ADREC Regulations: How Off-Plan Buyers Are Protected in Abu Dhabi

Written by the Bramwell & Partners advisory team — Abu Dhabi real estate advisors. Last reviewed: September 2026.

Abu Dhabi’s off-plan buyers are protected by a layered system: a dedicated regulator (the Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre, ADREC), a mandatory project escrow account for every development, statutory controls on when developers can touch buyer money, and standardised rules for what happens if either side defaults. Understanding exactly what each layer does — and where it stops — is the difference between a protected purchase and an optimistic one. This guide maps the framework in plain English and turns it into checks you can complete before paying a booking fee.

Key takeaways

• ADREC, established in November 2023 under the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT), is the single regulator for Abu Dhabi real estate — Dubai’s DLD and RERA have no authority here.
• Law No. 3 of 2015, amended by Law No. 2 of 2025 (in force since July 2025), requires every off-plan project to be registered and every buyer payment to sit in a ring-fenced escrow account.
• Developers generally cannot withdraw escrow funds until at least 20% of construction is verified complete; earlier access requires a bank guarantee under Administrative Decision No. 24 of 2025.
• Administrative Decision No. 165 of 2025 sets standardised compensation and refund rules when a buyer defaults — replacing case-by-case negotiation.
• Regulation verifies that a project is registered and that money moves correctly; it does not write your exit terms. Those still live in your SPA.

What ADREC is — and what it actually does

The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre was established in November 2023 by the Department of Municipalities and Transport to consolidate the emirate’s real estate oversight into one body. Before ADREC, regulatory functions were spread across several entities; today ADREC operates across four pillars — strategy, promotion, regulation and transactions management — and delivers close to sixty services, most of them digitally through the TAMM platform.

For an off-plan buyer, ADREC’s practical roles are:

• Licensing developers, brokers and real estate professionals before they can market or sell.
• Registering projects on the Real Estate Development Register — a developer cannot legally sell off-plan units in an unregistered project.
• Supervising project escrow accounts and accrediting the trustee banks that hold them.
• Maintaining the property registers — including the Interim Real Estate Register where your off-plan sale is recorded during construction — via the DARI platform.

The most common mistake in cross-emirate buying advice is confusing the two UAE systems. Dubai’s DLD, RERA and Oqood registration do not govern an Abu Dhabi project. When you verify an Abu Dhabi purchase, you are checking its standing with ADREC through DARI and TAMM — nowhere else. In our transaction work, the buyers who arrive best prepared are the ones who have already separated the two frameworks; the ones who struggle have usually spent weeks verifying a Dubai system that has no standing here.

A typical overseas buyer we work with — an India-based professional purchasing remotely — will have read Dubai-centric guides first and arrive asking about Oqood. The correction takes one conversation: Abu Dhabi records the sale on the Interim Real Estate Register through DARI, and the checks are quick once you know where they live.

The legal backbone: Law No. 3 of 2015 and the 2025 amendments

Abu Dhabi’s Real Estate Sector Regulation Law, Law No. 3 of 2015, set the original framework: developer licensing, project registration, escrow accounts and the off-plan sale process. Law No. 2 of 2025, effective 30 July 2025, substantially strengthened it — expanding regulated activities, making the development register mandatory, hardening escrow protections, creating a statutory procedure for purchaser default, and replacing the old Owners’ Union model with elected Owners’ Committees.

Four implementing decisions issued in 2025 put the amendments into effect:

Decision	What it covers	Why buyers should care
No. 24 of 2025	Controls on disbursing escrow funds before 20% construction completion	Your money stays locked until the building is verifiably underway
No. 25 of 2025	Ownership rights and management of jointly owned property and common areas	Defines who controls and pays for shared facilities after handover
No. 26 of 2025	Standard bylaws for Owners’ Committees	Developers are excluded; owners govern through elected committees
No. 165 of 2025	Compensation percentages, refund procedures and timelines when an off-plan buyer defaults	What you stand to lose if you miss payments is now standardised, not negotiated

Together these measures cover the full lifecycle of a project — registration, construction funding, handover and community governance — rather than isolated fixes.

