Ahmadreza SamadiThe money has a project name
Fictional buyer Rami sees a beautiful model of an unfinished building. His useful question is not only what it will look like, but which records support the payment instructions. No real project or account is represented here.
English animated explainer with synthetic narration and English captions. Rami, the engineer, the canal district, the model city and the project are fictional. The model is an analogy, not a real bank interface, property inspection or actual transaction. No affiliation with Dubai Land Department is claimed.
Read the English film transcript
Rami is looking at an unfinished tower in a fictional canal district. He’s thinking about buying a flat off-plan. His question is simple. When buyers pay before the building is finished, where does that money go? A developer’s ordinary money pot and a project escrow
account are different ideas. In Dubai, the Land Department says an escrow account must be opened in the name of the project, and used only for developing that project. Money received from off-plan buyers goes into that project’s account, which is managed by an approved
bank or financial institution, called the account trustee. So how does money come out? The Land Department’s FAQ describes major construction stages, set out in a written agreement. When the developer reports a stage complete, the trustee’s engineer visits the site to check it. After
that check, the trustee can release payments to the project’s service providers. Our miniature city is an analogy. It isn’t a real bank screen, or a promise that every contract follows one schedule. Escrow is a control on where money goes and how it’s released.
It isn’t a promise that a building finishes on time, that an investment makes money, or that a refund is automatic. Your own payments, and any dispute, depend on your actual contract and the rules that apply. So before you rely on a brochure, check
three things. Match the exact project. Verify the official project and account details. And check the project’s status through official channels. A beautiful model shows the building someone plans. The records show what you can verify. Ahmadreza Samadi. More at a-samadi.com