Oqood: The Off-Plan Interim Register
Oqood is DLD’s portal for the interim register of off-plan sales. Law 13/2008: no entry, the sale is void. Service card: register within 90 days of the SPA.
Buying off-plan in Dubai (a home sold before it is finished) starts with a sale and purchase agreement — the SPA, the contract that commits buyer and developer. That signature is not yet ownership. Ownership is the title deed Dubai Land Department (DLD — Dubai’s land registry) issues when the unit is entered in the main Property Register. Between those two moments sits a third document most first-time buyers hear as a nickname: Oqood.
Oqood is the developer-facing portal DLD uses to register off-plan sales in the Interim Property Register (also called the provisional register). The primary service page is DLD’s Request to register the initial sale. The legal frame is Law No. 13 of 2008 Regulating the Interim Property Register, as amended, summarised for investors in DLD’s Know Your Rights booklet.
What the law prints
Article 3 of Law 13/2008 is blunt: any disposition of a unit sold off-plan must be entered in the Interim Property Register. A sale or other legal disposition that transfers or restricts ownership — or any ancillary rights — is void unless it is entered in that register. Know Your Rights repeats the same rule for off-plan disposals (sale, long-term lease, musataha, mortgage and other disposals): register on the Interim Real Estate Register, or the disposal is null and void.
That is why Oqood matters on day one. The SPA binds the parties. The interim entry is what makes the off-plan sale count on DLD’s books before the building is finished. It is still not the title deed. Completion moves the unit from the interim register into the Property Register once the developer has a completion certificate and the purchaser has fulfilled contractual obligations (Article 8 of the same law).
What the DLD service page prints
The service lets a developer register units sold off-plan — or land plots whose value has not been fully paid — in the provisional register. The developer logs into the Oqood / Real Estate Developers portal, selects provisional sale registration, fills property and purchaser details, attaches documents, chooses payment, and submits online. The printed output is a provisional registration e-certificate, emailed to the purchaser.
Conditions on that page include: the SPA must be signed by developer and purchaser; and the sale and purchase contract must be registered in the provisional register within 90 days from the date of signing. Fees printed on the same card: seller 2% of the sale value, purchaser 2% of the sale value, plus AED 10 knowledge fees and AED 10 innovation fees; developer self-registration on the Oqood portal carries an AED 1,000 fee for provisional sale. Treat those as the live service card — recheck DLD before you brief a client.
Investor check
Before you treat an off-plan file as real, ask for the interim registration path: Was the project approved and registered with DLD/RERA (the Real Estate Regulatory Agency, DLD’s regulatory arm) before marketing? Is there a project escrow account (the protected construction account Law 8/2007 requires)? Has the SPA been lodged in Oqood within the printed 90 days? Do you hold the provisional registration e-certificate?
Know Your Rights lists the same pre-SPA checks: project registered with RERA, escrow account number and agent name, completion percentage and expected date, developer registration and land title or development agreement, and permits to sell off-plan. A brochure, a WhatsApp booking form, or a “reservation” without an interim entry is not yet a DLD file. This is orientation, not personalised legal, tax or investment advice. Recheck the DLD service page and the SPA before you pay the next tranche.
Agent check
Brief the printed stack, not the nickname alone: SPA signed → Oqood provisional registration within 90 days → provisional e-certificate to the purchaser → later, title deed in the Property Register when the project is complete and obligations are met. Do not tell a client that “Oqood” is already the deed. Do not invent a fee split that is not on the DLD card. Do not sell a unit in a project that is not yet approved — Law 13 Article 10 and the implementing bylaw print that such contracts are null and void.
If the buyer asks whether escrow replaces Oqood, the honest answer is no: escrow protects construction cash; the interim register records the off-plan disposition. Both sit under DLD/RERA. If they ask whether a late registration still happens, the implementing bylaw of Law 13 prints that DLD still registers a late developer request and may fine the developer AED 10,000 — that is a developer compliance fact, not a buyer’s comfort blanket.
What we did not claim
We did not invent a 2026 visitor count, a market-wide Oqood backlog, or a private fee schedule. We did not treat a broker flyer as the wording of record. Primaries cited: DLD Request to register the initial sale (Oqood / provisional register); DLD Know Your Rights — For Real Estate Investors in Dubai; Law No. 13 of 2008 Regulating the Interim Property Register (as amended), English compilation on dubailand.gov.ae.
Related files on the same desk: Escrow in Dubai: The Off-Plan Safety Check, How to Read Dubai Off-Plan Payment Plans, First-Home QR Code Is Not a Title Deed, Ejari Registers the Lease, Not the Sale, Off-Plan Shake-Up: Pay for Progress.
