Off-plan escrow in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: AED 500,000 fines for early marketing and EOIs only through Madhmoun

The riskiest money in off-plan property is the money paid before a project officially exists: the booking fee, the "priority slot", the deposit to get into the first release. The project is not yet registered, no escrow account is open, and the cash has already gone. Over the past two years both of the UAE's main markets have been closing that gap — Dubai with fines, Abu Dhabi with a digital platform.

Dubai: marketing before registration is an offence

Under Dubai's escrow law (Law No. 8 of 2007), a developer may sell or advertise off-plan units only once the project is registered with the Land Department and an escrow account is open with an accredited bank. Buyers pay into that account, and funds are released to the developer against certified construction progress.

In June 2024 the Land Department showed the rule has teeth: three developers were fined AED 500,000 each — AED 1.5m in total — for promoting projects without completing registration. The companies were not named. The regulator used the occasion to remind buyers of two rules: check the project's registration and escrow in the Dubai REST app, and never pay outside the escrow account.

For a buyer, the point is practical. If a project is never registered, money paid "pre-launch" has no escrow protection; getting it back depends on the goodwill and solvency of the company. How escrow works, and where it stops protecting you, is explained in our escrow guide.

Abu Dhabi: EOIs only through Madhmoun

Expressions of interest were a fixture of the capital's big launches: buyers paid deposits to secure a place in the first wave. On 16 February 2026 the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC) brought that stage under regulation:

• every developer launching a new project must register buyers' EOIs digitally through the Madhmoun platform;
• EOI money is paid into a preparatory escrow account under direct government supervision, not to the developer or a broker;
• applications run through government portals with UAE Pass identity, every step is logged, and refunds are processed electronically;
• the first project to register EOIs through the system was Manchester City Yas Residences by Ohana on Yas Island.

What to check before you pay

Question	Dubai	Abu Dhabi
Is the project registered?	Dubai REST app	ADREC register / DARI
Where does the deposit go?	only the project escrow account	EOI to government escrow via Madhmoun
Unlicensed marketing?	an offence, developer fined	an EOI outside the platform is not registered

If you are asked for a "booking" in cash, by transfer to an agency, or to a company account that is not the project escrow, stop — whatever the discount. Registration is not a delivery guarantee either; the questions to ask beyond it are in our note on developer due diligence.

For the market as a whole the change is neutral to positive. Pre-launches in Abu Dhabi will continue, but the money in them is now protected, and the noise around "sold-out" launches becomes measurable.

If you are watching a launch in the capital, start with our Abu Dhabi market overview and check any project against the register before placing an EOI.