Property for Sale in Dubai

Most people searching for property for sale in Dubai think they are looking at one city. They are in fact choosing between two corridors that have almost nothing in common, and that choice shapes the outcome more than the apartment does.

Every unit on this page is an apartment and every one of them is sold before completion. The sections below run through what has to be closed before you sign.

The city's two corridors: the Sheikh Zayed Road line and Dubai Creek Harbour

To the south west, Sheikh Zayed Road carries a line of towers that runs down to Jebel Ali. What surrounds an apartment here is business districts, the metro line and a few minutes to Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Lake Towers. The tenant is usually someone working in the city who wants to live near the job, and demand across the year is flatter.

To the east, Dubai Creek Harbour is built on an entirely different premise: waterfront, master planned, with a centre of its own. An apartment there sells on the view and the setting rather than on the commute.

None of this shows up in the asking price, yet it changes the tenant profile and how quickly you can sell. Establish which corridor you are in before you get to the unit.

What protects an off-plan buyer here: the provisional register and the escrow account

Dubai's off-plan system carries its own safeguards, and most buyers of off plan property for sale in Dubai never ask about either of them.

The first is registration. A developer has to record a unit sold off-plan in the Dubai Land Department's provisional register, and the rule is explicit: the sale and purchase contract must be registered there within 90 days of the date it was signed. After you sign you are not left holding only the developer's paperwork; a record exists at the land department. Asking whether that registration has happened is your right as a buyer.

The second is money. Releasing funds from a project's escrow account to the developer needs a separate approval, and that approval turns on a current technical report showing construction progress, along with financial risk criteria. Your payment goes into an account that opens against progress rather than straight into the developer's treasury.