The escrow account: how your money is protected

Every off-plan project in Abu Dhabi must have its own escrow account, opened with an ADREC-accredited trustee bank before a single unit is sold. The rules are strict:

• All buyer payments — booking, instalments, and any project finance — must go into this account.
• Funds are ring-fenced to that project (and phase). They cannot be used for land purchases, broker commissions or the developer’s other projects, and they are protected from the developer’s creditors.
• Withdrawals are milestone-linked. Under Article 19 as amended, no funds may be disbursed until at least 20% of construction works are complete, verified by ADREC-approved engineering consultants. Earlier disbursement is possible only where the developer posts an unconditional bank guarantee of at least 20% of construction value under Decision No. 24 of 2025.
• Buyers can verify the account. A registered project’s escrow details are visible through the DARI platform.

Escrow is structural protection, not a completion guarantee. It controls how money is held and released; it does not promise an on-time handover. That is why the developer’s delivery record still matters alongside the escrow framework — something we assess project by project on our off-plan listings. When we review a project for a client, the two details we confirm first are the trustee bank’s identity and the exact account name on the payment invoice — both are verifiable through DARI, and both are occasionally mis-stated in marketing packs.

Registration: DARI, the Interim Register and the 2% fee

Once you sign the SPA, the developer must register the sale on the Interim Real Estate Register through DARI. That entry is your proof of position until the title deed is issued at completion. Two practical points:

• The fee is 2% of the purchase price (ADREC/DARI guidance, as of September 2026). Under Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2018 the fee is legally split between buyer and developer unless agreed otherwise — so confirm the allocation on your deal. A DARI e-services fee (a few hundred dirhams) applies on top.
• Late registration is penalised. Developers face a AED 10,000 penalty if they fail to register within the statutory window after contract signing (per ADREC/DMT registration rules, as of September 2026) — which gives you a lever to insist it happens promptly. Confirming that registration actually occurred is one of the most useful checks a buyer can make, and one of the most commonly skipped. When we walk clients through this stage, we ask the developer for the DARI certificate of sale as a matter of routine — it takes minutes to produce when registration is done, and hesitation is itself an answer. For the wider purchase journey around these checks, see our complete guide to off-plan property in Abu Dhabi.

Your SPA: where protection meets reality

Regulation sets the floor; the Sale and Purchase Agreement sets your actual position. The clauses that matter most:

• Handover date and grace period — what happens if completion slips, and what compensation applies.
• Force majeure wording — what events excuse the developer, and for how long.
• Cancellation and default terms — the 2025 framework introduced a self-executing termination procedure (notice periods, Department notification, settlement window and resale clearance), and Decision No. 165 of 2025 standardises what a developer may retain if a buyer defaults, scaled by construction stage.
• Assignment clause — whether and when you can resell before handover, and at what fee.
• Specification schedule — the finishes and fittings that are contractually binding, as opposed to marketing renders.

Regulation will not rewrite a clause you agreed to. On any purchase above AED 1 million, an independent review of the SPA by a UAE-qualified property lawyer is money well spent.

Defects and post-handover protection

Abu Dhabi law adds two layers after completion:

• A one-year defect liability period, during which the developer must remedy snagging defects identified at or after handover.
• A ten-year structural liability under Article 73 of Law No. 3 of 2015 for defects affecting the safety of the building, running from the completion certificate.

After handover, governance of common areas passes to an Owners’ Committee under Decisions 25 and 26 of 2025 — elected by owners, with developers excluded — replacing the older developer-influenced Owners’ Union structure.

How Abu Dhabi’s protection compares with Dubai’s

Protection	Abu Dhabi (ADREC)	Dubai (DLD/RERA)
Governing law	Law No. 3 of 2015, amended by Law No. 2 of 2025	Law No. 8 of 2007 (escrow); Law No. 13 of 2008 (interim register)
Escrow account	Mandatory, per project/phase; ring-fenced	Mandatory, per project; ring-fenced
Withdrawal threshold	Barred until 20% construction verified (bank-guarantee exception)	Released against certified milestones; developer must fund 20% of construction cost upfront
Off-plan registration	DARI Interim Register	Oqood
Buyer default	Standardised compensation under Decision 165/2025	Graduated retention under Law No. 19 of 2017
Registration fee	2% (split by default)	4% (buyer in practice)

Both frameworks are among the most protective globally. Abu Dhabi’s is newer — and was materially tightened in 2025.

