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Real estate investment glossary
The most common terms for understanding my project pages and market guides.
- Off-plan
- A property sold from plans, before or during construction, generally at a lower price than a completed property.
- Post-handover
- A payment plan that lets you pay part of the price after handover, rather than in full on delivery.
- Handover
- The handing over of the keys: the moment the completed property is officially delivered to the buyer.
- DLD (Dubai Land Department)
- Dubai's land authority, in charge of registering property transactions and title deeds.
- RERA
- Dubai's real estate regulatory body (Real Estate Regulatory Agency), which notably oversees the escrow accounts of projects under construction.
- Escrow account
- A dedicated bank account in which the funds paid by buyers of an off-plan project are held and released gradually as construction progresses.
- Freehold
- A full ownership regime with no time limit, open to foreigners in certain designated zones.
- Leasehold
- A time-limited ownership regime (often 10 to 99 years), in which the buyer holds a right of occupation without owning the land.
- Gross rental yield
- The annual rent received, relative to the purchase price of the property, expressed as a percentage — before deducting costs.
- Payment plan
- Spreading the payment of a property's price over several instalments tied to construction milestones.
- Investment-linked residence visa
- A residence permit granted subject to a real estate investment, whose duration and threshold vary by scheme (for example 2 or 10 years in Dubai).
- Golden Visa
- The long-term (10-year) residence visa granted in Dubai for a real estate investment from AED 2 million.
- Community / District
- A residential area or a group of projects clustered geographically, used as the reference unit for market statistics.
- SPA (Sale and Purchase Agreement)
- The final sales contract signed between the buyer and the developer, which is legally binding.