Buying real estate in Oman?

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Do Oman’s new registry rules really protect buyers enough?

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SUMMARY

Yes. Oman’s new registry rules protect buyers materially better than the old framework, and buying regulated off-plan property is safer than it was last year, although a failed project can still leave buyers waiting for completion, refunds or court action.

The biggest upgrade is not one rule but the way the pieces now fit together. Registration, developer licensing, project approval, preliminary registration, escrow and Ministry supervision now cover most of the journey from reservation to final title.

Off-plan buyers have gained something particularly important: a legal position before the building exists. A correctly registered future unit can sit in the Preliminary Real Estate Register with evidential force comparable to the main registry, rather than relying only on a private SPA.

That also makes double-selling harder to turn into a valid competing ownership claim. A second contract does not simply outrank an earlier registered interest because another buyer paid later or signed a different piece of paper.

The escrow system is stronger than a basic “buyer money goes into a protected account” story. Current procedures require a project-specific guarantee account, a 20% funding threshold before regulated marketing, and withdrawals linked to certified construction progress.

Bankruptcy protection is meaningful but easy to overstate. Project guarantee-account money is generally ring-fenced from unrelated developer creditors, yet money already released for legitimate construction work may no longer be sitting in escrow if the project later collapses.

The weakest part of the framework begins after prevention has failed. Oman can intervene in stalled projects and seek completion or court action, but the law is still less explicit than Dubai’s on cancellation mechanics, refund timing and what happens when the remaining escrow balance is not enough.

Completed property is therefore a different risk proposition from off-plan property. Once ownership is correctly registered and the title position is clean, the legal protection looks strong; an unfinished project still carries construction, financing and recovery risk even when the buyer’s legal interest is properly recorded.

Foreign buyers benefit from the same registration protections when they are legally allowed to acquire the specific property. The registry does not expand foreign ownership everywhere, so eligibility for the location and ownership structure still has to be checked before money changes hands.

Oman has also improved what happens after handover. Ten-year protection for major structural and infrastructure defects, plus a more formal owners’ association regime, gives apartment buyers more legal support once the development is occupied.

The remaining practical problem is verification. The necessary checks now exist across the registry, Tatwir, Ministry licensing and guarantee-account procedures, but a buyer still has to assemble the picture rather than relying on one clean public screen.

Our conclusion is that Oman has moved from a relatively fragmented off-plan system to a much more credible buyer-protection framework. The reforms meaningfully reduce legal and misuse-of-funds risk, but they do not yet make a troubled development painless to unwind.

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What did Oman actually change for property buyers?

Oman has changed far more than the way property records are stored: buyers now sit inside a much tighter system covering title registration, off-plan sales, escrow accounts, developer licensing and project supervision.

Royal Decree 56/2026 replaced the property-registry framework that dated back to 1998. The new law recognizes both paper and electronic registers, gives each property or separately registrable unit its own record, and treats electronic records and electronic title deeds with the same legal force as paper ones.

The bigger change becomes clear when we read that law alongside Royal Decree 79/2025, Oman’s Real Estate Regulation Law. That law covers developers, off-plan projects, escrow accounts, brokers, valuations, shared properties and owners’ associations.

Together, the two laws now cover most of the chain between a buyer reserving a unit and eventually owning and living in it.

That is especially relevant these days because Oman is encouraging much larger residential developments. Sultan Haitham City, Sorouh communities and large integrated developments increasingly involve multi-phase construction and buyers paying before completion. According to current Ministry procedures, off-plan projects must now go through Tatwir, project licensing and a project-specific guarantee account before they can be marketed under the regulated system.

So the reform goes well beyond a registry upgrade. Oman has built a legal framework around the kind of residential market it is currently trying to grow.

Buyer issue Older framework Current framework Practical effect
Property records Registry system dating from 1998 New Real Estate Registry Law Clearer legal record
Electronic title Less central Same legal force as paper Easier digital processing
Off-plan units Weaker registration architecture Preliminary Real Estate Register Buyer interest recorded before completion
Developers Rules spread across several regimes Ministry licensing Easier developer verification
Off-plan money Earlier guarantee-account regime Escrow integrated with project regulation More control over buyer funds
Shared buildings Older fragmented rules Owners’ association framework More structure after handover

Is signing an Oman property contract enough to make you the legal owner?

