Dubai off-plan with 70/30 payment plan
9 live Dubai off-plan projects offer a 70/30 payment plan — the schedule that has you paying 70% of the price across construction and the final 30% on handover. Entry prices in this catalogue start at AED 765K, with a median of AED 2.35M and premium tower stock reaching AED 13M.
A 70/30 split is the middle-ground plan in Dubai off-plan: less front-loaded than 80/20 or 90/10, more disciplined than 60/40 or the long post-handover tails. The 30% handover cheque is the number that matters most — on an AED 1.5M unit that's AED 450K due when the developer hands you the keys, which is the moment most buyers plan around for mortgage bridging or resale timing.
Most Dubai 70/30 inventory in this catalogue clusters around Binghatti Developers, Ellington, Damac Properties on the developer side, and Dubai Investment Park, Business Bay on the area side. Every project card below links through to that project's payment-plan block where the exact 70/30 phasing (down-payment, construction milestones, handover) is laid out.
How a Dubai 70/30 payment plan actually works
A 70/30 payment plan splits an off-plan unit's price into two phases: 70% paid across the construction period (booking + construction-linked milestones), and 30% paid at handover — the moment the developer signs the unit over and you take the keys. Every project on this page offers at least one plan option annotated 70/30 or 30/70in the developer's own collateral. The exact milestone structure (how the 70% is broken into stages) is set by the developer and disclosed inside the Sales & Purchase Agreement.
Across the 9 live Dubai 70/30 projects in this catalogue, the most common construction-side shape is a 20% booking down-payment followed by 50% split across four to six construction milestones (piling, structure, MEP, finishing), with the remaining 30% due on handover. A minority of projects (notably some Damac and premium Binghatti launches) offer a 70/30 with a short post-handover tail — 30% split across 6-12 months after keys — but that's the exception, not the rule.
Worked example: AED 2.35M unit on a Dubai 70/30 plan
Take a median-priced Dubai 70/30 project at AED 2.35M. The cashflow looks like this:
- Booking (20%): AED 470,000 due at signing plus a 4% DLD transfer fee of AED 94,000 and roughly AED 4,000 in Oqood/registration fees. Cash to close the booking: about AED 568,000.
- Construction (50%): AED 1,175,000 spread across the build (typically 24-36 months), broken into four to six milestone-triggered instalments.
- Handover (30%): AED 705,000 due when the developer hands over the unit. This is the number that most buyers plan around: mortgage bridging, secondary-market resale timing, or Golden Visa closing all pivot on this handover cheque.
Total cash outlay by handover: AED 1,645,000 on the construction side, plus AED 705,000 at handover — 100% of the price, with the 30% back-loaded to the moment the unit is ready to rent, resell or occupy.
70/30 vs 80/20: which suits you
Both are front-loaded plans that fully complete by handover (no post-handover tail). The 10% swing between them changes the answer depending on your exit strategy:
- Handover cheque size — 70/30 leaves 30% due at handover; 80/20 leaves 20%. On an AED 1.5M unit that's AED 450K vs AED 300K — the 80/20 buyer parts with a smaller final cheque but has already paid AED 1.2M by handover.
- Construction-phase cashflow — 70/30 keeps more of your capital liquid during the build. On a 30-month construction period, 70/30 has you paying about AED 40K/ month (on median-priced stock) vs about AED 47K/month on 80/20. If you're staggering purchases across multiple off-plan units, that difference compounds.
- Mortgage bridging — 80/20 is easier to bridge with a mortgage because only 20% is due at the moment the unit becomes eligible for bank financing. 70/30 requires you to source 30% of the price in liquid capital at handover (or bring in a bridging lender for the gap).
- Resale timing — both plans let you resell on the secondary market once the developer's SPA milestones are met (usually 30-40% paid). 70/30 hits the resell-eligible threshold marginally earlier than 80/20 given the same milestone distribution.
70/30 vs 60/40 and post-handover plans
Going the other way — a 60/40 or a post-handover plan — the trade-off flips:
- 60/40 splits mean 40% is due at handover. On an AED 1.5M unit that's AED 600K — a AED 150K bigger handover cheque than 70/30, in exchange for a lighter construction-phase burden.
- Post-handover plans (see the post-handover shelf) push part of the price past the handover milestone entirely — typically 20-40% split across 1-5 years of monthly instalments after the unit is ready. Better for buy-to-let (rent offsets the tail), slightly higher headline price (developers price the flexibility in).
- 70/30 is the disciplined middle: no post-handover tail (you close the schedule at handover), but not as front-loaded as 80/20 or 90/10. Popular with resident buyers who want to close the schedule at handover and refinance with a mortgage from that point.
How to read a 70/30 schedule on a project page
Every project card below links through to its individual payment-plan block. Look for four numbers:
- Booking % — the down-payment (usually 10-20% on a 70/30 plan).
- Construction milestone breakdown — how the 40-60% during the build is triggered (piling, structure, MEP, finishing).
- Handover % — the 30% cheque due when keys change hands. This defines the plan.
- Post-handover months (if any) — most 70/30 plans have zero post-handover months. A handful stretch the 30% across 6-12 post-handover instalments; those cases usually get flagged separately in the payment-plan block.
For the wider framework see how payment plans actually work, or the full payment-plans hub which lists every project with an attractive plan across all split shapes.
