--- title: "The off-plan question to ask a developer before signing" description: "Before you bring a buyer to a Dubai developer's sales desk, one question determines whether you'll get paid — and when. Here's what it is." category: "off-plan-developers" readingTime: 11 --- ## The scene every Dubai agent knows You've spent three weeks qualifying a buyer. You've shown them seven units across four projects. You've answered their WhatsApp messages at eleven at night. You bring them to a developer's launch event on a Saturday morning, they fall in love with a unit, and they sign the SPA before lunch. Two other brokers at your agency were also present. Your agency lead insists on keeping the commission relationship with the developer "internal." The referring agency — the one that originally introduced the buyer to your firm — hasn't signed anything formal. The developer has your agency's name on the booking form, but no written agreement exists that specifies how the commission is split between the two agents, or between your agency and the referring office. Six weeks later, the developer pays your agency. Your agency pays you. But the referring office has been calling every three days asking where their share is. Nobody can agree on what was actually promised. This is not an unusual story. It plays out constantly across Dubai's off-plan market. The market has never been larger — off-plan transactions accounted for over 60% of total Dubai property sales by volume in 2024 — and the velocity of launches, the number of agents co-operating on single deals, and the gap between booking and commission payment all create conditions where disputes are easy to start and slow to resolve. The question that prevents most of this trouble is simple. But most agents never ask it. ## What the question actually is **"Who will be named on the commission payment, and what documentation will the developer accept before releasing funds to more than one party?"** That is the full question. Not just "what is the commission rate?" Not just "when do you pay?" Both of those are important, but they are secondary. The upstream question — the one that determines whether every party in a shared deal gets paid cleanly and at the same time — is whether the developer's back office has a mechanism to acknowledge and pay multiple brokers on a single booking, and what they need in writing before they will do it. Developers vary enormously on this. Some have a formalised process: they accept a co-brokerage agreement alongside the booking and issue commission to each party independently. Others pay only the registered listing agency and treat the internal split as that agency's problem. A smaller number pay only after the second or third milestone instalment, not at booking at all. None of these policies is inherently wrong. But if you do not know which policy applies before your client signs, you have already created a situation where your split depends on a phone call instead of a contract. ## How off-plan commission actually flows To understand why the question matters, it helps to be precise about how the money moves. In Dubai off-plan, the developer pays the broker's commission — not the buyer. The price a buyer pays for a unit is the developer's list price whether they come through a broker or walk into the sales office directly. This means the commission relationship is entirely between the developer and the brokerage or brokerages involved. The buyer is largely invisible to it. RERA requires all commission agreements between developers and brokerages to be registered. This ensures transparency and protects both parties. In practice, this means a brokerage that wants to earn commission on a developer's project must have a registered agency agreement with that developer. A Dubai real estate brokerage cannot earn commission on a project without a registered agency agreement. Developers do not pay commissions at the point of sale. The standard payment schedule for a Dubai brokerage ties commission release to buyer payment milestones. Most developers release 50% of the commission after the buyer's first payment clears and the remaining 50% after the second or third instalment. This creates a 30 to 90 day lag between the sale and full commission receipt. There is also a cancellation exposure. Clawback clauses protect developers from commission fraud. If a buyer cancels within 30 to 60 days of booking, the developer claws back 100% of the commission paid. So the agent's financial position at the point of booking is this: commission is confirmed in principle, not yet paid, payment is staged, and the entire amount can disappear if the buyer walks. Any split arrangement between agents is layered on top of all of that. The more layers of verbal agreement there are, the more surfaces a dispute can form on. ## The co-brokerage framework Dubai provides — and where it applies Dubai's regulatory system has clear tools for documenting co-operation between agents. When a seller's listed agent and a buyer's agent work in collaboration on a property, they are supposed to sign Form I. This form is an agreement between RERA-certified agents that secures the brokers' clients, their listings, and states their commission split. Form I binds the two agents in a professional relationship. Form I specifies the property in question, the names and RERA registration details of both agents, the commission split arrangement, confidentiality obligations regarding client information, and terms governing how the agents will cooperate through the transaction. Before a buyer's agent can arrange viewings, share the property's details, or participate in negotiations, both agents must sign Form I. This protects the listing agent's client relationship, ensures the buyer's agent receives their agreed share of commission, and prevents disputes about who facilitated the sale. When multiple agents are involved in the same listing, commissions are split between them according to signed RERA forms. This ensures transparency and avoids disputes. That is the system as designed. The gap in off-plan, however, is that Form I governs the relationship