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Getting out: selling, or stopping payment

An off-plan buyer in Dubai has two very different ways out. Selling before handover is possible, subject to the developer's consent and your contract, and is registered with the Land Department. Stopping payment is a process the developer starts against you under Article 11 of Law 13 of 2008 (as substituted by Law 19 of 2020): how much you get back depends on the project's completion percentage, not on how much you paid.

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How do you exit an off-plan purchase in Dubai?

A sale before handover is possible, but it is not only a matter between you and the buyer: it goes through the developer and through registration at the Land Department, and if there is a mortgage, through the lender as well.

Stopping payment is a different story entirely. The law gives the developer a route to act against you with no court and no arbitration, and how much money you see again turns on the project's completion percentage — not on how much you paid. In a project more than sixty per cent complete, the developer may retain up to forty per cent of the unit's value; under sixty per cent, where work has commenced, up to twenty-five.1,3

Can you sell an off-plan unit before handover?

Selling a unit bought off-plan is not a private transfer between two people. Three parties have to be in the picture before it closes, and only one of them is the buyer.

  1. The developer

    In practice a pre-handover sale is conditional on the developer's consent and on conditions set in your own sale agreement — a minimum percentage paid, for instance. That is contractual practice rather than a rule of law, so the answer to "from when may I sell" is in your contract and not on this page. It is the question worth asking before signing, not in year three.

  2. The Land Department

    A transfer is registered, and registration has an official fee schedule and document list — the same schedule that applies to a secondary sale. Registration is not a formality completed after the deal: under Dubai's property registration law, registration is what creates the right.3,5

  3. The lender, if there is one

    If a mortgage is registered over the unit, Article 10 of Law 14/2008 makes a transfer or any other disposal subject to the mortgagee's approval. The loan adds a fourth party whose consent is needed, not merely a debt to be cleared.4

What happens if you stop paying the developer?

Here the law is unusually detailed, and it is written from the developer's point of view. Article 11 of Law 13/2008, as replaced by Law 19/2020, sets out what happens when a purchaser fails to meet his obligations.1,2

  1. The developer notifies the DLD

    The notification is filed on a prescribed form and includes the parties' details, a description of the unit and an account of the obligations breached.1

  2. Thirty days

    The DLD serves the purchaser a written, dated thirty-day notice to perform, and where possible mediates a settlement. Any settlement is attached to the sale agreement as an addendum. The notice is delivered in person, by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, by email, or by another means the department prescribes.1

  3. The completion percentage is fixed

    If the period passes with no performance and no settlement, the DLD issues an official document in the developer's favour confirming that he followed the procedure — and stating the project's completion percentage, calculated to RERA's standards and rules. That number is what decides everything after it.1

Project completionWhat the developer may do
Over 80%Maintain the agreement, retain everything paid and claim the balance; or ask the DLD to sell the unit at public auction to collect the balance, with the purchaser bearing the costs; or terminate unilaterally and retain up to 40% of the unit's value
Between 60% and 80%Terminate unilaterally, retain up to 40% of the unit's value, and refund the excess
Under 60%, where work has commencedTerminate unilaterally, retain up to 25% of the unit's value, and refund the excess

The percentages are of the unit's value as stated in the agreement, and are fixed by construction progress — not by how much you have paid. And in all of these cases the developer acts without recourse to courts or arbitration.1

What happens if the project is cancelled?

The article has a second side. Where the developer has not commenced work for reasons beyond his control, without negligence or omission on his part, or where the project is cancelled by a final reasoned decision of RERA, the developer must refund purchasers all payments made, under the procedures and rules laid down in law.

That distinction is the whole difference between two situations that sound alike. A purchaser who stopped paying faces the percentage table above. A purchaser whose project was cancelled in one of those two situations may be owed a full refund.1

Why there is no flip arithmetic here

A resale margin is not a fact — it is an estimate of appreciation less transaction costs, and nobody knows the first part in advance. This site presents appreciation as illustration rather than forecast, and a "typical margin" figure would be a forecast in every respect.

What can be known in advance is the other side of the equation: which consents are required, what the registration fee schedule is, and what happens if you do not sell and stop paying instead. This page gives those three. No page can give the first.

Common questions

Can I sell a unit I bought off-plan before handover?
Usually yes, but subject to the developer's consent and to the conditions in your own sale agreement — a minimum percentage paid, for example. The transfer is registered with the Land Department under the official fee schedule, and if a mortgage is registered the lender's approval is also required under Article 10 of Law 14/2008.
What happens if you stop paying for an off-plan unit in Dubai?
The developer notifies the Land Department, the department serves you a thirty-day notice and tries to mediate, and if the period passes the project's completion percentage is fixed. From there the developer may act without a court: in a project over sixty per cent complete he may retain up to forty per cent of the unit's value, and under sixty per cent, where work has commenced, up to twenty-five.
If a Dubai developer terminates the agreement for non-payment, when do you get the remainder back?
Within one year of the termination, or within sixty days of the unit being resold to another purchaser — whichever is earlier. Note that the fast route depends on the developer finding a replacement buyer, which is not within your control.
What if a Dubai off-plan project is cancelled – do you get your money back?
That is an entirely different case. Where the developer has not commenced through reasons beyond his control and without negligence, or where RERA has cancelled the project by a final reasoned decision, he must refund purchasers all payments — not a portion of them. In any other case, what comes back depends on the procedure and the circumstances.

In the book (Hebrew) מכירת הנכס – תהליך היציאה ועלויותיו · page 37

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.

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

    Dubai Land Department (DLD)Checked 8 August 2026

  4. Law No. (14) of 2008 Concerning Mortgage in the Emirate of Dubai

    Dubai Legislation PortalChecked 4 September 2026

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