Answers
Can I get a mortgage on an off plan property before handover?
A short answer, with the article it comes from.
The answer
Yes. Dubai law allows an off plan unit to be mortgaged once it is on the Land Department's interim register, and the Central Bank caps the loan at 50 percent for every buyer. Your own money is paid to the developer first, and the bank pays only against completion milestones that are physically confirmed.
Dubai Law No. 14 of 2008 Article 24; CBUAE Circular 31/2013 Articles 2.1 and 3.2.C; Dubai Land Department mortgage registration fees; checked 2 October 2026.
Article 24 of Dubai Law No. 14 of 2008 provides that a buyer of property "sold off-plan or while under construction may mortgage the same to secure a debt, provided that such Real Property Unit or Real Property is registered on the Interim Real Property Register". Registering the mortgage costs the Land Department's 0.25 percent of the mortgage value, and the trustee's service fee for an Oqood registration is AED 5,000 plus VAT.
The Central Bank sets the rest. Off plan caps at 50 percent "regardless of purpose, value, or category of purchaser". Where stage payments are financed, the lender "must first use owner's equity portion of the construction price to pay the developer/contractor", and its own payments follow completion milestones confirmed by the lender or by an independent qualified agent.
A developer's payment plan and a bank's milestone payments do not always line up, so the cash timetable matters as much as the cap. What finance is available before handover, at handover and after it can differ from bank to bank.
A specialist can map your payment plan against what each bank will fund, and when.
Rules are the easy part. Your file is the question.
Buying off plan? Talk to a Specialist before the next instalment falls due.