Buy a completed apartment in Dubai and you walk away with a title deed. Buy the same apartment off-plan, before the building exists, and you walk away with something else: an Oqood. Both documents come from the same authority, the Dubai Land Department (DLD), but they sit in two different registers and carry two different legal weights. Understanding which one applies to your purchase, and what has to happen for one to become the other, is the difference between owning a recorded, transferable interest in a Dubai property and holding nothing more than a private contract with a developer. This guide walks through what Oqood is, the law behind it, what it costs and when it must happen, how conversion to a title deed works at handover, and what a buyer risks by skipping registration.
What Oqood Is and the Law Behind It
Oqood (Arabic for "contracts") is the interim, or provisional, registration of an off-plan unit with the DLD. It is recorded on the Interim Real Property Register, a separate register from the main Real Property Register that holds title deeds for completed, freehold real estate. The main register was established under Law No. 7 of 2006 Concerning Real Property Registration, whose Article 9 states that transactions creating, transferring, or extinguishing a real property right "will not be deemed valid unless recorded in the Property Register." That rule works fine for a finished building with a plot number and a title deed. It does not work for a tower that is still a hole in the ground, which is why Dubai created a second register specifically for property under construction.
That second register was set up by Law No. 13 of 2008 Regulating the Interim Real Property Register in the Emirate of Dubai, later amended by Law No. 9 of 2009. Article 3 of Law No. 13 of 2008 requires every disposal relating to an off-plan real estate unit, sale, long-term lease, musataha, mortgage, or any other legal disposition, to be recorded in the Interim Real Property Register, and treats an unrecorded disposal as void. Article 6 confirms that a unit registered in the Interim Register can itself be sold on, mortgaged, or otherwise legally disposed of before the building is complete, which is what makes off-plan resale possible in Dubai at all. An Oqood certificate, in short, is the Interim Register's proof that a specific unit in a specific project has a specific buyer's name against it, months or years before that unit physically exists.
Why Off-Plan Buyers Get an Oqood Instead of a Title Deed
A title deed under Law No. 7 of 2006 certifies ownership of a defined, existing piece of real property, and Article 7 of that law gives the Property Register "absolute evidentiary value" that can only be challenged for fraud or forgery. A developer cannot issue that certainty for a unit that has not been built, because the unit, the building, and sometimes the project itself do not yet legally exist as a completed asset. Registering the sale in the Interim Register instead gives the buyer the next best thing: a DLD record that the developer has sold that unit to that buyer, at that price, under that contract, which the developer cannot quietly resell to someone else or use as uncontested collateral.
The framework also protects the money side of the purchase. Before a developer can market or sell any unit off-plan, Law No. 8 of 2007 Concerning Escrow Accounts for Real Estate Development requires it to open a dedicated escrow account with a DLD-accredited trustee bank, and every payment collected from buyers must go into that account and can only be spent on constructing that specific project. The DLD's list of approved escrow trustees is public, and checking that a project has one before signing is one of the basic pieces of due diligence the department itself recommends to investors.
The Registration Fee and Timing
Registering an off-plan sale runs through the DLD's Request to Register the Initial Sale service, generally submitted through the developer's Oqood system or a registration trustee office, using a copy of the sale and purchase contract and the buyer's Emirates ID or passport. According to that service page, the contract must be registered in the provisional register within 90 days of signing.
On fees, the DLD's own published schedule, set under Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013 and reproduced in the department's investor guide, Know Your Rights for Real Estate Investors in Dubai, prices registration of a sale and purchase contract at 4% of the purchase price. In practice, on the vast majority of transactions, the buyer is the one who ends up paying this 4%, whether the fee is built into the developer's price sheet on an off-plan launch or negotiated as a buyer-side cost on a resale. On top of that percentage fee, DLD's own eService listing shows a flat AED 10 knowledge fee and AED 10 innovation fee per registration, plus a developer self-registration charge (around AED 1,000) where the developer submits the registration in bulk through its Oqood portal rather than the buyer registering individually. Budget for the 4% as a buyer-side cost when underwriting an off-plan deal; do not assume it is split away from you.
What Happens at Handover: Conversion to a Title Deed
The Interim Register is not meant to be permanent. Article 8 of Law No. 13 of 2008 provides that once a project receives its completion certificate, the units in it transfer out of the Interim Real Property Register and into the main Property Register, with each unit registered in the name of the purchaser recorded against it. This is the legal moment an Oqood becomes a title deed. The developer obtains the completion certificate from the relevant Dubai authorities, submits it to the DLD, and the department moves the project's units across registers. For a buyer, the practical steps mirror any Dubai transfer, an inspection of the finished unit, a no-objection certificate from the developer confirming service charges are settled and the buyer has paid in full, and attendance (in person or by power of attorney) at a DLD registration trustee office where a new title deed is issued, generally the same day if the paperwork is complete. Buyers who have not paid the full contract price by handover do not receive a title deed until the balance is settled, since Article 8 conditions the transfer on the unit being fully owned outright, not merely under an active payment plan.
