A Dubai payment plan is written as two numbers: 60/40, 80/20, 50/50. The first is the share of the price you pay during construction, in instalments tied to booking and building milestones. The second is the share you pay at handover — or, on a post-handover plan, in the months and years after you take the keys. That is all the structure tells you. It says nothing about the price, and the price is where the cost of the plan is hidden.
The schedule itself — the exact dates and amounts — is issued by the developer against a specific unit at reservation. It is not published at project level, which is why you will not find a payment calculator on this site: it would have to invent the numbers. What we can do is explain how to read the structures you will be offered.
The common structures
An 80/20 plan asks for most of the money during construction. It is the developer's preferred structure because it funds the build, and it is typically offered at the lowest price. A 60/40 or 50/50 plan defers more to handover and suits a buyer who will arrange a mortgage or sell another asset at completion. A 20/80 plan, sometimes called a handover-heavy plan, asks for little during construction and most at the end; it is rarer, usually offered on projects near completion, and it is closest in feel to a ready purchase with a delayed transfer.
Post-handover plans extend the second number past the keys: 60/40 with two years post-handover means 60% during construction, then the remaining 40% in instalments over the two years after you move in. They are attractive because the rent can help pay the balance. They also mean the title deed may carry a note of the outstanding amount until it is settled, and that you owe a developer money while living in the home.
What sits outside the plan
- The Land Department's transfer fee — currently 4% of the price plus an administration charge — is due at Oqood registration, at the start, and is not part of the plan.
- Oqood registration itself carries a charge that developers typically quote at around AED 3,000.
- Service charges begin at handover and are invoiced against the RERA-approved budget, whatever the plan says.
- Utility deposits, cooling connection and, if you let the property, Ejari registration and management fees all start at handover too.
Developers sometimes advertise a DLD waiver — they pay the transfer fee, currently 4%, on your behalf. It is a real discount and it is worth having. It is also a discount that tells you the developer is working to move units, which is useful information.
A plan is a financing arrangement dressed as a sale. Work out what the financing costs you before you decide the sale is a good one.
What a plan really costs
Two identical units in the same tower, one on an 80/20 plan and one on a 60/40 with three years post-handover, will be priced differently. The longer plan carries a premium, sometimes 5% to 10%, because the developer is lending you the balance. Whether that premium is worth it depends on what the money would otherwise cost you and what it would earn you elsewhere. A buyer with cash who takes the long plan to keep cash working is making a sensible trade; a buyer who takes it because the monthly figure looks small is paying interest without noticing.
The honest comparison is to the ready market. If a completed unit next door sells for the same price as the off-plan unit on the long plan, you are paying for the wait as well as the financing. If it sells for meaningfully more, the plan is doing its job. We run that comparison on every project we recommend, with registered sale prices rather than listings.
Questions to ask before you reserve
Ask when each instalment is triggered — by date or by construction milestone — and who certifies the milestone. Ask what happens if you miss an instalment, and how long the cure period is. Ask whether the plan is transferable if you sell before handover, and what share must be paid before the developer will consent. And ask for the schedule in writing against the unit you are considering, because that document, not the brochure, is what you are agreeing to.