If you don’t have an exit strategy before you sign the booking form, you don’t have a strategy — you have an emotional purchase you’ll defend for three years.
An exit strategy is the pre-planned path to disposal or hand-off of the asset: sell in the secondary market at a target price, sell before handover to avoid the handover balloon, refinance and hold long-term, convert to long-let rental, convert to short-let, gift into a family structure. Each has different tax exposure (yes, including VAT implications on commercial short-lets), different timing, and different cost stacks.
For off-plan Dubai buyers, the two common exits are: sell before handover (capital gains on paper, but you’ll pay 4% DLD on any assignment and NOC fee, and the developer may restrict resale below 30-40% paid), or hold through handover and either rent or sell at market. Assignment sales are illiquid when the broader market cools; the buyer-of-your-buyer needs to exist.
A client last year bought three Dubai South units in 2023 assuming pre-handover resale. By 2024 that cluster had softened, assignment market was thin, and he had to hold through handover and rent. Cash flow is fine. It wasn’t the plan.
Write the exit at the same time you write the entry cheque.
Related: Capital Appreciation, Breakeven, Post-Handover Payment Plan, Secondary Market.
Run the numbers on a real Dubai unit
Yield calculators only help if they run on realistic cost inputs. Our team maintains live inventory across Dubai, RAK, and Abu Dhabi — including the kind of data most brochures don’t volunteer. Request a live pricing sheet or browse available units.