Expert view from Bramwell & Partners

"When clients ask whether Abu Dhabi off-plan is ‘safe’, our answer is that the 2025 reforms made the framework genuinely strong — the 20% escrow threshold and the standardised default rules removed most of the old grey areas. But protection only works if you use it: verify the project on DARI, pay only into the named escrow account, and read the delay and default clauses before you sign. We run these checks for clients as standard, because they take an hour and they decide everything." — Bramwell & Partners Real Estate advisory team

Your pre-payment checklist

Before any money moves, confirm:

1. The developer’s ADREC licence and the project’s registration on the Real Estate Development Register.
2. The project’s escrow account details through DARI — and that your payment instructions match them exactly.
3. The exact legal names of developer and project across marketing, register and SPA.
4. Who pays the 2% registration fee on your deal, in writing.
5. The SPA’s handover date, grace period, delay remedy and cancellation terms.
6. The buyer-default provisions against the Decision 165/2025 schedule.
7. The assignment clause if there is any chance you will exit before handover.

Frequently asked questions

Who regulates off-plan property in Abu Dhabi?

The Abu Dhabi Real Estate Centre (ADREC), operating under the Department of Municipalities and Transport. ADREC licenses developers and brokers, registers projects, supervises escrow accounts and maintains the property registers through DARI. Dubai’s DLD and RERA have no jurisdiction over Abu Dhabi projects.

When did the new Abu Dhabi off-plan rules take effect?

Law No. 2 of 2025, amending Law No. 3 of 2015, came into force on 30 July 2025. Four implementing decisions — Nos. 24, 25, 26 and 165 of 2025 — followed through 2025, covering escrow disbursement, jointly owned property, owners’ committees and buyer-default compensation.

Can a developer use my payments for another project?

No. Each project (and phase) has its own escrow account, and the law restricts the funds to that project’s construction and completion costs. The deposits are also protected from the developer’s creditors.

What is the 20% construction rule?

Developers generally cannot withdraw money from the project escrow account until at least 20% of construction works are verified complete by approved engineering consultants. Earlier access is possible only with an unconditional bank guarantee of at least 20% of construction value, under Administrative Decision No. 24 of 2025.

What happens if I miss an instalment?

Missing a payment is buyer default, governed by the SPA and the statutory termination procedure introduced in 2025. Administrative Decision No. 165 of 2025 sets standardised compensation percentages and refund timelines scaled by construction stage — read your contract against these before you sign.

What protection do I have after handover?

A one-year defect liability period covers snagging issues, and Article 73 of Law No. 3 of 2015 imposes ten-year developer liability for structural defects affecting building safety. Common areas are then governed by an elected Owners’ Committee under the 2025 bylaws.

Does Abu Dhabi use Oqood like Dubai?

No. Oqood is Dubai’s interim registration system. Abu Dhabi records off-plan sales on the Interim Real Estate Register through the DARI platform, with a 2% registration fee.

How we verify this guide: Prepared from official sources — ADREC and DMT guidance, Abu Dhabi Law No. 3 of 2015 (as amended by Law No. 2 of 2025), Administrative Decisions Nos. 24, 25, 26 and 165 of 2025 and Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2018, all checked in September 2026 — and from our transaction work with off-plan buyers in the capital. Figures and procedures are indicative at the time of writing and are confirmed for your specific purchase at enquiry.

Disclosure: Bramwell & Partners may act for buyers in some projects mentioned; our analysis is independent of developers.

Verify before you buy — with Bramwell & Partners

ADREC’s framework gives Abu Dhabi off-plan buyers a genuinely strong set of protections, but every one of them has to be confirmed on your specific project before money moves. Bramwell & Partners Real Estate verifies registration, escrow accounts and SPA terms as a standard part of our buyer advisory. Explore current launches on our off-plan page or ready homes on our properties page, and contact our team for a pre-reservation review of any project you are considering.

This guide is for buyer education and does not replace legal advice on a specific SPA. Regulatory references: ADREC, DMT, Abu Dhabi Law No. 3 of 2015 (as amended by Law No. 2 of 2025), Administrative Decisions Nos. 24, 25, 26 and 165 of 2025, and Executive Council Resolution No. 49 of 2018. The Arabic text of legislation prevails; confirm current requirements with ADREC before committing.