No. In Oman, registration is now crucial because an unregistered property transaction does not give the buyer the same legal right against everyone else.

Article 10 of the new Real Estate Registry Law says transactions creating, transferring or ending real property rights must be registered. If they are not registered, their effect is limited to personal obligations between the parties.

A buyer who signs an agreement and pays the seller may certainly have contractual rights. But if the property right itself has not been properly registered, the buyer does not have the same position as someone whose ownership appears in the official Real Estate Registry.

The law goes further under Article 35: ownership of a property or real-estate unit is proved through the title deed issued by the Real Estate Registry Secretariat.

For buyers, signing the SPA and transferring the money are only part of the purchase. The registration step deserves the same attention as the contract itself.

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Does Oman’s new preliminary registry really protect off-plan buyers?

Yes. Oman’s Preliminary Real Estate Register is one of the strongest parts of the new buyer-protection system because an off-plan buyer can now have a legally recognized position before the building is finished.

Under the Real Estate Regulation Law, individual off-plan units and the legal transactions affecting them must be entered in the Preliminary Real Estate Register.

The newer Registry Law strengthens that considerably. Article 25 says registration in the preliminary register follows the same registration procedures as the main Real Estate Registry and carries the same legal evidential force.

Apartment 602 in an unfinished tower can therefore exist as a recognized legal unit before the final title deed exists.

Article 21 of the Real Estate Regulation Law is even more direct: a transaction involving an off-plan unit is not recognized unless it has been entered in the preliminary register.

Oman also tried to avoid leaving older buyers outside the new system. Developers were required to register pre-existing off-plan units and transactions in the Preliminary Real Estate Register during the six-month transition period created by the 2025 law. Buyers who purchased before the reform should verify that this migration actually happened instead of assuming their old SPA is enough.

Once construction is complete, developers must transfer units already registered in buyers’ names from the preliminary register into the permanent Real Estate Registry. Developers cannot charge a separate fee for doing that beyond the official registration fees.

Off-plan stage What now protects the buyer
Buyer chooses a future unit Unit can be identified in the preliminary register
SPA is signed Ministry-approved off-plan contract framework applies
Buyer’s interest is registered Preliminary registration has legal force
Later transaction affects unit It must also be registered
Building is completed Unit moves into the main Real Estate Registry
Older off-plan purchase Developer was required to migrate it into the new system

Can an Oman developer still sell the same off-plan unit twice?

A developer can still attempt fraud, but Oman’s current registry rules make a second sale much harder to turn into a valid competing property right.

The preliminary register records the unit and the legal transactions affecting it. Once the first buyer’s interest has been correctly registered, a later buyer cannot simply rely on another private contract and expect the registry to ignore the earlier transaction.

Article 21 of the Real Estate Regulation Law is particularly useful here because it says a transaction concerning an off-plan unit is not recognized unless registered in the preliminary register.

The 2026 Registry Law also restricts changes to registered information. Changes to either the permanent or preliminary register generally require properly authenticated documents from someone entitled to deal with the registered right or a final court judgment.

Fraud involving the registry can now carry meaningful criminal consequences. Knowingly providing false information or forged documents that improperly creates or deprives someone of a real-estate right can lead to imprisonment and fines reaching OMR 30,000 under the new Registry Law.

The remaining risk is simple: buyers still have to make sure their particular unit really has been registered instead of relying on what a broker or salesperson says.

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Are Oman off-plan deposits really protected from developer misuse?

Yes. Buyer deposits in regulated off-plan projects are supposed to flow through a project-specific escrow account, and developers cannot freely withdraw that money before corresponding construction work has been certified.

Article 29 of the Real Estate Regulation Law requires an off-plan developer to open a guarantee account in the project’s name at a licensed bank registered with the Ministry. If the development is split into several phases, each phase requires a separate account.

Buyer payments for units go into that account.

Current Gov.om procedures add a useful real-world check. A developer applying to advertise an off-plan project must show that the project is registered on the Tatwir platform, that a guarantee account has been opened with a licensed bank and that amounts equivalent to at least 20% of the project cost have been provided. The value of the land or already completed construction can count toward that threshold.