between agents. It does not bind the developer. The developer's obligation to pay runs to the registered listing agency — whoever has the agency agreement on file. If that agency receives the full commission and then disputes the split internally, the other agent's Form I does not give them a direct claim against the developer. Their claim is against the agency that received the money. This is a structural feature of how off-plan commission flows, not a defect or a bad-faith move by developers. It is simply the reality: the developer has one registered counterpart. Everything downstream of that is the agencies' responsibility. Which is exactly why the question to ask the developer is so important. ## What a developer's answer reveals When you ask "who will be named on the commission payment, and what documentation do you need before releasing funds to more than one party?", the developer's sales team will respond in one of several ways. Each response tells you something useful. **"We pay the registered agency only."** This is honest and common. It means the split is entirely between the agencies involved, not something the developer administers. Your immediate follow-up question is internal: does your agency have a signed, written split agreement with the co-operating agency before the booking is made? If not, you are relying on goodwill. **"We can issue to two parties if we receive a co-brokerage agreement before booking."** This is the best possible answer. It means the developer's back office can formally acknowledge both parties and send commission separately. Your job is to have that agreement signed and submitted before the client pays the booking amount — not after. **"We'll sort it out after the sale."** This is not an answer. "After the sale" means after the developer has the buyer's booking amount and the deal is emotionally closed. Your leverage to agree terms disappears the moment the client hands over their cheque. Any arrangement agreed after booking is goodwill on the part of the receiving party, not a binding commitment. **"Ask the project sales manager, they handle that."** Acceptable — as long as you actually follow up before booking, not after. The worst version of this answer is the one where the agent nods, intends to follow up, and then the launch event moves so fast that the buyer is signing before anything has been agreed. The answer you get is not just logistical information. It is a signal about how professionally the developer manages their broker relationships. A developer who has a clear, pre-agreed process for co-brokerage documentation tends also to be a developer who pays on time, communicates milestones accurately, and maintains clean records. The quality of their answer to this question often correlates with the quality of their overall broker management. ## The Oqood moment and why timing is everything All sale contracts must be registered through Oqood before the developer can collect any payment from the buyer. The SPA must be registered through Oqood and should clearly set out the unit description, purchase price, payment schedule linked to construction milestones, estimated completion date, handover conditions, and the consequences of delay or default by either party. The Oqood registration is the point at which the deal becomes official in the DLD's records. It is also, practically speaking, the point at which the developer's internal processes move from "pending booking" to "confirmed sale." Before Oqood, everything is adjustable. After Oqood, the developer's paperwork is filed and their back office is running. Trying to insert a co-brokerage payment arrangement after this point is like trying to amend a Form F after the signatures are on the page — technically possible, practically difficult, and always awkward. The window for agreeing the split and getting the developer to acknowledge it is narrow: from the moment you confirm the client is ready to book, to the moment the booking form is signed. In a busy launch event, that window can be twenty minutes long. This is why preparation matters more than persuasion. The agent who walks into a developer's launch having already spoken to the sales manager, already confirmed the co-brokerage documentation process, and already has a signed split agreement with the co-operating agency is in a completely different position from the agent who plans to sort it out later. ## What happens to the split when a buyer cancels This deserves its own section because it is where most commission disputes become genuinely ugly. The scenario: two agencies co-operate on a booking. They have a verbal agreement — or even a written one — on the split. The developer pays the first commission tranche to the registered agency. That agency has not yet passed the agreed share to the co-operating agency. Then the buyer cancels, and the developer claws back the commission. Now the registered agency has a negative commission position with the developer. The co-operating agency has received nothing. And the question of who owes what to whom is now being argued between agencies who have no client in common anymore, no shared interest in continuing the relationship, and, frequently, no signed agreement that covers what happens on cancellation. The documented split agreement must address cancellation explicitly. Who bears the clawback risk? Is the co-operating agency exposed to repayment if the booking unwinds? Or does the agreement specify that the split applies only to net commission actually received and retained? This is not a theoretical concern. Brokerage and commission disputes occur where parties disagree on whether commission is payable, whether a broker introduced the transaction, or whether the broker acted within proper authority. The cancellation scenario sits squarely in all three categories simultaneously. And good documentation often decides the strength of a real estate dispute. A split agreement that was drafted before booking, signed by both agencies, and specifies the cancellation position is worth considerably more than an email thread and a WhatsApp screenshot. If it also includes how and