How to Verify Your Registration
Do not take a developer's word that your purchase has been registered. The DLD offers two public tools for exactly this check, both available through the DLD website or the Dubai REST app: the Verify Title Deed service, which confirms the validity of a certificate the DLD has issued, and the Property Status Enquiry service, which lets an owner look up a property's recorded status using area and unit reference data. Before signing anything, DLD's own investor guidance recommends confirming, directly with the department or RERA rather than the developer, that the project is registered, that it has an escrow account and knowing the account number and trustee bank, what percentage of construction is complete, and that the developer itself is licensed with RERA and holds the necessary approvals to sell that project off-plan, all points set out in the department's Know Your Rights guide. If a sales agent cannot produce this information, that alone is a reason to pause before paying anything.
Risks of an Unregistered Off-Plan Purchase
The clearest risk is legal nullity. Article 3 of Law No. 13 of 2008 does not describe registration as good practice, it makes an unregistered disposal void. A buyer who has only a private sale contract, with no corresponding Oqood entry in the Interim Register, has no DLD record that stands behind that contract if the developer sells the same unit twice, goes into financial distress, or disputes the sale later. The Executive Council Resolution No. 6 of 2010 implementing regulations go further on the project side: any sale made by a developer or broker before the project itself has cleared DLD and RERA approvals and been placed on the register is treated as null and void, regardless of what the contract says. That risk sits entirely with the buyer if the check is skipped.
An unregistered position also cannot be resold or mortgaged with any certainty, since Article 6's right to dispose of the unit before completion depends on that unit already being on the Interim Register in the buyer's name. And because a mortgage over an off-plan unit is itself required to be registered against the Interim Register to be valid, an unregistered buyer cannot use the unit as bank collateral either. Finally, on developer default, the protections that exist, staged refund rules on cancellation and the escrow account's ring-fenced funds, all attach to a registered, identifiable buyer; someone who never appears in the DLD's own records has a materially weaker position to assert a claim against either the developer or the escrow trustee.
FAQ
Is Oqood the same as a title deed? No. Oqood is the interim registration of an off-plan unit on the DLD's Interim Real Property Register under Law No. 13 of 2008. A title deed is issued on the main Real Property Register under Law No. 7 of 2006 once a property is complete and the buyer has paid in full.
How long do I have to register an off-plan purchase? The DLD's initial sale registration service states the sale contract must be registered in the provisional register within 90 days of signing.
What does registration cost? Registering the sale and purchase contract costs 4% of the purchase price under the DLD's fee schedule set by Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013, plus small flat knowledge and innovation fees. In practice on the resale and off-plan market, this cost is paid by the buyer.
Does the Oqood automatically become a title deed at handover? Not automatically in every case for the buyer personally. Under Article 8 of Law No. 13 of 2008, units transfer from the Interim Register to the main Property Register once the project receives its completion certificate, but the buyer must have paid the contract in full and typically still needs to attend a DLD registration trustee office with the developer's no-objection certificate to have the title deed issued in their name.
How do I check if my off-plan unit is actually registered? Use the DLD's Verify Title Deed or Property Status Enquiry services on the DLD website or Dubai REST app, or ask the developer for the Oqood certificate reference and confirm it with the department directly rather than taking the developer's confirmation alone.
What happens if my off-plan purchase was never registered? Under Article 3 of Law No. 13 of 2008, an unrecorded disposal of an off-plan unit is void. This means no protected claim to the unit, no ability to resell or mortgage it, and a much weaker position if the developer defaults or the escrow account is disputed.
Sources
- Dubai Legislation Portal, Law No. (7) of 2006 Concerning Real Property Registration in the Emirate of Dubai: https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2006/Law%20No.%20%287%29%20of%202006.html
- Dubai Legislation Portal, Law No. (13) of 2008 Regulating the Interim Real Property Register in the Emirate of Dubai: https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2008/Law%20No.%20%2813%29%20of%202008.html
- Dubai Legislation Portal, Law No. (9) of 2009 Amending Law No. (13) of 2008: https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2009/Law%20No.%20%289%29%20of%202009.html
- Dubai Legislation Portal, Law No. (8) of 2007 Concerning Escrow Accounts for Real Estate Development in the Emirate of Dubai: https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2007/Law%20No.%20%288%29%20of%202007.html
- Dubai Land Department, Request to Register the Initial Sale eService: https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/request-to-register-the-initial-sale/
- Dubai Land Department, Register Project eService (escrow account setup): https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/register-project/
- Dubai Land Department, Approved Escrow Account Trustees eService: https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/certified-escrow-agents/
- Dubai Land Department, Property Sale Registration eService: https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/property-sale-registration/
- Dubai Land Department, Verify Title Deed eService: https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/title-deed-verification-overview/
- Dubai Land Department, Property Status Enquiry eService: https://dubailand.gov.ae/en/eservices/property-status-overview/
- Dubai Land Department and Al Tamimi & Company, Know Your Rights for Real Estate Investors in Dubai (guide): https://dubailand.gov.ae/media/wlzmuycr/know_your_rights.pdf
