On an off-plan home in Dubai, every payment you make goes into the project's escrow account, a bank account opened in the project's own name at a bank the Dubai Land Department has approved. Your sale agreement names the account, and the Land Department's project record shows the same details, so you can match the two before you send anything.
Why does the deposit go to an escrow account?
Each off-plan project in Dubai has a bank account of its own, and your payments are what builds it. Under Law No. 8 of 2007, a developer selling off-plan opens a separate escrow account for the project with an escrow agent the Land Department has accredited, and pays into it every amount buyers pay, together with the loans drawn for construction. The money can be spent only on building the project and settling its financing. The Land Department's FAQ (read 14 October 2026) adds that the account is opened in the name of the project and that its funds cannot be held back for the developer's creditors.
Money leaves the account in steps. The FAQ describes payments out to contractors, consultants and marketing, with the trustee's engineer visiting the site and checking the project before funds are released, and the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's escrow division auditing project accounts regularly. A buyer's mortgage follows the same path, so the lender's payment and yours arrive in one place; mortgages for non-residents covers the loan itself, and how buyers are protected in Dubai sets out the registers beside the account.
On 13 October 2026 our catalogue held 434 registered off-plan projects that are under construction and still on sale, and all 434 list an escrow bank and an escrow account number. The six banks named most often:
| Escrow bank | Projects in our catalogue |
|---|---|
| Emirates NBD | 86 |
| Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank | 62 |
| First Abu Dhabi Bank | 48 |
| Dubai Islamic Bank | 46 |
| Mashreq | 42 |
| Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank | 30 |
The other 122 projects use one of fifteen further banks, and four projects name two banks. For you the receiving account is a standard account at a UAE bank, so your payment is an ordinary international transfer.
What proof do you receive, and what do you check before sending?
Before the first transfer, compare the bank, the account number and the account name in your sale agreement with the project's record in the Land Department's Dubai REST app. Its Project Status service (Mashrooi), searchable by project name or number, shows the developer, the project's status and its escrow bank and account details, and the app shows the completion percentage too. The Land Department also publishes the list of escrow trustees it has approved, which confirms the bank. When these match, the instruction is the project's own.
After the transfer you hold a chain of proof. Your bank issues a transfer confirmation with its reference, and the developer issues a receipt against your payment schedule. The sale and purchase agreement is entered in the Land Department's provisional register through the Oqood portal within 90 days of signing, and the provisional registration e-certificate is emailed to you as purchaser (Dubai Land Department, "Request to register the initial sale", read 14 October 2026). Keep that e-certificate with your agreement; off-plan vs ready property in Dubai explains why the entry matters.
Payments tied to construction stages carry a right of their own. When the developer's payment request arrives, the FAQ says you may ask for the project's current completion percentage, and you are not required to pay until the project has reached the stage in your schedule. Off-plan payment plans sets out how those stages are built.
Which routes are accepted: transfer, cheque or cash?
A transfer from your own bank into the project's escrow account is the route for a buyer abroad. It leaves a record at both ends and matches the payment instruction in the sale agreement, and a cheque is made payable as the agreement directs.
Cash has a reporting line. Under the Ministry of Economy's Circular 05/2022 of 24 June 2022, in force from 1 July 2022, a broker acting on a freehold sale where a single physical cash payment, or several together, reaches AED 55,000 (about USD 14,980) of the value, in whole or in part, records the buyer's passport or Emirates ID, the receipts and the contracts, and files a Real Estate Transaction Report through the Financial Intelligence Unit's goAML platform. The records are kept for five years.
Banks ask where the money comes from, and an answer prepared in advance shortens the process. The Central Bank's guidance for banks serving the real estate sector, dated 16 June 2021, asks them to identify the source of funds for every large real estate transaction, and for higher-risk customers the source of overall wealth as well. It lists a payment made by someone who is not a party to the deal among the indicators banks watch, with the buyer's mortgage lender excepted. So pay from an account in your own name, and keep one document that shows where the funds began: the completion statement from the sale of a home, a salary or dividend record, a business account statement. On an unfinanced purchase there is no loan to point to, and that document does the work.
Can you buy Dubai property with crypto, and through whom?
The regulator is the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Under Law No. 4 of 2022, VARA regulates virtual asset services across Dubai's mainland and free zones, with the Dubai International Financial Centre outside its remit, and its public register shows which firms hold a licence.
