Property guide · Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Oqood in Dubai: escrow and how to check a project
Check a Dubai off-plan project before you pay: what Oqood registration is, the escrow account your money goes into, and the public search that shows both.
- Registering the initial sale, each side2%Land Department
- The developer's own portal fee, AED1,000Land Department
- Escrow accounts per project1Dubai law
- Checked2026-09-12
What Oqood is
Oqood registers the sale; escrow holds the money
Oqood is the entry of an off-plan sale in Dubai's interim register, without which the sale is void, and the money sits in an escrow account in the project's name — you can check both at no charge before any money moves.
The two things are often confused. The register entry is about the contract — who bought which unit, recorded by the Department. The escrow account is about the money — where the instalments go and what the developer may draw from them.
The Department's project enquiry brings both into one screen: whether the project is registered, whether it has started, how far it has got, and which bank holds the account. A project whose entry you cannot find is a fact about the project, not about the search.
Fees
Oqood registration fee and the escrow retention
Oqood registration is charged on the sale value, and after completion the escrow agent holds back a share of the account for a year.
The developer's portal fee is often repeated as a buyer's cost. In the Department's own fees section it is the developer's self-registration fee, not a charge the Department puts on the buyer.
The registration rate itself is the same shape as on a completed sale — see the cost of buying for the rest of the transfer costs, and off-plan payment plans for what happens between the first instalment and handover.
- Registering the initial sale, each side2%Land Department
DLD e-service «Request to register the initial sale», on the sale value, seller and purchaser separately.
- The developer's own portal fee, AED1,000Land Department
Same page: self-registration on the Oqood developers' portal. It is the developer's cost, and the Department does not name it as the buyer's.
- Escrow accounts per project1Dubai law
Law 8/2007 art. (9)(2): a developer running several projects keeps one account for each.
- Held back by the escrow agent after completion5%Dubai law
Law 8/2007 art. (14): of the total value of the account, retained for a year from the completion certificate.
- Checking a project, its developer and its escrow accountnothing, and no login is needed
DLD e-service «Project Status Enquiry», searched by project name or project number.
Developer duties
One account per project, no ads without approval
One account per project, opened in the project's name; no advertising without written authorisation; a retention after completion; and removal from the register for a developer that does not build.
The account is the project's, not the company's, which is why a developer with several projects cannot move money between them. If construction has not begun within 6Dubai law months of the permission to sell, and there is no acceptable reason, the Department can strike the developer from the register.
- Law 8/2007 art. (9)The escrow account is opened in the name of the project, not of the developer, and is dedicated exclusively to constructing that project.
- Law 8/2007 art. (5)A developer may not advertise a project in local or international media without written authorisation from the Department — an advertisement is itself something the regulator has passed.
- Law 8/2007 art. (14)The escrow agent keeps part of the account back after the completion certificate is issued, and releases it a year later.
- Law 8/2007 art. (15)If a project stalls, the agent must act with the Department to see it finished or to refund the depositors.
- Law 8/2007 art. (17)(2)A developer that fails, without an acceptable reason, to begin construction within the period fixed after being permitted to sell can be struck from the register.
- Law 13/2008 art. (3)The sale itself is void unless it is entered in the interim register — which is what the Oqood entry is.
- DLD e-service, «Project Status Enquiry»The enquiry returns the project number, whether it is registered, whether it has started, its completion figure, its escrow bank and account, its developer and its management company.
Caveats
Check the DLD record, not the brochure
The search is public and documented, but the project number format and a list of escrow banks are not, and the Oqood admin fee brokers quote is, in the Department's text, the developer's portal fee.
Ask the seller for the project number and the escrow account, then check both against the Department's enquiry rather than against the brochure. The point of the exercise is that the answer comes from the register and not from the party selling to you.
Written permission to advertise is a requirement on the developer, not on the buyer. It is worth knowing all the same: an off-plan project being marketed to you is a project the Department has passed for marketing, and one that has not been is visible by its absence from the register.
- The format of a project number—
no official page describes how a project number is built
- An Oqood administrative fee charged to the buyer—
the sum brokers quote is, in the Department's own text, the developer's portal fee
- A consolidated list of escrow banks—
no published list was found; the enquiry gives the bank one project at a time
Checked 2026-09-12
Sources
Dubai's escrow and interim register laws, DLD services
The escrow law, the interim register law and two Land Department services: the project status enquiry and the registration of the initial sale.
- Law
Law No. (8) of 2007 concerning escrow accounts for real estate development in Dubai, 6 May 2007
Articles (5), (9), (14), (15) and (17): advertising, the account, the retention, a stalled project.
- Law
Law No. (13) of 2008 regulating the interim real property register, 14 August 2008
Articles (3) and (4): the register that makes an off-plan sale valid.
- Service page
DLD e-service «Project Status Enquiry» (Mashrooi / Dubai REST), read 12 September 2026
The public search and the fields it returns.
- Service page
DLD e-service «Request to register the initial sale», read 12 September 2026
What is registered, at what fees, and who pays the portal fee.
- DocumentsGet the documents
The source documents
The escrow law is cited in the text published on the legislation portal; the fees and the fields of the enquiry are cited from the Department's live service pages.
Questions
Ask about a project's Oqood and escrow
Name the project or give us its number; we reply with the project's entry as the Land Department shows it today — the escrow bank, the developer and the completion figure.