when the registered agency will pass the co-operating agency's share on receipt from the developer, it closes virtually every gap a dispute needs to take hold. ## The developer relationship is one layer; the inter-agency relationship is another It is worth being clear about the boundary here. The developer has a single obligation: to pay the commission they agreed to pay to the registered brokerage, at the milestones they specified, in the amounts stated. Everything the developer does with its commission policy is commercial and legitimate. The co-operating agency's claim sits between the agencies. An agent-to-agent (A2A) contract is a formal agreement between two licensed real estate brokers or agencies in Dubai, outlining the terms of collaboration on a shared listing or deal. It is a key component in co-broking, helping define each party's responsibilities and commission splits, and avoiding future disputes. It is a written commitment that protects both brokers and ensures transparency during a real estate transaction. Any time two brokers collaborate on a listing or share client information, it is best practice to have this agreement in place before sharing full details. The discipline is simply this: the agency relationship with the developer and the agency-to-agency relationship need to be documented simultaneously, before any buyer is brought to a booking. Neither is a substitute for the other. Asking the developer question without having the inter-agency split signed leaves the co-operating agency dependent on the registered agency's willingness to pay. Having the inter-agency split signed without knowing the developer's payment policy leaves both agencies unsure of how and when funds will actually arrive. Both have to be in place. The developer question is the starting point because the answer determines the structure everything else needs to take. ## VAT and the commission invoice: one more thing to confirm Before leaving the developer question, add one line to it: "Is the commission rate quoted inclusive or exclusive of VAT?" Real estate brokerage fees in Dubai are subject to 5% VAT, making it important to clarify if your agent's quote is VAT-inclusive. Developers vary in how they frame commission rates in their broker agreements. Some quote inclusive, some exclusive. In a co-brokerage situation where the split is expressed as a percentage of commission received, a misunderstanding on VAT treatment changes the actual AED amounts received by each party — not dramatically, but enough to cause friction on an already sensitive payment. Confirm it upfront. The developer's answer is simple to obtain and impossible to dispute after the fact. ## What it looks like to do this well The standard to aim for is not complicated to describe, even if the execution requires discipline under launch conditions. Before you bring a buyer to any off-plan developer — and certainly before any booking money moves — you should be able to answer all of the following: - **Does your agency have a registered agreement with this developer?** Brokers marketing off-plan units on behalf of developers must hold valid RERA broker registration and display the project's RERA permit number. If your agency is not registered with the developer, commission is not legally payable to it. - **What is the developer's commission payment schedule?** Is it on booking, on the first instalment, on the second? At what percentage of each tranche? - **Will the developer document co-brokerage and pay both parties, or do they pay the registered agency only?** If the latter, what written agreement exists between the agencies, and when will the co-operating agency be paid? - **What is the cancellation position?** If the buyer exits within the developer's cancellation window, who bears the clawback, and does the inter-agency agreement specify this? - **Is the commission VAT-inclusive or exclusive?** None of these questions is aggressive or unusual. A developer with a professional broker management team will have ready answers to all of them. A developer who struggles to answer them is giving you useful information about how the relationship will feel when something goes wrong. ## The principle that ends disputes before they begin All of the friction described in this article — the disputes over who gets paid, the arguments over clawbacks, the registered agency holding the co-operating agency's share for weeks — has the same root cause. The split was not agreed, proven, and paid at the moment the buyer paid. The moment the buyer's booking money is processed is the highest-leverage point in an off-plan deal. The buyer has committed. The developer has a completed booking. The commission is earned in principle. Every party with a legitimate claim to any portion of that commission has the strongest possible position to have their interest documented and acknowledged right then — not three weeks later when the first tranche arrives, not after a dispute has already started. Every contract must clearly state the rate and payment terms upfront. If several agents share work on one property, the total commission is split between them according to agreed roles from the start. Clear terms prevent disputes. That sentence — "agreed roles from the start" — is doing a lot of work. In practice it means: before the booking form is signed, every party who expects to be paid knows exactly how much, knows exactly when, and has signed something that proves it. The developer knows who the parties are. The agencies' agreement covers the payment timing, the cancellation position, and the VAT treatment. When that preparation is in place, there is nothing left to argue about. The deal closes, the milestones come, the money moves, and every party in the chain receives their share at the same time, based on the same document, without one agency having to chase another and without the developer sitting in the middle of a dispute that was never their problem to begin with. That outcome is achievable on every deal. It requires one question, asked early, and the discipline to have every agreement in writing before any buyer opens their wallet.