The project-licensing service currently applies the same 20% concept.

Access to the money then depends on construction progress. The project consultant certifies completed work according to approved construction stages and identifies the amounts that can be released from the guarantee account.

If the Ministry believes a completion certificate contains inaccurate information, Article 34 allows it to appoint another consultant at the developer’s expense to reassess the project. The Ministry can then instruct the bank to stop later payments.

Article 35 also allows the Ministry to appoint an approved auditor to inspect the developer’s guarantee-account records and project documents.

The result is two layers of protection: developers must bring meaningful funding into the project before regulated off-plan marketing, and later withdrawals are tied to documented construction progress.

Escrow protection Current Oman rule
Project account Opened in project’s name
Multiple phases Separate accounts required
Buyer payments Deposited into project guarantee account
Project financing Routed through account where regulated financing applies
Pre-launch funding Current procedures require a 20% threshold
Withdrawals Linked to certified construction progress
Ministry intervention Payments can be stopped and records audited

What happens to the escrow money if an Oman developer goes bankrupt?

Oman gives off-plan buyers strong protection against one specific bankruptcy risk: unrelated creditors generally cannot seize the project’s guarantee-account money.

Article 37 of the Real Estate Regulation Law carves these funds out from the developer’s ordinary creditor pool.

The money deposited in the project guarantee account cannot generally be attached for the benefit of unrelated developer creditors. The off-plan project also does not simply become part of the developer’s general creditor security after bankruptcy, except for obligations connected with the project and the rights of its buyers.

If OMR 50,000 from a buyer goes into an ordinary company account, the money can become mixed with salaries, suppliers, company debt and other projects. Under the regulated guarantee-account structure, those funds remain legally connected to the development the buyer actually paid for.

Escrow protection still does not mean the original OMR 50,000 will necessarily remain untouched if the project fails. Money can legitimately be released as construction progresses, so a distressed project may already have consumed a large part of what buyers paid.

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If an Oman off-plan project fails, will it be finished or will buyers get their money back?

Not necessarily. Oman has much stronger tools for preventing and managing project failure, but neither completion nor a fast full refund is guaranteed.

Developer licensing, project approval, the 20% funding requirement in current procedures, guarantee accounts and controlled withdrawals all make weak projects harder to launch and mismanage.

The Real Estate Regulation Law also addresses stalled projects directly. When an off-plan development runs into trouble, Article 28 requires the project consultant to submit a detailed report to the Ministry within 30 days explaining why the project has stalled.

The Ministry must then study the problem and seek a way to complete the development or refer the case to the competent court.

That gives Oman a formal rescue path, but neither the government nor the escrow bank promises to finish every building with public or bank money. A project with serious cost overruns, financing problems, contractor failure or weak sales can still become economically unviable.

Refunds are less mechanical than the preventive controls.

Article 26 says the executive regulation will set out the rights of developers and buyers when either side breaches its contractual obligations. Yet the primary legislation does not currently provide the same highly detailed statutory refund sequence found in Dubai’s mature off-plan regime.

Dubai is a useful comparison because its rules spell out more of what happens when a project is formally cancelled, including the use of escrow money and procedures when available funds are insufficient.

For an off-plan buyer, this remains the biggest unresolved risk in Oman’s current framework.

Failed-project issue Oman currently Buyer implication
Stalled project must be reported Yes Regulator gets involved
Ministry can seek project rescue Yes Completion may still be possible
Court referral Yes Formal dispute route exists
Escrow protected from unrelated creditors Yes Project money is ring-fenced
Guaranteed completion No Commercial failure remains possible
Automatic full refund No general guarantee Financial loss can still occur
Detailed statutory refund timetable Less explicit Recovery may take longer

Can an Oman buyer check mortgages, lawsuits or restrictions before purchasing?

Yes, much more of the property’s legal history can now sit directly in the registry, although access for ordinary buyers could still become easier.

The new Real Estate Registry records the property or unit, its legal position and the transactions affecting it. Registered property rights become effective against everyone, while seizures and restrictions on disposal can also be entered.

Court disputes receive particularly strong treatment.

Under Article 22, someone bringing a lawsuit involving a real property right must provide the Real Estate Registry Secretariat with a copy of the claim so the dispute can be noted against the property record.