The reporting rule is Circular 05/2022. It covers a freehold purchase paid in virtual assets in whole or in part, and a purchase paid with funds converted from virtual assets. In both cases the broker records identification, receipts and the contracts and files the Real Estate Transaction Report, and the circular states no minimum amount for these two cases.
The Land Department's own steps are pilots, each announced on a date. On 19 March 2025 it launched the pilot phase of its Real Estate Tokenisation project with VARA and the Dubai Future Foundation, so that several investors can co-own one property through tokenised title deeds; it concerns ownership, not payment. On 19 February 2026 VARA announced that the initial pilot phase is complete, that a second, controlled testing phase is under way, and that any entity offering tokenised real estate in or from Dubai must hold VARA's licence or approval. On 15 October 2025 Dubai's Department of Finance and the Land Department ran a first technical trial in a closed environment, settling a government service fee (the issue of a property map) in cryptocurrency, with the value settled in dirhams through DubaiPay and a platform licensed by the Central Bank. Both announced it as a test.
The project escrow account is a bank account, and the 2025 trial settled in dirhams. A buyer who holds virtual assets therefore converts through a licensed firm and sends the transfer to the escrow account, and the broker files the report. Ask the developer for its payment terms in writing before converting anything.
What do the exchange rate and bank charges do to the amount that arrives?
The dirham is fixed at AED 3.6725 to USD 1 (UAE government fact sheet, read 14 October 2026; the Central Bank's table of 3 August 2026 shows the same rate), and is Dubai property a good investment explains what that means for an owner. A dollar payment therefore has a fixed reference: AED 400,000 is USD 108,900. Any gap between that and the rate your bank quotes is its margin, and each 1 per cent of margin on AED 400,000 is AED 4,000 (about USD 1,090). Ask for the rate in writing before you confirm the transfer, and compare it with 3.6725.
From any other currency, the amount that arrives also follows your currency against the dollar between the day you agree the price and the day you send. For a sterling, euro or rupee instalment, ask your bank to fix the rate when you give the instruction.
Charges arise in up to three places: your bank, any intermediary bank on the route and the receiving bank. The charge instruction on the transfer decides who pays them. Marked "OUR", it tells the banks that you pay all of them, so the full instalment is credited to the escrow account. An instalment that arrives short by a fee is a short payment against your schedule.
The Land Department's own fees are a separate list, set out in the cost of buying property in Dubai. Remittance rules and the tax treatment of money leaving India sit in our guide for buyers in India.
How long does a transfer take, and how do you confirm it arrived?
Read your payment schedule for whether the due date is the day you send or the day the account is credited. Where it is the second, send with days to spare: banks set their own cut-off times, and a transfer passes over weekends and public holidays in both countries. Ask your bank for the expected credit date when you give the instruction.
A booking made before the agreement is signed holds the unit for the period the booking form states. Ask the developer to confirm in writing that a transfer in progress counts. Send the transfer confirmation to the developer's collections team and to your broker the same day, so that the record shows when you paid. Once the agreement is signed, the 90 days for its registration in the provisional register begin. For a dispute with a real estate company, the Land Department's complaint service has a route (Dubai Land Department, "Complaint", read 14 October 2026).
How do you pay and sign without travelling?
An off-plan purchase can be completed from where you live. The initial-sale registration is online through the Oqood portal; for an individual it asks for the sale contract, signed by the developer and the purchaser, and for a non-resident a copy of a valid passport, and the output is emailed to the purchaser.
A completed home bought on the resale market is registered at a Real Estate Registration Trustee office, where the owner attends in person or through a representative acting under a duly notarised power of attorney. The Land Department's guide for investors adds that foreign-language documents are attested and submitted with certified Arabic translations. For a non-resident foreigner the service asks for a valid passport and, in a freehold area, the developer's no-objection e-certificate from the Dubai REST app.
Use a broker registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Agency; the Land Department publishes the register of brokers on its website.
A checklist before the first transfer
- Match the bank, account number and account name in the sale agreement to the project record in Dubai REST and the Land Department's list of approved escrow trustees, and confirm the payment is due at the stage in your schedule.
- Pay from an account in your own name, and keep one document that shows where the funds began.
- Ask your bank for the exchange rate and the total charge in writing, with the charges set to "OUR", and send ahead of the due date.
- Send the confirmation to the developer's collections team and to your broker the same day, ask for a receipt against the schedule, and keep the Oqood provisional registration e-certificate that arrives within 90 days of signing.
- Have the contract and payment schedule read by someone independent before you sign. Our second opinion does this within 48 hours on business days.