Half of projects took under 3 years. One in ten took over 5.7.
For every Dubai project with at least 20 registered off-plan sales, we took the first off-plan sale and the first time a home there changed hands as a completed property. Across 415 projects the median gap was 3 years. Half fell between 2.2 and 4.1. The slowest tenth ran past 5.7.
First off-plan sale to first completed sale
415 projects, 2010 onward.
- Quickest quarter
- under 2.2 years
- Median
- 3 years
- Slowest quarter
- over 4.1 years
- Slowest tenth
- over 5.7 years
What this measure is, exactly
- It runs slightly long. A resale happens some time after handover, not on the day. Read it as an outside estimate of delivery, not a build time.
- It only sees projects where both ends are visible. 39% of completed sales in the register carry no project name, so this measures the 415 where the register lets us follow a project from launch to first resale.
- We threw away a worse version of this. An earlier attempt counted projects that appeared never to hand over — until it flagged Churchill Tower, a finished and occupied Business Bay building. It was measuring our join key, not the world. This is the measure that survived.
How many sites are actually suspended.
The Dubai Development Authority records a construction status against every plot it governs. 617 of 99,439 are marked Suspended— the planning authority’s own term for a site where work has stopped. That is 0.6%, which is rarer than forum threads suggest and is not nothing.
| Status | Plots | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Completed | 37,662 | 37.9% |
| Under Construction | 16,797 | 16.9% |
| Pre-Construction | 6,517 | 6.6% |
| Empty | 37,846 | 38.1% |
| Suspended | 617 | 0.6% |
Source: Dubai Development Authority plot register (BASIC_LAND_BASE), read live. Covers the districts under the DDA’s planning authority — not the whole emirate.
Escrow is the one that matters.
Under Dubai Law No. 8 of 2007 a developer selling off-plan must hold buyer payments in a project escrow account supervised by the Land Department. Money is released against construction progress rather than paid to the developer up front. It is the difference between funding a building and funding a company.
- RERA project registration. A project must be registered before it can be sold. An unregistered project has no escrow account, which means there is nothing behind your payments.
- Oqood. Your off-plan purchase is recorded on the Land Department’s interim register. If it is not on Oqood, you are not on the record.
- The advertising permit. Every listing needs its own Trakheesi permit number. For off-plan the advert must also carry the developer, the escrow account number and the completion date. Fines start at AED 50,000.
Four things on the advert, and one on the map.
If a Dubai off-plan advert is missing the permit number, the developer, the escrow account or the completion date, that is not a formality someone skipped — it is the check that was skipped. And one thing no advert will tell you: what the planning register permits on the plots around the building. A view is only yours if nothing next door is allowed to take it.
Our own project files carry that disclosure block openly, including where we do not yet hold one of the four — see the files. Every district page shows what is permitted next door: Business Bay, Dubai Harbour, Downtown.
And before any of this: is off-plan even cheaper? On the register, in most of Dubai, it is not. For the mechanics of the purchase itself — Oqood, the transfer fee, who may buy — see how buying here actually works.
The limits of this, stated.
- Nothing about a specific developer. The register records transactions and plots, not track records. We will not rank developers on data that cannot support it.
- The suspension count is DDA districts only. It covers the areas under that authority’s planning remit, not every square metre of Dubai.
- No rental or yield data anywhere on this site. The transaction register records sales, not lettings.