If that claimant later wins, the right can take effect from the date when the lawsuit was annotated, provided the final judgment is registered within the required period.

A buyer therefore wants to know more than who owns the property. Mortgages, restrictions, seizures and ongoing litigation can matter just as much.

The weak point today is ease of access. Article 30 allows an interested person to request information concerning a property or unit according to procedures set by regulation, but Oman has not turned the entire land registry into an unrestricted public database.

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Can unlicensed developers still advertise off-plan property in Oman?

They can try, but legal off-plan marketing now has several checkpoints before a developer should be selling units to the public.

Real-estate development itself requires a Ministry licence. The project requires its own approval, and marketing also requires authorization.

Current Gov.om advertising procedures are quite specific.

An off-plan project must be registered on Tatwir. The developer must provide proof of the project’s guarantee account at a licensed bank. Unit information must be supplied, and the guarantee-account funding must reach at least 20% of total project cost, with qualifying land value or completed work counting toward the calculation.

The Real Estate Regulation Law backs those requirements with substantial penalties.

Operating as a developer without a licence, carrying out an unlicensed project, marketing without the required licence and improperly withdrawing buyer or financier money from a guarantee account can result in one to three years of imprisonment, fines from OMR 10,000 to OMR 100,000, or one of those penalties.

The Ministry can also suspend, withdraw or cancel licences and impose administrative fines.

For buyers, this creates a straightforward filter: if an off-plan seller cannot clearly show the developer licence, project registration, advertising approval and project guarantee-account details, there is little reason to proceed.

Developer activity Current requirement Serious breach can trigger
Real-estate development Ministry licence Criminal penalties
Launching a project Project licence Criminal penalties
Off-plan marketing Advertising approval Criminal penalties
Receiving buyer funds Project guarantee account Escrow controls
Withdrawing project funds Compliance with regulated process Criminal penalties
False progress documents Accurate consultant certification Criminal exposure

Does Oman protect buyers if the apartment is badly built?

Yes. Oman’s current real-estate law gives buyers a meaningful long-term protection against major construction and infrastructure defects.

Article 18 requires the developer to guarantee major defects in the construction or structure of the unit, as well as defects in the project’s infrastructure, for ten years from handover.

The off-plan rules add another protection for defects that appear much sooner. Article 36 requires a percentage of unit sales to remain in the guarantee account for one year after handover to support proper completion and repairs. The exact percentage and withdrawal rules are left to the implementing framework.

Failure to respect major defect guarantees can also fall within the law’s criminal penalty provisions.

The ten-year protection is substantial. The harder question is how quickly owners can force repairs when a developer disputes responsibility.

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Will owners’ associations protect Oman apartment buyers after handover?

They should provide much stronger protection than the older, more fragmented system, especially in larger apartment projects where service charges and common areas can become long-running sources of conflict.

The new law requires owners’ associations for qualifying jointly owned properties and gives those associations legal personality once registered.

A developer cannot simply convert common parts into private property or use them in a way that prevents owners from benefiting from them. The developer must prepare the common-use management system before selling units and obtain Ministry approval.

There is also a useful handover rule. The developer must manage and maintain shared areas and facilities for at least two years after the project completion certificate before transferring that responsibility to the owners’ association. The Ministry can require a longer period.

The law also anticipates the problem of a developer controlling the association because it still owns most of the unsold units. The implementing rules must protect minority owners where one owner or the developer controls at least half of the units.

That safeguard could become especially important in slower-selling projects where the developer remains the dominant owner for years.

Do Oman’s new registry rules protect foreign property buyers too?

Yes, when the foreign buyer is legally allowed to acquire that particular property. Registration protects the ownership right, while separate laws still decide where and how non-Omanis may buy.

Article 12 of the new Real Estate Registry Law allows registration in the names of non-Omanis and legal persons in accordance with the laws governing their ownership rights.

The Registry Law does not suddenly allow foreigners to buy any residential property anywhere in Oman. Foreign ownership still depends on the designated legal routes, including Integrated Tourism Complexes and other specifically authorized structures or areas.

A foreign buyer therefore needs to verify two separate things.

