Option 1
Keep paying to handover
You keep the unit and fund every remaining instalment.
- Still to pay the developer
- AED 1,460,000
- Value at today's price
- Add today's price to see this
Seller exit calculator
Can't keep paying? Compare your three ways out
Enter your numbers to see what it costs to keep paying, what Dubai law lets your developer keep if you stop, and what selling your contract could bring — before you miss an instalment.
- Based on Article 11 of Dubai Law No. (13) of 2008, as replaced in 2020
- Results update as you type
- Nothing you enter is saved or sent, unless you choose to send it to us on WhatsApp
Your numbers
Use the figures in your SPA and your latest statement of account.
The unit price in your SPA.
27% of the price
Your developer's latest update. The law uses the project's official completion percentage, as stated in DLD's document and calculated under RERA's standards, not the share you've paid. Enter it exactly, decimals included.
Optional
What a comparable unit resells for today: resale asking prices are a better guide than the developer's launch price list. Left blank, we assume it equals your purchase price.
Optional
Used to show the average monthly amount you'd still need.
Your three ways out
Selling looks better than stopping payments
A sale in the range below would leave you AED 200,000 to AED 400,000 more than the refund you could expect if you stop paying.
Check your developer's resale rules first: many only issue a resale NOC once 30–40% of the price is paid, and you've paid 27%.
Option 2
Stop paying
What Dubai law lets the developer do after you default.
Rule that applies
Works started, below 60%
Cancel the contract and keep up to 25% of the price.
- Most the developer may keep (25% of the price)
- AED 500,000
- You could lose
- AED 500,000
- Shown against what you've paid. Check your SPA for any further claim.
- Refund due if the developer cancels
- AED 40,000
- Within one year of termination, or 60 days after the unit is resold — whichever comes first.
First the developer must notify DLD, and DLD must give you 30 days to meet your obligations, usually by paying what's overdue.
Option 3
Sell your contract through OffplanDistress
A buyer pays you for your equity and takes over the remaining instalments.
- Value of your position
- AED 540,000
- Paid so far + (today's price − your price)
- Quick-sale range
- AED 240,000 – 440,000
- Our assumption: to buy fast, a buyer wants 5–15% off today's price for the whole unit, and that comes out of your equity. Not a valuation.
- Our fee to you
- AED 0
- The buyer pays our 2% + VAT
- Developer NOC fee (estimate)
- ≈ AED 5,000
- Set by each developer and confirmed when the NOC is issued. In our deals it's part of the buyer's closing costs.
- You could receive
- AED 240,000 – 440,000
- The buyer also takes over the AED 1,460,000 still owed to the developer.
- We've assumed today's price equals your purchase price. Add today's price for a sharper estimate.
- Many developers only issue a resale NOC after 30–40% is paid. We'll check your developer's policy and tell you your options.
Your options
Three ways out of an off-plan payment plan
Each path has a different cost. The calculator above puts numbers on all three.
Keep paying
You keep the unit and any gain or loss at handover, but you must fund every remaining instalment, including any handover payment in your plan.
Stop paying
Missing instalments doesn't end the contract. The developer goes through DLD and, once the 30-day notice runs out and DLD confirms the procedure, may cancel and keep part of the price, depending on construction progress. Above 80% it may instead keep the contract and claim the balance, or have the unit auctioned. If works haven't started for reasons beyond its control, it must refund you in full.
Sell the contract
An assignment: a buyer pays you for what you've paid in and takes over the remaining instalments, with the developer's NOC and a DLD transfer. You choose the price and the timing.
The law
What a developer may do if you stop paying
Off-plan defaults in Dubai follow a set procedure through the Dubai Land Department (DLD). What the developer may keep depends on how far construction has progressed.
Law No. (13) of 2008 Regulating the Interim Real Property Register in the Emirate of Dubai — Article 11, as replaced by Law No. (19) of 2020.
Last updated October 2026Step 1
The developer notifies DLD
On DLD's prescribed form, setting out the obligations you haven't met.
Step 2
You get 30 days
DLD serves you a written notice giving you 30 days to meet your obligations under the SPA, which usually means paying what's overdue. Where possible it also tries to reach an amicable settlement, recorded in an addendum you both sign.
Step 3
DLD confirms, the developer acts
If you neither pay nor reach a settlement within the 30 days, DLD issues a document confirming the developer followed the procedure and stating the completion percentage, calculated under RERA's standards. The developer can then act on that percentage without going to court or arbitration. You can still go to court or arbitration yourself if you think it hasn't followed the law.
What the developer may or must do, by construction progress
- Above 80% complete
- ≤ 40% if it cancelsThe developer may choose to keep the contract, keep everything you've paid and claim the balance; to ask DLD to sell the unit at public auction to recover what you owe, with the sale costs charged to you; or to cancel, keep up to 40% of the price and refund the rest.
- 60% to 80% complete (both included)
- ≤ 40%Cancel the contract and keep up to 40% of the price.
- Works started, below 60%
- ≤ 25%Cancel the contract and keep up to 25% of the price.
- Not started, or cancelled by RERA
- The developer must refund everything you've paid, under the procedures of Dubai's escrow law (Law No. 8 of 2007), where works haven't started for reasons beyond its control and without its own negligence, or where RERA has cancelled the project by a final decision. If works haven't started for another reason, take legal advice.
- When the developer cancels and keeps a share, it must refund the rest within one year of termination, or within 60 days of reselling the unit to another buyer, whichever is earlier.
- The 25% and 40% limits are percentages of the unit price in your SPA — not of the amount you've paid.
- The 25% and 40% figures are the most the developer may keep when it cancels, not amounts it is automatically owed. Completion is the project's official percentage stated in DLD's document, calculated under RERA's standards.
- Before the 2020 amendment, where works hadn't started for reasons beyond the developer's control, it could keep up to 30% of the amounts paid. That is no longer the rule: it must now refund everything.
FAQ
Questions sellers ask
Can the developer cancel my unit if I miss one instalment?
Not straight away. The developer must first notify the Dubai Land Department, which gives you 30 days to pay or settle. Only after that, and DLD's confirmation, can the developer act — and how much it may keep depends on construction progress.
Can I sell my unit before I've finished paying?
Usually, yes, through an assignment (a resale before handover). The buyer pays you for what you've paid in and takes over the remaining instalments. The developer has to issue a NOC, and many only do so once 30–40% of the price is paid.
How do you estimate what my position is worth?
We take what you've paid and add or subtract the difference between today's price for a similar unit and your purchase price. A quick sale usually needs a sharper price: buyers want 5–15% off the whole unit, and that discount comes out of your equity, so we show that range. It's an estimate, not a valuation — we check real comparables when you list.
What does it cost me to sell through OffplanDistress?
Nothing. Listing is free and the buyer pays our 2% + VAT, only when the transfer completes. The developer's NOC fee and DLD's transfer fee are part of the buyer's closing costs.
Important
General information only, not legal advice. Results are estimates based on the figures you enter and on Article 11 of Dubai Law No. (13) of 2008, as replaced by Law No. (19) of 2020, under the rules in force as we understand them in October 2026. They are not a valuation or an offer. The percentages are maximums, not amounts the developer is owed, and they apply in Dubai only. Article 11 applies whatever your SPA says, but your SPA, your developer's choices and the official completion percentage still shape the outcome. Check your SPA, confirm your position with DLD and speak to a qualified lawyer before you stop paying.
How it worksHave a unit you can't keep paying for?
List it in ten minutes. We verify it, find the buyer and handle the NOC and transfer. Free until it's sold.