Developer
The developer is the company that acquires land, obtains approvals, builds a project and sells its homes; off-plan buyers contract with it directly.
What Developer means for a buyer
When you buy off-plan, the developer is your counterparty for years: it takes your money in stages, builds the home and remains responsible for defects after you move in. Its financial strength and delivery record are therefore as important as the floor plan.
Developers must be licensed and registered with the regulator before they can sell: RERA in Dubai, ADREC in Abu Dhabi. Each off-plan project must be separately registered, with its own escrow account, before units are advertised. You can confirm the developer, the project number, the escrow bank and the reported construction progress on Dubai REST or DARI.
Types differ. Large, often government-linked companies act as master developers, planning whole communities. Smaller private firms, sometimes called sub-developers, buy a plot within such a community and build a single tower or cluster. Both can be sound; the due diligence is different in scale.
What to examine:
- completed projects, and whether they were delivered on the dates first promised
- build quality and service charge levels in those completed buildings, which you can visit
- how the developer treated buyers in earlier downturns
- the number of projects it is selling at once relative to what it has finished
In an off-plan sale the developer pays the selling agent's commission, so the agent's recommendation is not independent advice. Profiles are in the developer directory.
Related terms
Guides that use this term
Where Developer comes up in practice, with the costs, rules and steps around it.
Questions about the buying process?
An adviser can explain how this applies to the property you're considering.
- Current price list and availability, direct from the developer
- No fee to you on off-plan purchases: the developer pays us
- One salaried adviser, not on commission, from first call to handover
