Escrow account

Also called: project escrow

An escrow account is a project bank account into which off-plan buyer payments must be deposited, released to the developer against verified construction progress.

Dubai requires registered off-plan projects to hold buyer money this way rather than in a developer's general funds, so that payments are tied to the project they were made for.

It is one of the structural protections that makes off-plan buying in Dubai different from an unregulated forward sale, and checking that a project has a registered escrow arrangement is a basic step before paying anything.

Related terms

Dubai Diligence is an independent property-data service built on official Dubai Land Department records. We are not a brokerage and no developer pays us. This is general information, not legal, financial or tax advice.

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