Off-plan advert in Ras Al Khaimah: the five details the law requires

An off-plan advert in Ras Al Khaimah has to carry five details to match the law. They sit in Law No. (12) of 2023, the statute regulating real estate development in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, at Article 28.

Once you know those five points, you can tell within a minute whether a project offer is complete. The statute names “local or foreign media”, so marketing aimed at buyers abroad is covered.

Ras Al Khaimah is the northernmost of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates and has governed its property market since 2023 through its own development law, supervised by the Real Estate Regulatory Administration.

Which five details must an off-plan advert include?

Law No. (12) of 2023, Article 28 B, obliges every developer in Ras Al Khaimah to state five details when marketing an off-plan sale: project location with plot number, approved delivery date, developer number, project number and escrow account number.

• Project location and plot number. This confirms the advertised plot belongs to the scheme shown.
• Approved delivery date. The regulator signed it off, it is not a sales forecast.
• Developer number in the developers register. Without it a developer may not sell an off-plan project here.
• Project number in the projects register. It separates a registered scheme from an intention.
• Escrow account number. Your instalments land in that trust account, which funds construction.

A missing point is a departure from the wording, not a cosmetic flaw. A complete off-plan advert hands you all five details without prompting, because the developer already filed them with the regulator.

Why is the approved handover date the decisive point?

Article 28 B item 2 of Law No. (12) of 2023 expressly requires the “delivery date of the project which is approved by Administration”, a date cleared by the Real Estate Regulatory Administration.

A sales date can move unnoticed, while an approved date sits with the regulator. An off-plan advert from Dubai need not name that date, one from the northern emirate must.

What if the advert only names a quarter?

Ask for the date entered in the projects register in writing, with day, month and year. A bare “Q4 2027” does not meet Article 28 B item 2.

What does Dubai regulate differently?

Dubai handles the same question through circulars of the Real Estate Regulatory Agency at the Dubai Land Department, not in a statute: Circular (2-2022) of 20 July 2022 and Circular (02-2023) of 11 April 2023.

Circular (2-2022) requires the permit number displayed with the company name, and for off-plan schemes the developer name, project name, project number, location and the approved escrow account. Circular (02-2023) has required a QR code since 15 April 2023 and sets the fine at AED 50,000.

How to vet the developer behind a scheme is set out in our guide to developer due diligence in Dubai. The same questions apply to any off-plan advert from the northern emirate.

Does the rule cover an off-plan advert published abroad?

Yes, because Article 28 A of Law No. (12) of 2023 bars a developer from advertising “in local or foreign media” or joining local or foreign exhibitions until the Real Estate Regulatory Administration has issued a permit.

For Ras Al Khaimah the wording settles it. An off-plan advert on a London portal, in a broker email or at a property show in Frankfurt falls under the same permit duty.

Does a social media post count as advertising?

In Dubai expressly yes: Circular (2-2022) names “real estate platforms or social media” in its scope sentence. Law No. (12) of 2023 refers to media generally and carves nothing out.

Article 28 A addresses the developer, not the broker. That changes little for you, because the five details belong to the project. See our page on Fairmont Al Marjan Island, and our comparison of off-plan and ready property in Dubai.

How do you check an off-plan advert before reserving?

Take the listing, a sheet of paper and the page of the Real Estate Regulatory Administration at the RAK Municipality Department. Six steps are enough to place an off-plan advert before you reserve.

1. Work through the five details in Article 28 B and note any missing.
2. Check the delivery date is a specific day and flagged as approved by the regulator.
3. Get the developer number and project number confirmed in writing, by email.
4. Match the escrow account number in the listing against the reservation form.
5. Transfer only to that escrow account, never to a company or private account.
6. Keep a dated screenshot of the listing. Article 28 makes the marketing content checkable.

That costs a quarter of an hour. It replaces no legal review of the sale contract, yet it filters out every off-plan advert short of the statutory minimum. The RAK Municipality Department publishes Law No. (12) of 2023 as an English and Arabic parallel text.

What does the difference mean for your checks?

Ras Al Khaimah anchors its advertising duties in the statute itself, at Article 28 of Law No. (12) of 2023. Dubai sets them through circulars of the Real Estate Regulatory Agency at the Dubai Land Department.

That is a difference in legal rank, not in safety: a statute sits above a circular and changes less often, while Dubai publishes more operational small print. In practice: in Dubai you verify through the permit number and the QR code, in Ras Al Khaimah through the five details and the registers of the Real Estate Regulatory Administration. Two routes, both workable.

Looking at a specific offer? Send us the off-plan advert and we will walk the five mandatory details through with you before you reserve.