Buying from abroad: the overseas buyer's handbook

Most Dubai off-plan buyers do not live in Dubai. The purchase can genuinely be done from another country — developers built their sales machines for exactly that — but the years between signing and handover are where distance starts to cost you. Here is what can be done remotely, how the money should travel, and how to stay properly informed from another continent.

What you can do without flying in

The front end of the purchase is commonly handled entirely remotely: you reserve a unit with a booking form and deposit, send passport copies for the developer's checks, and sign the Sales & Purchase Agreement by courier or, with many developers, electronically. Exactly which steps a developer will do remotely varies — ask before you commit, not after.

For anything that later needs a person physically present in Dubai — certain registrations, mortgage steps, collecting keys — the standard tool is a Power of Attorney: you appoint someone (a relative, a lawyer, sometimes a trusted agent) to act for you. A POA signed abroad must be properly notarized and then attested for use in the UAE; the exact chain of stamps depends on your country, so describe your situation to a notary or UAE-side lawyer and let them prescribe it. Keep the POA's scope as narrow as the job requires — a document that can collect your keys does not need the power to sell your unit.

Moving the money

Every installment should go by bank transfer to the project's escrow account — the RERA-supervised, project-specific account that Dubai law requires off-plan money to sit in. Never to a personal account, never to an agent, never in cash, and never because an email asked you to use "updated" details: confirm the escrow account independently against your SPA and the developer's official channels before the first transfer, and again if the details ever appear to change. Why the escrow account is the thing standing between you and a worst case is spelled out in our stalled-project guide.

One quiet cost of buying from abroad: your installments are in dirhams, your income probably is not. The AED is pegged to the US dollar, so what a payment plan costs you in your own currency drifts with your currency's dollar rate over the years of the plan. That is a fact to budget around — how you handle it (timing transfers, forward contracts through your bank, or simply accepting the drift) is a decision for you and a financial professional, not a tracking site.

Staying informed from 5,000 km away

Here is the uncomfortable part: after you sign, nobody official is going to keep you posted. DLD certifies your project's construction progress inspection by inspection — but the registry does not email buyers. The sales office will, though what it sends is marketing. The result is the classic overseas off-plan experience: a year of renders and hashtags, and no idea what the certified number actually is.

That gap is the reason this site exists. We snapshot the DLD registry daily across 695 projects and turn every officially recorded change into an email: progress moved, status changed, handover date slipped. Find yours in the project directory and hit Track this project — and if you want to read the registry yourself first, start with how to check any project's DLD status.

The mistakes overseas buyers actually make

• Relying on the sales agent for progress updates. The agent's incentive ended at your signature; the "great progress!" WhatsApp is not a data source. The certified inspection percentage in the DLD registry is — and it frequently tells a different story than the brochure.
• Never verifying the registration. Your sale must be recorded in DLD's interim register, and you should confirm it was — remotely, via the Dubai REST app — rather than assume. What that registration is and how to check it is covered in the Oqood guide.
• Missing the handover notice. Completion notices go to the contact details in your file. Buyers who changed email addresses or phone numbers mid-construction have learned about their own handover months late — with final-payment deadlines already running. Update the developer in writing every time your details change.
• Treating the brochure date as the handover date. The registry's completion date moves; brochures do not. Watch the official date, not the launch PDF — our Late List is full of projects whose buyers wish they had.

Related: how to check any project's DLD status · what to do when a project stalls · Oqood — the off-plan register explained
General information, not legal or financial advice — attestation and tax rules depend on your country; confirm with professionals.