First, the buyer must legally qualify to acquire the promised ownership or usufruct right in that project. Second, the resulting right needs to be registered correctly.

For international buyers, project eligibility should be checked before paying a reservation deposit.

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Can an ordinary buyer actually verify an Oman property before paying?

Yes, but the information is still spread across several systems, so buyers have to assemble the picture themselves.

The Ministry maintains developer and project registration systems. Tatwir supports project processes. Gov.om publishes current licensing and advertising requirements. Guarantee-account details for development projects can increasingly be verified. The new law also requires a project register that can be made available to the public under the applicable procedures.

The Real Estate Registry can show ownership and legal issues attached to the property, while the Preliminary Real Estate Register covers off-plan units.

For a completed property, we would verify the current title deed, the seller’s identity and authority, the property record, mortgages or restrictions, any litigation annotation and the buyer’s legal eligibility to acquire that specific property.

Off-plan purchases require more checks. The developer should hold the proper Ministry licence. The project should be registered and licensed. Marketing should have the required approval. The specific unit should be entered in the Preliminary Real Estate Register or clearly capable of being registered under the current process.

The SPA should comply with the Ministry-approved off-plan contract framework, and buyer installments should go into the verified project guarantee account.

Foreign buyers also need to confirm that the specific ownership structure and location are legally open to them.

The remaining weakness is convenience. Someone considering apartment A-604 still cannot necessarily open one simple public screen and instantly verify the developer, project, unit, escrow account, land rights, legal restrictions and construction progress in one place.

Check before payment Completed property Off-plan property
Seller/developer identity Required Required
Title/land rights Required Required
Ministry developer licence Usually not central Required
Project licence N/A Required
Preliminary registration N/A Required
Escrow account N/A Required
Litigation/mortgage check Required Required
Approved SPA Sale contract review Critical
Ownership eligibility for foreigners Required Required
Construction progress N/A Required

What is still missing from Oman’s buyer-protection system?

The biggest unfinished part is the detailed machinery for what happens when a transaction goes badly wrong.

Oman already has the core tools we would expect from a serious regulated market: registration, preliminary registration, escrow, licensing, project approval, progress controls, audits, structural guarantees and owners’ associations.

Several important details still depend on executive regulations and Ministry procedures.

The 2025 Real Estate Regulation Law says its executive regulation will determine issues such as additional developer obligations, remedies when buyers or developers breach off-plan contracts, parts of the guarantee-account mechanism and several owners’ association rules.

The 2026 Registry Law also relies on implementing rules for areas such as access to property information and registration procedures.

The questions left are practical ones: how quickly can a buyer terminate after a serious developer delay, when does a troubled project become formally failed, how quickly must remaining escrow money be returned, and what happens when the account cannot cover buyer claims?

For now, we have much higher confidence in Oman’s ability to record and protect a buyer’s legal position than in its ability to make every failed off-plan investment painless to unwind.

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Are Oman’s buyer protections now as strong as Dubai’s?

Oman has caught up on many of the core safeguards, although Dubai still has a clear advantage in failed-project procedures and years of enforcement experience.

The similarities are now substantial.

Both systems use licensed developers, registered projects, off-plan registration, project-specific escrow and controls around withdrawals. Both recognize that a buyer needs a recorded interest before the final title deed exists. Both try to prevent project money from disappearing into unrelated developer liabilities.

Oman’s current 20% pre-launch funding requirement also gives the system a meaningful capital filter before regulated off-plan marketing.

Dubai remains more mature when projects fail.

Its off-plan framework has been developed over many years of actual projects, cancellations and disputes. Dubai legislation sets out more detailed procedures around cancellation, project completion percentages, purchaser and developer default, refunds from escrow and situations where the remaining escrow balance is insufficient.

That is the recurring weakness in Oman’s otherwise much stronger system: prevention is already detailed, while recovery after a major failure remains less predictable.

Protection Oman now Dubai
Developer licensing Yes Yes
Project registration Yes Yes
Off-plan unit registration Yes Yes
Project escrow Yes Yes
Progress controls Yes Yes
Protection from unrelated creditors Yes Yes
Detailed failed-project rules Developing More mature
Long enforcement history Limited Extensive

So, do Oman’s new registry rules really protect buyers enough?

