- The comparison
Is off-plan cheaper than ready?
It is not. Off-plan sold higher per square foot in 49 of the 53 districts we can measure, with a median gap of 31%. Four districts run the other way and they are named.
49 / 53districts where off-plan cost moreRead it → - The process
How buying here actually works
63% of recorded sales are Oqood pre-registrations against buildings that do not exist yet, not title transfers. What that means, what the 4% transfer fee comes to on real prices, and who can buy.
63%of sales are off-plan pre-registrationsRead it → - The exit
Can you sell it again?
Resale has gone from 49% of recorded sales to 26% while its own volume rose every year. Where completed homes actually change hands, and the 13 districts where a sale is an event.
49% → 26%resale share of the marketRead it → - The threshold
Where AED 2M actually reaches
Only 35% of Dubai's recorded sales clear the Golden Visa property threshold. Which districts it always clears, which ones it does not, and the line we will not cross on eligibility.
35%of sales clear AED 2MRead it → - The risk
What goes wrong with off-plan
Delivery took a median of 3 years across 415 projects, and one in ten took more than 5.7. Plus what the planning register says is suspended, and the four things a legitimate advert must carry.
3 yrmedian time to deliveryRead it →
A guide is only worth reading if it could have said the opposite.
- Every finding is a count, not a view. If we cannot measure it against the Land Department’s register or the planning register, it does not get a guide.
- The caveat sits with the finding. Not in a footnote underneath it. Anyone quoting a number from here should have to read what it does and does not prove first.
- Exceptions are named. Where the data contradicts our own headline, those cases get their own section rather than being dropped from the table.
- Gaps are stated. We hold no rental or yield data, nothing for Abu Dhabi, and nothing at the level of an individual home. Each guide says so.
Source throughout: Dubai Land Department registered transactions to 4 August 2026, and the Dubai Development Authority plot register. Sales only — mortgages and gifts excluded.
The same register, per district.
Every district page carries what it actually sold for, how much of it is built, and a drawing of every plot by what it is permitted to become — Business Bay, Dubai Harbour, Downtown, Palm Jumeirah. And each project file states its own permit and escrow position, including where it is still open.