Off-Plan Delays in Dubai: How to Check a Project’s Real Construction Status, and What Your Rights Are
Updated September 5, 2026 · 9 min read · Sources: DLD projects register (RERA inspection percentages, refreshed monthly on this site), Dubai Law 8 of 2007 (escrow), Law 19 of 2017 (default and cancellation), Decree 33 of 2020 (cancelled projects tribunal), standard developer SPA terms.
The number that matters is the inspected one
Every off-plan project registered in Dubai is inspected by RERA and given a completion percentage in the Dubai Land Department’s projects register. The developer’s sales team reports progress; the register records what an inspector saw. The two can diverge for months, and when they do the register is the one to believe. The project completion checker on this site reads that register, refreshed monthly alongside our registered price data, so the completion curve and what buyers actually paid sit side by side. Search the project by name and you see the inspected percentage, its registered sale prices, and how the percentage has moved since the last refresh. Three things it tells you that a sales office will not. Whether the build matches the money: instalments are meant to track construction, and a plan that has collected 60% against a project inspected at 30% is a question worth asking in writing. Whether the handover date is realistic: a project at 45% is not completing in six months, whatever the countdown on the hoarding says, because the last 30% of a tower (fit-out, MEP, testing, authority approvals) takes longer than the first 30%. And whether progress has stalled: a percentage that has not moved between two monthly refreshes is the earliest honest warning a project can give.
Why your money is safer than the delay suggests
Since Law 8 of 2007 every Dubai off-plan project must run a project-specific escrow account at an approved bank, and every instalment you pay has to go into it. The developer cannot draw from that account freely: releases are made against certified construction progress, with a retention held back until completion. That is the structural protection in the system, and it is why a delayed project is very different from a lost one. The money is in a ring-fenced account, released to the extent the building exists. It is also why the first check on any project, before you look at the completion percentage, is that you are paying into the registered escrow account and nowhere else. Ask for the account details, verify the project’s registration on the DLD’s channels, and pay only into that account. A developer who asks for a transfer to a company or personal account is breaching the law, and the money you send there has none of the protection above.
Reading the curve against your payment plan
Put the inspected percentage against the payment schedule in your SPA and one of three pictures appears. Where the build and the money are broadly level, say 50% paid at 45% inspected, the project is healthy and the schedule is doing what it was designed to do. Where the money is well ahead of the build, 60% paid at 30% inspected on a date-linked plan, the developer has taken more of your cash than the escrow rules will release to them, and the gap is your exposure if the project stalls. Where the build is ahead of the money, which happens on the construction-linked plans that Abu Dhabi mandates and the better Dubai developers use, the risk sits with the developer rather than you. A construction-linked plan is the shape to prefer at booking for exactly this reason: if the build slips, your instalments slip with it. On a date-linked plan the instalments keep falling due whether or not the concrete is being poured. That does not entitle you to stop paying, because the SPA binds you to the dates, and stopping has consequences described below. It does entitle you to ask, in writing, for the escrow progress certificate that supports each instalment, and to raise the discrepancy with RERA if it is not forthcoming.
What counts as a delay, legally
Your SPA has an anticipated completion date, and almost every developer SPA gives the developer a grace period beyond it, most commonly six months and sometimes twelve, during which nothing is triggered. Within that window you have a late project, not a breach. Past the grace period the developer is in breach of the completion obligation, and the contract usually provides for compensation at a stated rate or, at a longer threshold, for the buyer’s right to terminate and recover what was paid. Read the clause before you write the first letter, because the numbers in it define your position. At that point the practical sequence is: a formal notice to the developer citing the clause and the inspected percentage; a complaint to RERA, which can require the developer to explain and can escalate; and, where the developer does not cure, a claim through the Dubai courts or the Rental Disputes Centre’s sister forums for compensation or termination. Buyers acting together carry more weight than one buyer alone, and the owners of a delayed project usually find each other quickly.
Cancelled projects, and what happens to the escrow
For a significant unjustified delay, or a developer who has stopped work, RERA can cancel a project’s registration. When it does, the escrow account is frozen and the developer is required to refund buyers from it. Since Decree 33 of 2020 a dedicated Dubai judicial committee oversees cancelled and stalled projects, deciding how the escrow balance and any other recoveries are distributed among buyers. That is precisely the case escrow was built for, and precisely why paying outside it is so dangerous: the tribunal distributes what is in the account, and money paid elsewhere is a separate and much harder claim. The refund is of what was paid into escrow, less what the escrow rules properly released against work that exists. It is not the resale value of the unit, and it is not compensation for the years, which is why the compensation clause in the SPA matters more than most buyers realise at signing.
If you stop paying: the scale the law sets
A delayed project tempts buyers to withhold instalments. Understand the scale before you do. Law 19 of 2017 lets a developer, after a 30-day notice period supervised by the DLD, terminate a defaulting buyer and retain part of what was paid: up to 25% of the amount paid where the project is less than 60% complete, up to 40% where it is between 60% and completion, and a larger share once the project is complete. The developer then resells the unit. Withholding a payment on a project that is merely late, inside its grace period, exposes you to that scale without giving you any of the rights a breach would. The better sequence is to keep paying into escrow, document the delay against the register, and pursue the contractual remedies. Where you genuinely cannot sustain the plan, an assignment to another buyer, which most developers allow once 30% to 40% is paid, recovers far more than a default does.
What a delay does to your finance, your visa and your yield
A handover mortgage is the plan most off-plan buyers rely on for the final payment, and pre-approvals hold for 60 to 90 days at most banks, 12 months on some off-plan products. A delay means re-applying, against your income and the bank’s valuation on the new date rather than the old one, so restart the application six months before the revised handover, not after the completion notice arrives. A Golden Visa granted on the Oqood registration is unaffected by the delay; it follows the registered purchase value, not the handover. And a rental yield modelled at booking is delayed by exactly the delay: a year late is a year of service charges and mortgage interest without rent, which is the cost to put against the compensation clause when you decide whether to fight or wait. Before you buy, the same three checks protect you from most of this: the developer’s delivery record (what they finished, how late, and what happened to resale prices afterwards), the inspected percentage of anything they currently have under construction, and the shape of the payment plan against the register. That is the check we run before any launch appears on this site.
Related questions
How do I check the construction status of a Dubai off-plan project?
Through the DLD projects register, which carries RERA’s inspected completion percentage for every registered project. The project completion checker on this site reads it and refreshes monthly, so you can see both the current percentage and whether it has moved.
What happens if my off-plan project is delayed?
Inside the SPA’s grace period, usually 6 to 12 months past the anticipated completion date, nothing is triggered. Beyond it the developer is in breach and the SPA’s compensation or termination clause applies. Your instalments remain in a RERA-supervised escrow account throughout.
Can I stop paying if the project is late?
Not safely. Under Law 19 of 2017 a developer can terminate a defaulting buyer after a 30-day DLD-supervised notice and retain up to 25% of what was paid below 60% completion, or up to 40% between 60% and completion. Keep paying into escrow and pursue the contractual remedies instead.
What happens to my money if the project is cancelled?
RERA freezes the escrow account and refunds are distributed to buyers through the dedicated judicial committee for cancelled projects set up by Decree 33 of 2020. Money paid outside the escrow account is not protected in the same way.
Does a delay affect my Golden Visa?
No. A Golden Visa granted on the Oqood registration follows the registered purchase value, not the handover date.
How can I tell if a payment plan is running ahead of construction?
Compare the percentage you have paid with the inspected percentage in the register. Money well ahead of the build on a date-linked plan is your exposure; ask the developer in writing for the escrow progress certificate supporting each instalment.
