is defined here – most of them from the article of law they come from.

Written by Updated To be re-checked by

Ownership and rights

FreeholdFreehold
Ownership of real property without time restriction. Available to non-UAE and non-GCC nationals only in areas determined by the Ruler, under Article 4 of Dubai's real property registration law.1
UsufructUsufruct
A right to use and enjoy a property for a fixed term not exceeding 99 years, without ownership passing to you. One of the three rights Article 4 permits to be granted to foreign nationals.1
LeaseholdLeasehold
Possession of a property for a fixed term not exceeding 99 years under a registered lease. The right ends when the term does.1
Property RegisterProperty Register
The register in which transactions creating, transferring, amending or extinguishing a real property right are recorded. Under Article 9 of Law 7/2006, such a transaction is not deemed valid unless it is recorded there. Registration creates the right; the contract does not.1
Title deedTitle Deed
The document evidencing registered ownership. On an off-plan purchase it is issued on completion, to a purchaser who has met their contractual obligations, for a fee of AED 250 alongside a map fee and the knowledge and innovation fees.8

Buying off-plan

Off-plan purchaseOff-plan
The purchase of a unit in a project that has not been completed. A developer may sell off-plan only after taking possession of the land and obtaining the required approvals from the competent entities, under Article 4 of Law 13/2008.2
Interim Real Property RegisterInterim Register
The register in which dispositions of off-plan units are recorded. Article 3 of Law 13/2008 provides that a disposition not entered in it is void.2
OqoodOqood
The Land Department portal through which developers register off-plan units in the interim register. In market shorthand, "the Oqood is done" means the unit has been registered in your name. The stated service time is one business day.7
Sale and purchase agreementSPA
The agreement between you and the developer: the payment schedule, the handover date, the specification, and the allocation of fees. There is no standard form fixed in law, so what it says is what applies to you – including who bears the 4% registration fee.
Payment planPayment Plan
How payments are spread across construction, and sometimes beyond handover. This is a commercial term set in the contract rather than in law, and it varies between developers and between projects.
Completion percentagePercentage of Completion
How far a project has progressed, as certified by the Land Department under the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's rules. Not a marketing figure: it is what determines how much a developer may retain if the agreement is terminated for non-payment.4
HandoverHandover
The point at which the project is complete and the unit is delivered to you. It is also the stage at which the interim registration becomes a title deed, and at which annual service charges become your obligation.8

Money, fees and protections

Escrow accountEscrow Account
A bank account in the project's name receiving the payments of off-plan purchasers and the project's financing, dedicated exclusively to its construction. Under Article 9 of Law 8/2007, no attachment may be imposed on its funds for the benefit of the developer's creditors.3
Escrow agentEscrow Agent
The entity administering the escrow account. Article 14 of Law 8/2007 requires it to retain 5% of the account's value, released one year after the units are registered in the purchasers' names.3
Developers' registerDevelopers' Register
The register developers are required to be recorded in. Article 4 of Law 8/2007 bars anyone not recorded in it and licensed by the competent entities from engaging in real estate development.3
Registration feeDLD Fee
The fee the Land Department charges to register the transaction: 2% of the sale value from the seller and 2% from the purchaser. In an off-plan sale the developer is the seller, and in practice its share is almost always passed to the buyer – hence the familiar 4%.7
Registration trusteeRegistration Trustee / Service Partner
The centre where resale transactions are registered. Its fee under the official schedule is AED 4,000 plus VAT on transactions of AED 500,000 or more, and AED 2,000 plus VAT below that.9
No-objection certificateNOC / e-NOC
A certificate from the developer required to transfer ownership in the freehold areas. Its cost is set by the developer and does not appear in the Land Department's fee schedule – worth establishing before setting a sale price.9
Service chargesService Charges
The annual payment an owner makes to the management entity for the management, operation, maintenance and repair of the common parts. Calculated by the ratio of the unit's area to the total area (Article 25 of Law 6/2019); the budget requires the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's approval, which it will not give without an audit by a recognised firm (Article 27).5

The bodies and the tools

Dubai Land DepartmentDLD
The authority that maintains Dubai's property registers, collects the registration fees and operates the public enquiry services. It is the body against which the status of a plot, a project and a developer is verified.10
Real Estate Regulatory AgencyRERA
The regulator whose rules govern how a project's completion percentage is measured, and which approves the service charge budgets of jointly owned buildings.4,5
Dubai RESTDubai REST
The Land Department's official app. For an off-plan project it shows the completion percentage, current photographs, the escrow account number and payments falling due – nearly everything needed to verify a project before paying.11
Special TribunalSpecial Tribunal
The forum established by Decree No. 33 of 2020 for unfinished and cancelled projects: claims and applications concerning them, the liquidation of cancelled projects, grievances against the Regulatory Agency's cancellation decisions, and the determination of the rights of purchasers, investors and developers.6

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.

  7. Request to register the initial sale – official fee schedule

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

  9. Property Sale Registration – official fee schedule and required documents

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

  10. Frequently Asked Questions – Dubai Land Department

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

  11. Dubai REST – the DLD's official application

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

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