How buying property actually works, from enquiry to handover

Two questions come up in nearly every first conversation we have with a buyer who has not done this before: how does the purchase actually happen, and what happens if something changes along the way. This guide answers the first, in sequence, for both markets we work in - Egypt and Dubai. Where the two work differently, we say so plainly rather than write around the difference.

We represent the buyer throughout, not the listing, which means the sequence below is close to how we actually work a file. The general shape holds in both markets; the specifics of any one purchase - the contract wording, the registration steps, the current fees and timelines - are always read against the real paperwork for that unit, not assumed from a guide. Read this alongside our notes on off-plan versus resale and buying as a foreigner in Egypt.

Finding a property: launches, resale, and off-market

A property reaches a buyer through one of three routes. Off-plan launches come directly from a developer's own sales channel, on that project's payment plan. Ready resale is a unit an existing owner is selling, sourced through a broker or agent and priced against current comparables rather than a brochure. And a meaningful share of stock in both markets - particularly at the upper end - never reaches a public listing at all: it moves through developer relationship lists and private sellers who have their own reasons not to advertise.

The practical implication is that "what is available" is always larger than what you can find yourself by browsing. Part of what buyer representation is actually for is reaching the stock that is not public, and reading the stock that is against the wider market rather than in isolation.

Reservation: what it commits you to, and what it does not

The first formal step on a specific unit is usually a reservation: a short form and a holding payment that takes the unit off the market at an agreed price for a defined window, while the full contract is prepared. A reservation is a real commitment, and it is not the same commitment as the contract that follows it - the two are worth telling apart before you pay anything.

What a reservation typically fixes is the unit and the headline price for a limited period. What it typically does not yet fix - because these are set out in the sale-and-purchase contract that follows - is the full payment schedule, the finishing specification, the contracted delivery date, and your position if either side does not perform. Reservation payments are commonly non-refundable, or only partly refundable, if you walk away before signing; that term varies by developer and by seller, and it is one of the first things to check before you pay it, not after.

The contract: where the real terms are actually set

The sale-and-purchase contract - sometimes several linked documents rather than one - is where price, payment schedule, specification, and delivery terms become binding. This is the point in the process that most rewards patience: read it in full, have it reviewed, and treat anything discussed verbally that is not in the document as not agreed. On off-plan purchases specifically, see our guide to payment plans for how the schedule itself is usually structured.

For resale, the equivalent contract is generally simpler because there is no construction period or specification annex to negotiate, but title, any outstanding charges on the unit, and the seller's right to sell still need the same scrutiny.

Due diligence: title, developer, and delivery risk

Due diligence means different things depending on what you are buying. On resale, it centres on the title itself: confirming the seller genuinely owns and can sell what they are offering, and that the property carries no undisclosed debts, disputes, or restrictions. On off-plan, title does not yet exist in the same sense - the equivalent question is whether the developer has clean rights to build what it is selling, and a track record of actually delivering it.

A developer's delivery record is the single most useful diligence signal on off-plan: has it handed over comparable projects, roughly on the terms it promised, before? We weigh that alongside the specific project's financing and phasing rather than the brand name alone. Where formal legal, financial, or technical advice is required, we coordinate qualified independent specialists - this is precisely that kind of moment.

The role of a lawyer

KÂMO represents you commercially throughout a purchase - sourcing, comparing, negotiating, and keeping the paperwork honest to what was agreed. We are not a law firm, and a cross-border property purchase is exactly the kind of transaction where independent legal counsel earns its cost: reviewing the contract before you sign it, confirming title on resale, and advising on anything specific to your citizenship, residency, or tax position that sits outside a brokerage's remit.

The right time to involve a lawyer is before the contract is signed, not after a problem appears. We work alongside your counsel rather than around them, and can point you toward qualified independent representation where you do not already have one.

How money moves internationally

Most cross-border purchases are funded by international bank transfer, and the practical questions worth planning early are the currency you are transferring from, the currency the price is actually quoted in, and how the timing of each instalment lines up with when funds will genuinely land. Prime coastal stock in Egypt is increasingly quoted in US dollars or euros even though local settlement runs in Egyptian pounds; Dubai transacts in dirhams, which are pegged to the US dollar. Either way, the exchange happens somewhere in the chain, and it is better to decide where deliberately than discover it at signing.

Both markets now expect standard source-of-funds documentation from an overseas buyer as a matter of course - this is routine international banking and anti-money-laundering practice rather than anything specific to property, but it is worth having the paperwork ready before you need it, since gathering it under a payment deadline is the more common friction point than the transfer itself.

Registration and handover

Three separate milestones get conflated in casual conversation: signing the contract, registering title, and handover - actually receiving the finished, occupiable unit. Signing the contract makes the deal binding between the parties. Registration is the official step that records your ownership (or, on off-plan, your interest in the future unit) with the relevant land authority. Handover is the physical moment the developer or seller hands you a completed unit against the agreed specification, and it is where a snagging inspection - checking the unit against the contract before you sign for it - belongs.

In some off-plan structures, including commonly in Dubai, an interim record of your interest is registered against the unit early in the process, with a further registration step at completion; in others, meaningful registration only happens once the unit is complete. We confirm which applies to a specific purchase rather than assume. For what happens when a developer's own delivery date slips, see our guide to payment plans.

Buying remotely versus buying in person

A large share of our clients complete most of a purchase without travelling: video walk-throughs of a resale unit or a show apartment, documents reviewed and signed remotely, and funds transferred on the agreed schedule. Many jurisdictions also allow a trusted representative to sign on your behalf under a power of attorney for the parts that genuinely require a signature in person; the exact form that authorisation needs to take differs by market and by notary, and we confirm it for your specific purchase rather than generalise.

What remote buying cannot fully replace is walking the actual location - the compound at a different time of day, the view a floor plan cannot convey, the finish quality of a show unit versus the brochure render. Where an in-person visit would genuinely change the decision, we say so; where it would not, we do not manufacture a reason for one.

Where Egypt and Dubai differ

The sequence above holds in both markets; the underlying framework does not. In Dubai, foreign nationals can own freehold property outright in designated areas, which cover most of the communities we work in, under a single, long-established emirate-level land registration system. In Egypt, foreign ownership is permitted subject to conditions that can vary by the unit and by the underlying tenure of the development - some sit on freehold land, others on a long-term usufruct - and we confirm the specific basis before you commit rather than assume it is the same as the last purchase you or a friend made.

That difference in framework shows up practically: Egypt's registration environment is less centralised and depends on which authority a specific development's land sits under, while Dubai's is administered by a single body across the emirate. Egypt also leans more heavily on long, multi-year developer payment plans as the default way most buyers fund a purchase; ready resale in Dubai more often completes on a shorter, cash-or-short-instalment timeline, alongside its own active off-plan market. Currency works differently too: Egypt's pound has floated and prime pricing has moved toward hard-currency quoting in response, while the dirham's peg to the dollar makes Dubai a hard-currency market throughout. None of this changes the sequence of steps; it changes what to check at each one, which is why we confirm the applicable framework for the specific unit before you reserve rather than generalise from a guide.

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