Oqood is the Dubai Land Department's online system for registering off-plan sales in the interim register. The developer registers your sales and purchase agreement, DLD's registration fees are paid, and you receive a provisional registration e-certificate. Registration gives your purchase legal effect: an off-plan sale that is not registered is void. At completion, the unit moves to the main register and you receive a title deed.
Oqood is the Dubai Land Department’s (DLD) online system for registering off-plan sales. When you buy a unit off-plan, the developer registers your sales and purchase agreement (SPA) in DLD’s interim register through the Oqood portal, DLD’s registration fees are paid, and you receive a provisional registration e-certificate. That registration is what gives your purchase legal effect until the building is finished and you receive a title deed.
Dubai keeps two registers for property. The main property register records completed property and title deeds. The interim register, set up by Dubai Law No. 13 of 2008 on the interim real estate register, as amended in 2020, records sales and other dealings in units that are sold off-plan or are unfinished, before they move to the main register.
“Oqood” is the name of the DLD portal that developers use to register those off-plan sales. DLD’s official name for the service is “request to register the initial sale”, and DLD describes initial registration as registering off-plan sale contracts before they are transferred to the property register, to preserve the rights of owners and investors. When people talk about “Oqood registration” or “the Oqood”, they mean that registration and the certificate that comes with it.
Legal standing. Under the interim register law, any sale of an off-plan unit must be entered in the interim register, and a sale that is not entered is void. Your Oqood registration is the record that your purchase exists in law.
Resale. The law allows a unit entered in the interim register to be sold, mortgaged or otherwise disposed of. If you may want to sell before handover, registration is what makes that possible. DLD also sets a practical condition. A no objection certificate (NOC) from the developer is needed to resell an off-plan unit, and the developer sets its fee.
Mortgage. If you finance the purchase, DLD has a service for registering the sale together with an initial mortgage, and the lender’s interest is recorded against the registered unit.
Visa. Property-linked residency routes look at the property you own and how it is registered. The rules for off-plan property differ between authorities and services, so check the current requirements with the issuing authority before you rely on an off-plan unit for a visa.
Your own checks. Once registered, your unit and its payments appear in DLD’s systems, which makes it easier to follow the project and your account.
The developer registers the sale, not the buyer. Through the Oqood portal, the developer selects the unit, enters the details, attaches the documents and sends the application. For individual buyers, DLD asks for a copy of the signed SPA, a valid UAE ID, or a valid passport copy if you are not a UAE resident. Company buyers need their trade licence and constitutional documents. DLD then emails the result to the purchaser.
On timing, DLD’s service terms say the SPA must be registered in the interim register within 90 days of signing the sale and purchase contract.
If the developer refuses or delays registering your contract, DLD’s guidance says you can apply to its Real Estate Registration Assurance section with your supporting documents. Do not let this slide. An unregistered off-plan sale is void, and an unregistered purchase is harder to protect.
DLD lists these fees for registering an off-plan sale: 4% of the sale value (2% from the seller and 2% from the buyer), an AED 10 knowledge fee and an AED 10 innovation fee, and AED 1,000 when the developer registers the sale in Oqood itself. In plain terms:
DLD’s list has no separate “Oqood fee” beyond these items. If a quote shows one, ask what it covers. A developer may also list its own administration charges, which are not DLD fees, so ask for a breakdown that separates the two.
If you move to another unit before completion, DLD has a service to transfer the registration fees you have already paid. DLD fees are charged only on any price increase when moving to another unit of the same developer.
Use the purchase cost calculator to estimate these fees for your own price.
Dubai’s fee rules say that, unless agreed otherwise, the fee for a property sale is shared equally by seller and buyer, and the interim register bylaw repeats that each side pays its share of registration fees unless they agree otherwise. Officially 2% seller and 2% buyer, but DLD says the 4% is paid according to the seller-buyer agreement. DLD has described off-plan buyers paying the fee to the developer, who passes it to DLD, and it has called on developers to pay registration fees to DLD promptly once buyers have paid them.
Some developers offer to cover part or all of the registration fee as a promotion. If you are offered this, read how it is written:
A promotion that is not in the signed contract is hard to rely on later.
