The off-plan glossary
Dubai off-plan paperwork speaks its own language — part Arabic, part legalese, part sales patter. Here is every term you are likely to meet between reservation and title deed, alphabetical, one honest paragraph each. Link straight to any term with its anchor (for example #escrow-account).
Assignment
Selling your off-plan contract to another buyer before handover — you transfer (assign) your rights under the SPA, and the new buyer steps into your registration. Developers commonly require a minimum share of the price to be paid first (often quoted around 30–40%, but it varies by developer and contract) and an NOC before the transfer can be registered with DLD.
Completion notice
The developer's formal notification that your unit is ready for handover. It typically starts the clock: final installments fall due, the snagging inspection gets booked, and your SPA usually gives you a set window to complete. Keep your contact details current — a notice sent to a dead email address still counts as sent.
DLD
The Dubai Land Department — the government body that keeps the emirate's property registry: ownership, transactions, title deeds, and the register of every development project, including each one's certified construction progress. That project registry is the data this site tracks daily; see how to check any project's DLD status.
DLD waiver
A promotion in which the developer offers to pay the 4% DLD registration fee on your behalf. Nothing is actually waived — the fee still reaches DLD; the developer covers it, and the cost is commonly built into the price somewhere else. Treat it as a discount to be valued, not free money.
Ejari
Dubai's official system for registering tenancy contracts. Every rental agreement in the emirate is supposed to be recorded in it, and the registration is commonly required for utility connections and visa paperwork. As an off-plan buyer you will meet Ejari after handover, if you rent your unit out.
Escrow account
The project-specific bank account where every off-plan installment must be paid, held with a RERA-approved bank and released to the developer only against construction progress. It is the central buyer protection in Dubai off-plan law — and the reason you should never pay outside it. How that protection plays out when a project slows down is the subject of our stalled-project guide.
Golden Visa
The UAE's long-term residence visa. One qualifying route is property ownership above a value threshold (commonly cited at AED 2 million, with off-plan purchases counting under certain conditions). The rules and thresholds are set by the government and have changed over time — confirm the current requirements through official channels before building plans around it.
Grace period
The contractual buffer many SPAs give the developer beyond the anticipated completion date before the buyer's remedies for lateness kick in — a 12-month grace clause is commonly seen in Dubai off-plan contracts, but the exact term is whatever your SPA says. It is why a project can be "late" in your eyes and still on time in the developer's.
Handover
The process of delivering the finished unit to you: the completion notice, final payments, the snagging inspection, and finally keys and access cards. It is also the moment your relationship with the project changes from waiting to owning — and the moment this site exists to see coming. Browse the handover calendar to see what is due when.
Milestone payment
An installment tied to a construction stage — "20% at foundation, 10% at 40% completion" and so on — rather than to calendar dates. The registry's certified progress percentage is the neutral yardstick a milestone invoice can be checked against; a bill that runs far ahead of certified progress deserves questions before it deserves money.
Mollak
The system governing service charges in Dubai's jointly owned buildings: budgets are reviewed and approved through it before owners are billed, and payments flow through dedicated accounts. You will meet it after handover, when your first service-charge invoice arrives.
NOC
A no-objection certificate — the developer's written confirmation that it does not object to a transaction, most often required when you sell or assign a unit. Developers commonly charge an administration fee for issuing one, and the amount varies; check your SPA and the developer's fee schedule.
Off-plan
Property bought before it is built — you purchase from drawings, renders and a payment plan, at a price commonly below what the finished unit is expected to sell for, in exchange for carrying construction risk. Roughly seven in ten Dubai sales are off-plan, which is why the emirate has an entire legal apparatus (escrow, Oqood, RERA oversight) built around protecting these buyers.
Oqood
DLD's interim register for off-plan sales, and the certificate issued from it. Until a project is finished there is no title deed, so your purchase is recorded in Oqood and the certificate is your proof of claim on the unit. What it proves, what registration costs and how to verify yours are covered in the Oqood guide.
Payment plan
The schedule of installments over a purchase — quoted as splits like 60/40 or 80/20 (share paid during construction versus at or after handover). Plans may be date-based, milestone-based or a mix; the SPA's schedule is the binding version, whatever the brochure said.
Post-handover plan
A payment plan that continues after you receive the keys — for example 1% monthly for two or three years post-handover. It lowers the cash needed at completion, but note that the title deed and your freedom to resell commonly remain constrained until the developer is fully paid; the details live in your SPA.
RERA
The Real Estate Regulatory Agency, the regulatory arm within DLD. It licenses developers and brokers, oversees project registration and escrow accounts, and handles complaints — the body you escalate to when a developer stops answering, as described in the stalled-project guide.
Sales & Purchase Agreement (SPA)
The main contract between you and the developer: unit, price, payment schedule, anticipated completion date, grace period, area-variance tolerance, penalties. Almost every later dispute is decided by what this document says, so the time to read it slowly is before signing — not when the project runs late.
Service charges
The annual fees owners pay for running a building's common areas — cleaning, security, cooling, maintenance, the sinking fund. In Dubai they are quoted per square foot, vary widely by building type, and are budgeted and billed through Mollak. As an off-plan buyer, ask for the expected rate before you buy: it changes the yield math.
Snagging
The defect inspection of your finished unit at handover — checking finishes, doors, joinery, MEP and everything else against what was promised, and logging faults for the developer to fix. Buyers commonly hire a professional snagging company; either way, the inspection happens before you sign the final acceptance, not after.
Title deed
The final ownership document DLD issues once a project is complete and ownership formally transfers — it supersedes the Oqood registration and is what you will use for resale, mortgage and inheritance matters from then on. Viewable and downloadable through the Dubai REST app once issued.
Related: Oqood — the off-plan register explained · how to check any project's DLD status · what to do when a project stalls
General information, not legal advice — definitions summarize common practice; your SPA and current regulations always take precedence.