Maldives at DAMAC Islands Escrow Account

Emirates NBD Bank (P.J.S.C) holds the escrow account for Maldives 1, the first Maldives phase on the DLD register, account number 0205*****2923 (shown in full in the Escrow Details section above). The account sits under DLD project number 3388, registered as "Damac Islands - Maldives 1" in January 2025, and the October 2026 inspection report names the same trust bank.

No. The Dubai Land Department lists each of the five Maldives phases, Maldives 1 through Maldives 5, as a project in its own right, and each phase has its own escrow account. The account shown on this page belongs to Maldives 1 only. A buyer in Maldives 2, 3, 4 or 5 takes the escrow account from their own SPA or Oqood and verifies it on Dubai REST under their own phase's record; the Maldives 1 account is never the right destination for those payments.

Releases follow construction progress recorded at DLD inspections, not the buyer payment calendar, and each phase is released against its own register record. For Maldives 1, the inspection of 12 October 2026 recorded 6.59%, up from 3.21% on 4 May 2026, with main contract works under way. Each Maldives 1 reading is logged on the Maldives at DAMAC Islands construction updates page.

Under the November 2024 DAMAC Islands launch plan, the 20% deposit, the 55% spread over 39 instalments and the 25% completion payment are all paid into the escrow account of the buyer's phase. Instalment dates run by months from the sale date as set in the SPA, so payments follow the calendar while releases to DAMAC follow recorded works. The current schedule for each Maldives phase is the one DAMAC confirms and the SPA records.

No. The 4% DLD registration fee goes to the Dubai Land Department at booking, at the same time as the 20% deposit, and is never held in the escrow account. For a 4 bedroom townhouse priced at AED 2,340,000 the fee is AED 93,600 (approx USD 25K); for a 5 bedroom townhouse priced at AED 3,100,000 it is AED 124,000 (approx USD 34K).

No. Every off-plan payment goes into the DLD-registered escrow account of the buyer's phase, exactly as recorded in the Sales and Purchase Agreement; for Maldives 1 that is account 0205*****2923 at Emirates NBD (the full number sits in the Escrow Details section above). A request to pay a personal account, an agent's account or a different company account, particularly one offered with a discount for paying direct, matches the standard pattern of payment fraud however official the paperwork appears. Such a request is checked against the phase's escrow record on Dubai REST and against the SPA before any money moves.

Escrow protection is not tied to the calendar: money paid so far remains in the account and moves to DAMAC only as further works are recorded. The DLD record for Maldives 1 lists a registered completion date of 31 December 2028, in line with the expected Q4 2028 handover; each phase's contractual completion date is the one in its SPA. Escrow protects capital while the homes are built but does not itself compensate for delay; any delay terms sit in the Sales and Purchase Agreement.

If the Dubai Land Department cancels a registered project, RERA takes control of the escrow account and buyer refunds are processed from the protected funds under DLD supervision. Each Maldives phase is its own registered project, so the safeguard attaches to the phase named in the buyer's SPA, and money sent anywhere other than that registered account falls outside it. How that framework operates across Dubai is explained in the Dubai Land Department guide.

The DLD record and the October 2026 inspection report list DAMAC Elite Investment Co. L.L.C, developer number 2035, as the registered developer of Maldives 1 (project 3388), which is marketed under the DAMAC Properties name. The selling entity for a given home is the one named in its Sales and Purchase Agreement.

Yes. Under Dubai's escrow framework a retention portion is typically held back for a period after completion to cover defect repairs, on terms set by the framework and the Sales and Purchase Agreement. That retained balance gives the developer a financial reason to resolve defects reported after handover.

For Maldives 1, the register shows registration as project 3388 on 9 January 2025, a construction start on 23 March 2025, a reading of 3.21% on 4 May 2026 and 6.59% on 12 October 2026, with Emirates NBD as trust bank. At company level, DAMAC's DAMAC Islands brochure states more than 47,600 units delivered and more than 40,000 in progress as of Q3 2024; those are company-wide figures, not a record for the Maldives cluster.

Escrow protects buyer capital paid into the registered account of the buyer's phase. It does not fix the handover date, compensate for delay, or shield a buyer from changes in market value or resale price, and it does not cover money paid outside that account. The 4% DLD registration fee also sits outside escrow, because it is settled with the Dubai Land Department.