Registration protects you, but it is not unconditional. If a buyer stops paying, DLD has a service that lets the developer apply to cancel the initial registration. It follows the default process in the interim register law: the developer must first serve a warning, DLD gives the buyer a notice period, and only after that can the developer apply. DLD’s service terms say the sale must have been made before the project’s completion, the amount in the developer’s warning must match DLD’s notice, and the warning may include only the instalments owed for the unit, not fines or administrative charges.
If the developer terminates, the law limits what it may keep to up to 40% of the unit price if the project is 60% or more complete, or up to 25% if works have started but are below 60%, depending on the certified stage of construction, and the rest must be refunded to you. Keeping your contact details up to date with the developer matters here, because notices are sent to the addresses in your contract.
Keep the provisional registration e-certificate DLD emails to you, and check it against your SPA: your name, the unit, the price and the project.
You can also follow your unit in the Dubai REST app. For off-plan buyers, it shows the project’s percentage of completion, photos, the escrow account number and the payments due on your unit, and you can follow a project to see its updates. If anything in the app does not match your paperwork, raise it with the developer in writing first, then with DLD.
Oqood registration lasts until the project is complete. The law then requires the developer to enter the completed project in the main property register once it receives the completion certificate, and to register sold units in the names of buyers who have met their contractual obligations. DLD’s guidance describes fully paid units being transferred from the interim register to the property register and the title deed being issued.
The implementing bylaw adds that once you have met your obligations, the developer may not refuse to hand over the unit or register it in your name, including allocated facilities such as a parking space. If a developer refuses without reason, DLD may register the unit in your name on your request or on its own initiative.
DLD charges an AED 250 title deed certificate issuance fee when it issues the deed. After that, any sale goes through DLD’s standard sale registration service rather than Oqood.
For the full sequence from reservation to handover, see our guide on how to buy off-plan property step by step. For every cost in one place, see the full cost of buying off-plan, and for short definitions of terms like Oqood, NOC and Mollak, see our Dubai property glossary. Our overview of off-plan in Dubai shows where registration fits in the whole purchase.
It is the provisional registration e-certificate DLD issues when the developer registers your off-plan sale in the interim register through the Oqood portal. DLD emails it to the purchaser. It is evidence that your purchase is registered, which is what gives the sale legal effect under Dubai Law No. 13 of 2008 on the interim real estate register, as amended in 2020. It is not a title deed, which is issued only after completion.
For registering an off-plan sale, DLD lists these fees: 4% of the sale value (2% from the seller and 2% from the buyer), an AED 10 knowledge fee and an AED 10 innovation fee, and AED 1,000 when the developer registers the sale in Oqood itself. There is no separate Oqood fee in DLD's list beyond these items. If you finance the purchase, registering the mortgage costs 0.25% of the mortgage value, plus other fees DLD lists. Check your booking form and contract for exactly what you are asked to pay.
DLD lists the registration fee as shared equally between seller and buyer, and Dubai's fee rules say the fee is shared equally unless the parties agree otherwise. Officially 2% seller and 2% buyer, but DLD says the 4% is paid according to the seller-buyer agreement. For off-plan sales, DLD has described buyers paying the fee to the developer, who passes it to DLD. Your contract or a developer offer decides who pays.
Yes. The law allows a unit entered in the interim register to be sold, mortgaged or otherwise disposed of. DLD says resale before title transfer needs a no objection certificate from the developer, and the developer sets its fee. Your contract may add conditions, so read them before you buy if you might sell before handover.
Official sources used on this page. Each was checked on the date shown.
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Buying off-plan in Dubai follows ten steps, from checking the project on DLD's services to receiving your title deed. You set your goals and budget, verify the project and developer, reserve, sign the sales and purchase agreement, have the sale registered in Oqood, pay instalments into escrow, track construction, complete, and take handover. This guide explains each step and what to check.
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Buying off-plan in Dubai costs the price plus a Dubai Land Department registration fee, small DLD charges and, if you borrow, mortgage registration and bank fees. After handover you pay service charges. This guide lists each cost at booking, during construction, at handover and after, with the official fee pages, so you can budget before you sign. Every government figure links to its official source.
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Dubai property has its own vocabulary. Oqood is DLD's system for registering off-plan sales, Ejari registers leases, Mollak handles service charges, an NOC is the developer's permission to resell, and Trakheesi issues advertising permits. This glossary explains the terms you will meet when buying off-plan in Dubai, in plain English, grouped by stage, with a link to the full guide for each one.
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