Can I get a refund from a Dubai property developer?

Why there is no general answer

Two purchasers in the same project, with the same complaint, can be in materially different positions. What separates them is usually some combination of what they signed, how much they have paid, what stage the project has reached, and how each has behaved since the problem began.

What the analysis turns on

The file is built from the contract, the money and the project’s actual status.

• The SPA, including its termination, default and refund provisions
• Amounts paid and the stage of the payment plan reached
• Construction progress and the registered status of the project
• Developer performance and communications
• The purchaser’s own payment history and conduct
• The legal basis on which recovery would be sought
• Applicable law and the appropriate procedure

Exit and recovery are separate questions

Purchasers tend to treat “can I cancel” and “can I get my money back” as one question. In practice a route out of a contract does not automatically determine the treatment of sums already paid, and the two are frequently negotiated together.

A negotiated recovery is still a recovery

Some matters resolve commercially: a substitution to another unit, a revised plan, a partial recovery, a release. Whether that is attractive depends on your objective and on what the realistic alternative looks like once cost and time are priced in.

What weakens a recovery position

Signing documents without review. Allowing arrears to build while a complaint is outstanding. Losing the marketing material that recorded what was promised. Sending correspondence that concedes points unnecessarily. Waiting.