Mostly yes. Oman now protects property buyers well enough for the new framework to materially reduce legal risk, but off-plan buyers still carry meaningful project-failure and recovery risk.

The strongest improvement is title certainty.

Registered property rights have legal effect against everyone. The title deed is the accepted proof of ownership. Electronic records have full legal force. Court claims and restrictions can be recorded. Off-plan units can be entered in a preliminary register carrying the same legal evidential force as the main register.

Oman has also built several protections around that registry. Licensed developers, project approval, regulated advertising, the current 20% funding threshold, project guarantee accounts, progress-linked withdrawals, Ministry audit powers and protection from unrelated creditors make the current off-plan system substantially harder to abuse.

The ten-year guarantee for major structural and infrastructure defects extends protection beyond the purchase itself.

Where we remain more cautious is project failure.

A registered buyer can still be stuck in a development that runs out of money, suffers huge delays or ends up in court. Escrow reduces the damage but does not guarantee that every rial remains available. The law provides a route for Ministry intervention when projects stall, yet refund timing and failed-project recovery remain less explicit than in the most mature Gulf systems.

For completed, correctly registered property, Oman’s buyer protection now looks strong. For off-plan property, the system is much safer than it was, but “registered” and “escrow protected” should never be read as “risk-free.”

Until Oman builds a longer enforcement record and more predictable refund mechanics, failed-project recovery remains the part serious buyers should watch most closely.

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OUR METHODOLOGY

This analysis asks whether Oman’s new property framework protects buyers enough and, more specifically, whether buying regulated off-plan property is safer than it was last year. We broke that question into the parts of a purchase where protection can actually succeed or fail: registration, off-plan ownership, buyer funds, developer controls, due diligence, post-handover protection, foreign-buyer eligibility and failed-project recovery.

We prioritized primary legislation and current government procedures over commentary about the reforms. Royal Decree 56/2026 is the main source for registration, electronic title deeds, preliminary registration, legal effect of registered rights, property information and registry penalties. Royal Decree 79/2025 is the main source for developers, off-plan projects, guarantee accounts, project supervision, structural guarantees and owners’ associations.

We then checked current Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning and Gov.om procedures to see how the new framework is being applied operationally. In particular, we used the current project-licensing and advertising requirements for Tatwir registration, guarantee-account verification and the 20% project-funding threshold before regulated off-plan marketing.

We gave more weight to protections that directly change a buyer’s legal or financial position than to administrative steps. Registration, enforceability of rights, ring-fencing of project money, restrictions on withdrawals, licensing, audit powers and Ministry intervention therefore carry more weight in the conclusion than the simple existence of another form, licence or approval.

Dubai is used only where it helps answer the main unresolved issue: what happens after an off-plan project fails or is cancelled. Dubai’s longer enforcement history and more detailed rules on cancellation, completion thresholds and refunds provide a useful regional benchmark for showing where Oman has already caught up and where its recovery procedures remain less developed.

Key sources include the Oman Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs — Royal Decree 56/2026, Real Estate Registry Law, the Oman Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs — Royal Decree 79/2025, Law Regulating Real Estate, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning overview of the Real Estate Registry Law, the Gov.om Real Estate Development Project Licence, the Gov.om Permit to Advertise Local Properties, the Gov.om Real Estate Development Activity Licence, the Gov.om title-deed transfer procedure, the Gov.om mortgage-registration procedure, the Gov.om mortgage-release procedure, the Gov.om property and real-estate services overview, the Gov.om owners’ association registration service, the Ministry material on ownership in Integrated Tourism Complexes, the Gov.om procedure for owning real estate in tourist complexes, and the Gov.om Integrated Tourism Complex licence.

For the market-development context, we also used official information on Sultan Haitham City and Sorouh residential projects. For the Dubai comparison, we relied on the Dubai escrow-account law, the 2020 amendment to Dubai’s Interim Real Property Register Law, and Dubai Land Department guidance on cancelled and under-cancellation projects.

The final judgment comes from the combined weight of those protections across the full buyer journey. That is why completed and off-plan property are assessed differently: strong title protection can materially reduce ownership risk without eliminating construction, financing, delay or recovery risk in an unfinished development.

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