INSIDERrealestate — HomeRates are indicative. Contracts and DLD fees are always in dirhams.
A factsheet without the marketing: who is building it, how many storeys and units, when it completed or completes, what layouts exist. Names and figures are checked against propsearch.ae, the unit mix against the developers' own brochures. Under each project sit the lots from our stock, where there are any, and the video breakdowns where the building made it on camera.
Almost everything here is Dubai. The exception is the Mira Developments projects still under construction: the Land Department has no record of them yet, so the figures come from the developer's own pages and are labelled as such — and two of them sit outside Dubai altogether, on Al Marjan Island in Ras Al Khaimah and in Andermatt, Switzerland.
1,367 buildings across 153 locations
Yes. In freehold districts — Dubai has more than fifty — an apartment is registered as full ownership: you can sell it, let it, remodel it and pass it on. The Land Department registers the deal; during construction the buyer holds an Oqood record, after handover a Title Deed. Nationality does not matter, and buying remotely under a power of attorney is routine. The one thing worth checking before a deposit is that the specific project sits in a freehold zone — individual clusters inside leasehold districts follow different rules.
The practical entry point in 2026 is around $150,000 — a studio twenty minutes from the sea, with no view and no room to negotiate. A comfortable choice starts near $300,000. On top of the price, budget the 4% Land Department registration fee. On new builds the agency commission is paid by the developer, not the buyer. Live prices for specific projects are in the stock lots under the factsheets above.
Since 2007 buyer money goes into a RERA-controlled escrow account tied to the specific project, not to the developer’s own account, and is released against verified construction milestones. Before sales open, a developer must own the land and put up 20% of the construction cost. One check matters before any payment: the escrow account name in the contract must match the project name. Delays happen, but collect-and-vanish schemes are effectively closed — a frozen project passes to a Land Department committee and funds come back from escrow.
Plans are written as a split: 60/40 means 60% in instalments during construction and 40% at handover. Large developers run more conservative schemes — 80/20 and 90/10 — while smaller ones offer as little as 20/80. It is not a loan: no interest accrues on the balance, and the schedule tracks construction milestones or the calendar. Post-handover plans also exist — part of the price is paid over two or three years after the keys, while rent covers part of the balance. The final instalment can be converted into a mortgage, but that is agreed before signing, not a month before handover.
There is no annual property tax in the UAE, no tax on rental income and none on capital gains; VAT on the first sale of residential property is zero-rated. The one-off cost is the 4% Land Department fee at registration. The ongoing cost is the service charge for running the building — from roughly $9 per m² a year in the mid-market; each building’s rate is approved by RERA, and owners’ money sits in a dedicated escrow account in the Mollak system.
Yes — assignment is a market of its own. You first pay the developer the threshold written into the SPA, usually 30–40% of the price, then obtain the developer’s NOC, sign an MOU with the buyer and register the transfer at a Trustee Centre. The buyer takes over the remaining instalments and the service charge. In a rising project this is how profit gets locked in before the keys: only part of the price is paid in, and the sale goes through at the full one.
It does, on three tiers. A two-year investor visa from $204,000, with at least $102,000 actually paid — the construction stage does not matter. A five-year retirement visa from age 55, from $272,000 with the project at least 50% complete. The ten-year Golden Visa from $545,000. Thresholds as of 2026. Properties in different emirates do not add up, and the application is made in person. The visa renews for as long as you own the property, and lets you sponsor your family.
Off-plan wins on entry price and the payment plan: instalments spread across the construction years, commission covered by the developer, and in a growing district the project usually costs more at handover than at launch. Ready property answers with rental income from day one, and with the fact that you are looking at a real building rather than a render. There is no universal answer, only a task: for resale and return on capital deployed, off-plan tends to fit; for buy-to-let, a completed unit. Discounted lots of both kinds are collected in our stock.
Look at facts, not the showroom: what this developer has already delivered and how late, how many storeys and units, what the unit mix is, when handover is due. Any project and developer can be checked in the Land Department’s public register — licence status, completion percentage and the registered escrow account are all visible there. The catalogue above is built for exactly this: factsheets without the marketing, figures cross-checked against propsearch and developer brochures, with the lots for sale and video breakdowns under each project.
The write-ups worth reading before you put down a booking fee
A launch sells out in an afternoon, which is exactly the problem: the buyer has the least time to think at the moment the most is being decided. What the price list is actually telling you, and which columns matter.
The developer that made the monthly instalment its main product. How the 1% plan actually works, what it does not include, and what to verify before committing to sixty payments.
In March 2026 S&P saw no liquidity pressure at Emaar, DAMAC, Omniyat and PNC Investments. In July Moody's reported most UAE projects due in 2026–27 on schedule despite imported materials costing 20–25% more. What off-plan buyers should take from both.
Five things worked at once. But a phase selling out in hours is an indicator of the market’s state at that moment rather than proof of the project’s quality.
Emaar sold about AED 65.8bn in Dubai in 2025, DAMAC AED 35.9bn, Sobha about AED 30bn and Binghatti AED 26bn. Meanwhile 258 developers launched 648 projects with 167,000 units. What that mix of concentration and crowding means for buyers.
List prices stay put through a slowdown while the effective price falls. Where the discount actually hides — in the payment plan, the fee waivers and the furnishing package — and how to compare two offers properly.
Damac and ADIB opened finance on projects 35% built once the buyer has paid 50% (March 2025). In 2026 Emirates NBD launched a scheme for Meraas, Nakheel and Dubai Properties from 30% completion, and ADCB a 12-month pre-approval from 3.49%.
CG Developers is building Dubai's first JW Marriott residence, priced from AED 1.72 million with a Q1 2028 handover. In parallel, Nakheel has awarded a AED 527 million contract for Island B's core infrastructure — roads, water and sewage for a future 49,000 homes.
Every developer selling off-plan in Dubai has a registration and an escrow account. That is not an achievement, it is the condition of entry — and buyers read it as a guarantee.
Material on several hundred more buildings is still being worked through. Send me the name — I will come back with floor plans, current prices and whatever is in the stock right now.
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