This is the question behind most first meetings with cautious off-plan buyers, and it is rarely answered plainly because nobody selling a launch wants to raise it. We would rather you knew the answer before you reserved. There are three situations — a delay within the contract, a project that has stalled, and a project that is cancelled — and they are treated differently.
Delay within the contract
Every sale and purchase agreement carries an anticipated completion date and, almost always, a grace period beyond it — commonly six to twelve months — during which the developer is not in breach. Delays of a quarter or two are ordinary in Dubai and we plan for them in every timeline we prepare. During the grace period you have no remedy other than to wait; your instalments continue to fall due against the construction milestones actually reached, not against the calendar.
Beyond the grace period, the agreement usually sets out what happens next: sometimes a compensation mechanism, sometimes a right to terminate after a further period, often a good deal of discretion for the developer. These clauses vary widely and are drafted by the developer. They are not usually negotiable in substance, but they are readable, and the difference between a six-month and a twelve-month grace period, or between a compensation clause and none, is worth knowing before you sign rather than after.
The grace period is not the developer being difficult. It is the developer telling you, in writing, how late they might be. Read it as information.
A project that stalls
If construction slows materially or stops, RERA's oversight applies. The regulator monitors escrow drawdowns against certified progress, can audit a project, and can require a developer to explain. Because your payments are in escrow and are released only against certified construction, a stalled project does not mean your money has been spent on nothing: the funds paid in are either in the account or in the building.
In practice, stalled projects in recent years have most often been resolved by the developer restarting under pressure, by a change of contractor, or by the project being taken over by another developer under the Land Department's arrangements for reviving stalled developments. These processes take time — years in some cases — and during them a buyer's capital is tied up in a half-built asset. That is the real cost of a stall, and no regulation removes it.
A project that is cancelled
Dubai has a formal procedure for cancelling real estate projects, administered by a committee under the Land Department. Where a project is cancelled, the developer is required to refund buyers' payments, and the escrow account is the source. The committee oversees the liquidation of the escrow funds and any project assets and their distribution to buyers. Refunds under this route have been made; they have also, in past cycles, taken a long time and returned less than the full amount where the escrow was insufficient — which is one reason paying outside the escrow account is so dangerous.
If you want to walk away
The reverse situation — a buyer who wishes to exit a delayed project — is governed by the termination provisions of the sale agreement and by the current off-plan regulations. In outline, if a buyer defaults on payments the developer must notify the Land Department and give notice, after which the amount the developer may retain depends on how far construction has progressed: currently up to 40% of the price where the project is well advanced, less where it is not, and a share of amounts paid where construction has not started. If the developer is the party in breach — beyond the grace period, for example — the agreement's remedies apply, and disputes go to the Dubai Courts or, in some cases, to RERA's dispute mechanisms.
None of this is quick, and none of it is a substitute for choosing well. But it is a real framework with a regulator, an escrow account and a court behind it, which is more than most markets offer.
What to do at each stage
- Before signing: read the anticipated completion date, the grace period and the termination clauses, or ask us to annotate them. Confirm the escrow account through the Land Department.
- During construction: keep every payment receipt and every progress update. Visit the site, or ask us to. A project that is visibly behind at 40% will not be on time at 100%.
- If it slips: write to the developer for a revised schedule in writing. Check that instalments demanded match milestones actually certified. Talk to other buyers; owners' groups form quickly on delayed projects and are well informed.
- If it stalls or is cancelled: engage with the Land Department's process early and in writing, keep your documentation together, and take legal advice before signing anything the developer offers as a resolution.