Oqood — the word means 'contracts' in Arabic — is the Dubai Land Department's interim real estate register. When you buy a completed property, ownership is recorded on the main register and you receive a title deed. When you buy off-plan there is no unit to record yet, so the sale contract itself is recorded instead, in your name, against the plot and the unit number on the approved plans. That record is your Oqood registration.
Its purpose is simple. It puts your interest on the public record, where it can be verified, mortgaged in some cases and transferred, and where the developer cannot sell the same unit twice or encumber it without your knowledge. Together with escrow, it is what makes an off-plan purchase a registered property transaction rather than a private contract with a builder.
When it happens
Registration follows the signing of the sale and purchase agreement and the payment of the initial instalments — typically the booking deposit and the first milestone payment. The developer submits the contract to the Land Department, usually within a few weeks of signing, and you receive an Oqood certificate showing the unit, the price, the parties and the registration number.
Under the current rules developers are required to register off-plan sales promptly, and a developer who is slow to do so, or who asks for further instalments before registration is complete, is telling you something worth hearing. Ask for the certificate. If it has not arrived within a couple of months of signing, ask why in writing.
What it costs
- The Land Department's transfer fee, currently 4% of the purchase price plus an administration charge, is paid at Oqood registration. By convention the buyer pays all of it, unless the developer is running a waiver.
- The Oqood registration itself carries a charge that developers typically quote at around AED 3,000 including their own administration; the figure varies by developer, so treat it as an estimate until you see it on the payment schedule.
- There is no trustee office fee on an off-plan purchase from the developer; the developer registers the sale directly. The trustee fee arrives only if you buy or sell a ready property.
The 4% is the part that surprises buyers budgeting from the plan alone. On a AED 1.9 million unit it is AED 76,000 due near the start, outside the 60/40 or 80/20 structure. The cost-of-buying tool on this site adds it, and the other fees, to any price you enter.
The Oqood certificate is the document that proves you are the buyer. Until the title deed exists, do not treat anything else as if it does.
What happens at handover
When the building receives its completion certificate and you pay the final instalment, the developer transfers the unit to you on the main register and the Land Department issues a title deed in your name. The Oqood entry is closed. On a post-handover plan, the deed may be issued with a note of the balance owed to the developer, or the developer may hold the transfer until the plan is settled; which applies depends on the developer and should be in the sale agreement.
Selling before handover
Because your contract is registered, it can be transferred. Selling an off-plan unit before completion — an assignment — is done through the Land Department against the Oqood record, with the developer's no-objection certificate. The new buyer pays the transfer fee on the price they agree, and the entry moves to their name. The mechanics and the developer conditions are covered in the exit strategies article in this pillar.
One last practical point: check the details on the certificate when it arrives. Name spellings, passport numbers and unit numbers are corrected easily at this stage and expensively at handover, when the title deed is being drawn from the same record.