ESCROW — FOR PROPERTY BUYERS
Three ways to pay. Only one is legal.
If you don't have a UAE bank account, you can't simply transfer the price into a developer's or seller's account. Cash and crypto land you outside the system. Escrow puts a UAE-licensed bank between you and the deal — and it's the only route that the Dubai Land Department actually recognises at title transfer.
Starting at AED 7,500 — disclosed in writing before you sign.
WHY ESCROW
Three ways to send money. Only one is legal.
Most international buyers don't realise that to register a Dubai property in their name, they must produce a Manager's Cheque issued by a UAE bank. Without an account here, that cheque has to be issued through a regulated escrow — not a wallet, not a wire to someone's personal IBAN.
A SWIFT wire from your home bank into a UAE-licensed escrow account opened in your transaction's name.
- Legal status
- DLD-aligned, AML-compliant
- Paper trail
- Bank-stamped, court-admissible
- Who holds the funds
- Partner UAE bank — not Idigov
- If the deal falls through
- Released only per signed contract
Idigov is one of three UAE companies authorised to run this escrow for foreign buyers. Manager's Cheques are then issued in the named representative's name and collected at DLD on closing day.
Bringing physical cash into the UAE and handing it to a seller, broker, or developer.
- Legal status
- Not accepted by DLD
- Paper trail
- None
- Who holds the funds
- The recipient — instantly
- If the deal falls through
- Civil dispute, no audit trail
Beyond AED 60K, declarations are required at customs. No bank, no DLD officer, no court treats a cash receipt as proof of payment for a property registration.
Sending USDT, BTC, or other crypto to a seller's wallet or an OTC desk in Dubai.
- Legal status
- Not recognised at DLD
- Paper trail
- On-chain only — not bank-grade
- Who holds the funds
- Wallet-holder, instantly
- If the deal falls through
- Effectively impossible once sent
Crypto-to-AED conversion is legal through licensed exchanges, but DLD will not register the title until the equivalent AED arrives via a UAE bank. You'd still need an escrow on top.
Six steps. One escrow.
From the moment you choose a unit to the moment the keys are yours — what happens, when, and exactly what you sign.
A REAL EXAMPLE
How it works in practice — a remote buyer.
A buyer based in Kazakhstan wants a 2-bedroom apartment in Downtown Dubai for AED 4M as a long-term family investment. The funds sit in their home-country bank. They have no UAE residency, no UAE bank account, and no intention of flying in for closing day.
What actually happens
- A UAE-based representative identifies the unit in Downtown and signs the OTP with the seller on the buyer's behalf.
- We open the escrow at the partner UAE bank in 1–2 hours under the transaction's reference.
- The buyer signs the escrow contract remotely with electronic signature, naming a UAE-resident relative as the addressee of the future Manager's Cheque. The buyer's passport is attached as ID, and their home-country account is named as the payout-fallback in case the deal collapses.
- The buyer's home-country bank wires AED 4M (in USD or AED equivalent) via SWIFT to the partner bank's escrow account. The wire clears within 1–3 business days.
- On closing day, the partner bank issues the Manager's Cheque made payable to the named representative. The representative collects it with their Emirates ID, walks into the DLD Trustee Office, and hands it to the seller. The title transfers into the buyer's name.
- If at any point in steps 1–5 the deal had fallen through, the partner bank would have returned the funds to the home-country account named in the contract — no loss, no dispute, no broker holding the bag.
The buyer never left Kazakhstan. They never signed a power of attorney. The money went from their home bank, through a regulated UAE bank, into a property registered in their name — with a paper trail every regulator in three countries can read.
Funds held where regulators watch.
Two layers of oversight on every dirham that passes through.
UAE-regulated bank accounts.
Escrow accounts are opened with our partner UAE banks under UAE Central Bank supervision. The bank — not us — is the legal custodian of the funds while they sit in escrow.
Partner banks (representative)
DLD-aligned transfer process.
Every transaction is structured around the Dubai Land Department's official title-transfer flow. Manager's Cheques, named addressees, AML documentation — everything DLD expects, nothing extra invented.
Bank names shown for informational purposes. Idigov Escrow is not a bank and does not hold customer deposits — funds are held by the regulated partner bank under your transaction reference. Idigov is one of three UAE-authorised companies for property-purchase escrow on behalf of foreign buyers.
What buyers get with us.
The numbers behind the promise.
Common questions from buyers abroad.
Yes. The escrow contract can be signed entirely remotely with electronic signature, and the funds wire from your home bank to our partner UAE bank's escrow account via SWIFT. The only step that requires someone physically present is the closing day at the DLD Trustee Office — and that person is the named representative on your escrow contract, not necessarily you.
Yes — and for non-resident buyers, that's exactly how it works. You name an addressee in the escrow contract before signing: typically a UAE-resident family member, your retained legal counsel, or an authorised Idigov representative. The bank issues the Manager's Cheque to that named person, who collects it and hands it over at DLD on closing day. Their passport is attached to the contract for audit.
Every escrow contract names a fallback payout instruction — usually a wire back to the same home-country bank account that funded the escrow. If the seller defaults, withdraws, or the title cannot transfer for any reason, the partner bank releases the funds back to that named account. You don't recover funds from us; the bank releases them, and the bank only releases them per the signed contract.
DLD requires a Manager's Cheque to register a property at the Trustee Office — there is no bank-transfer alternative for that step. However, if you're a seller using our escrow service, the bank can disburse to you by international wire after closing. For buyers, the cheque is the regulator-required instrument and we work entirely within that constraint.
A clear scan of your passport (and your representative's passport if naming one), the OTP or MOU you've signed with the seller, and a single source-of-funds document from your home bank — typically a 6-month statement showing the funds. We coordinate with your bank's compliance desk if anything more is required for AML.
Both the partner UAE bank and Idigov perform AML checks on every escrow we set up — that's not optional and it's exactly what makes this route legal. As long as the funds come from a clean, documentable source (salary, business income, asset sale, inheritance), the process is straightforward. We tell you upfront what your bank will need to show, so the wire isn't held up at the AML desk.
Running escrow on behalf of foreign property buyers requires a specific regulatory authorisation, banking relationships with multiple UAE-licensed banks, and the AML infrastructure to clear cross-border wires under Central Bank supervision. The combination is rare — most brokerages hold buyers' funds in their own operating account, which is exactly what foreign buyers should avoid. We don't.
Yes — both flows are supported. Off-plan typically involves staged payments to the developer's project escrow against construction milestones, which we coordinate from the buyer-escrow side. Secondary market is a single Manager's Cheque at title transfer, which is the most common scenario described in our timeline and in the Almaty example.
Tell us about your purchase.
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