Off-plan property

Also called

Off the plan or off-the-plan (Australia), presale (British Columbia), pre-construction (Ontario and the United States), pre-selling (the Philippines)^{[7][8][11][14][15]}

What is sold

A home not yet built or not yet finished, bought from its plans^[1][6][8]

Dubai register

The Interim Property Register, under Law No. 13 of 2008^[1]

Dubai buyer protection

Escrow account for each project, under Law No. 8 of 2007^[3]

Dubai registration fee

4% of the contract value, shared equally unless agreed otherwise^[4]

Share of Dubai sales

70% of sales transactions in the first quarter of 2026, as reported^[17]

Overview

Off-plan property is a home bought before it is built, or before it is finished, from the developer's plans, drawings and show units. The buyer signs a contract and pays a deposit, and usually more installments while the building rises, and receives the finished home at a later date called handover, completion or settlement.^[1][6][8] The term "off-plan" is the usual one in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom; Australia says "off the plan", British Columbia "presale", Ontario and the United States "pre-construction", and the Philippines "pre-selling".^{[6][7][11][14][15]}

0:14 A deposit, two years, and a shortfall ABC News follows an imagined buyer who pays a 10% deposit on a new apartment in 2016, then finds two years later that the bank values it $50,000 below his price.

The names differ, but the bargain is the same. The developer gets money and committed buyers before construction, which helps it finance the project, and the buyer secures a price and a new home with time to save for the rest of it.^[6][8] The buyer also carries the risks of a home that does not exist yet: the project can be delayed or canceled, the finished home can differ from the plans, and its value at completion can be lower than the price agreed years earlier.^[7][8] For that reason most of the places that use these sales have laws written for them, which the sections below describe.

Names around the world

In the United Kingdom the word describes how a home is bought rather than the home itself: Which? defines buying off-plan as reserving a new-build home before it has been built.^[6] In Australia the New South Wales government writes "buying off the plan" and Consumer Affairs Victoria "buying off-the-plan", for a home sold before building works are finished or before land is subdivided.^[7][8] In Canada the word changes at the provincial border: buyers in British Columbia buy a "presale", while Ontario's Condominium Authority writes about "pre-construction condos".^[11] American reporting uses "pre-construction" too; CNBC wrote in 2023 that buyers at a new Miami project had to put down a 50% non-refundable deposit for pre-construction sales.^[14] In the Philippines, The Freeman described developers' need for a license to sell in the "pre-selling market".^[15]

Dubai

Dubai's Law No. 13 of 2008 defines an off-plan sale as the sale of property units off-plan or units that are unfinished, and it requires every off-plan sale to be entered in the Interim Property Register kept by the Dubai Land Department.^[1] Once a developer receives a project's completion certificate, the law requires it to enter the completed project in the Land Department's ordinary Property Register.^[1] The National reported in 2009 that the registration is made through a system called Oqood.^[5]

Law No. 8 of 2007 requires any developer that wishes to sell units off-plan to apply first for an escrow account in the project's name; buyers' payments are deposited there, and the account is dedicated to the construction of that project alone.^[3] Dubai's fee schedule, set by Executive Council Resolution No. 30 of 2013, charges 4% of the contract value to register a property sale, including off-plan sales, and says the fee is shared equally between seller and buyer unless they agree otherwise.^[4] Law No. 19 of 2020 rewrote Article 11 of the 2008 law, which sets out what a developer may do when a buyer fails to keep up the payments of an off-plan sale agreement.^[2]

Off-plan sales make up most of Dubai's residential market. Khaleej Times reported that they were 76% of residential market activity in the third quarter of 2025, citing the consultancy Cavendish Maxwell, and 70% of sales transactions in the first quarter of 2026, citing figures from Dubai Land Department data.^[16][17] Emirates 24/7, citing the Land Department, reported off-plan sales of AED 139.75 billion in 58,840 transactions in the first half of 2026.^[18] The figures count different things, residential sales against all transactions, so they are not directly comparable.^[16][17][18] The listing platform Homes.me keeps a glossary page on the term and its equivalents for buyers in the UAE.^[19]

Australia

Australian states regulate off-the-plan contracts mainly through cooling-off periods and limits on sunset clauses, the dates by which a project must be finished. New South Wales gives off-the-plan buyers a 10-business-day cooling-off period, and a developer needs the buyer's consent before ending a contract under a sunset clause.^[7] Victoria made a similar change in 2018: a developer may rescind an off-the-plan contract under a sunset clause only with the buyer's written consent or by order of the state's Supreme Court.^[9]

1:08 Walking away after a delay In an April 2026 ABC News report from Newcastle, New South Wales, buyers whose settlement was due in 2023 explain why they have not walked away even though the law allows it when a project runs late.

Canada

British Columbia's Real Estate Development Marketing Act of 2004 lets a buyer of a development unit rescind the purchase agreement by written notice within seven days after the later of the agreement's date or the developer's receipt of the buyer's acknowledgment of the disclosure statement.^[10] In Ontario, buyers of a new condominium unit from a developer have a 10-day cooling-off period in which they may rescind the agreement, according to the Condominium Authority of Ontario and Tarion, the province's new home warranty body.^[11][12]

0:45 Why pre-construction buyers are exposed CBC News explains in February 2026 that a Toronto buyer who agreed to pay $500,000 must make up the difference if the unit is appraised at $400,000 when the deal closes.

United States

No single federal law governs pre-construction sales of condominiums; the rules come mostly from the states. Florida, a large market for them, requires a developer's purchase contract to say in capital letters that the buyer may cancel it by written notice within 15 days after signing.^[13] Deposits can be large: in the Miami project CNBC described in 2023, buyers put down 50% before construction, and that money was not refundable.^[14]

Risks for buyers

Consumer Affairs Victoria lists the risks of buying a home that cannot yet be inspected: an uncertain completion date, finishes of a different quality from those expected, changes to the plans or specifications, limited recourse against the builder in a dispute, and a value at settlement below the contract price, which can make a loan hard to get approved.^[8] The New South Wales government warns that a project may be finished much later than expected, and that the result may differ from what the buyer expected and be worth less than they paid.^[7] Dubai's answer to the risk of payments lost to an unfinished project is the escrow account required by its 2007 law, which is dedicated to building that project.^[3]

1. May 6, 2007 Dubai issues Law No. 8 of 2007, requiring an escrow account before a developer sells units off-plan.^[3]
2. August 14, 2008 Dubai issues Law No. 13 of 2008, creating the Interim Property Register for off-plan sales.^[1]
3. September 18, 2013 Dubai's Executive Council sets the 4% fee for registering a property sale, including off-plan sales.^[4]
4. August 22, 2018 Victoria announces that developers need a buyer's consent or a court order to rescind an off-the-plan contract under a sunset clause.^[9]
5. November 24, 2020 Dubai's Law No. 19 of 2020 replaces the 2008 law's rules on buyers who stop paying.^[2]
6. April 5, 2026 Khaleej Times reports off-plan sales at 70% of Dubai's sales transactions in the first quarter of 2026.^[17]