Before a Dubai developer can take a single off-plan payment, the Dubai Land Department (DLD) and the Real Estate Regulatory Agency (RERA) require a specific setup around the project's money. Here is what those requirements are and who is responsible for each piece.
The core requirements
- A registered project. The project must be registered with the DLD before off-plan sales begin.
- A dedicated escrow account. Each project needs its own escrow, or trust, account opened with an approved account trustee. It holds buyer funds for that project alone.
- Sales registered through the system.Off-plan sales are recorded through the DLD's registration process, so the authority has a record of units sold and amounts due.
- All buyer payments into escrow. Purchaser payments must flow into the escrow account rather than a general company account.
- Progress-linked withdrawals. Releases from the account are tied to certified construction progress and limited to eligible, project-related costs.
- A retention. A portion of funds, commonly around 5%, is held back and released only after completion and handover milestones.
- Reporting and audit. The account is subject to reporting and an independent audit that confirms it was managed by the rules.
Who does what
It helps to be clear on the roles, because they are easy to confuse:
- DLD registers projects and sales and sets the overall framework.
- RERA regulates developers and the escrow regime within the DLD.
- The account trustee is the approved institution that holds the escrow account and processes releases against the rules.
- The auditor independently reviews the account and reports on compliance.
- You, the developer, remain responsible for operating within all of the above. The trustee and auditor do not absorb that responsibility for you.
What happens if you fall short
Breaches around escrow handling can lead to financial penalties, frozen withdrawals that hold up construction, and complications at handover. Because so much of the requirement is about evidence over time, problems are usually discovered at the annual audit, well after they started.
Staying compliant without the scramble
Meeting these requirements is less about understanding the rules and more about proving, continuously, that you followed every one of them. That is the job Plinth does: it keeps the escrow account reconciled, checks withdrawals against eligibility and progress, tracks the retention, keeps each project segregated, and produces the evidence your auditor needs, all year rather than all at once.