“Progressing as Planned” Isn't an Update: What to Ask Your Developer For Instead
Since the spring, every email you send gets the same line back, that construction is progressing as planned, and the figure on the official project page hasn't moved since its last update. The next instalment is already in your calendar, and from abroad a quiet month on a busy site looks exactly like a site that has stopped, so the silence leaves you paying on trust.
You don't have to accuse anyone to get a real answer, only ask for things that can be checked. Ask in writing for the current programme and a dated 360° walk of your floor, check the project's completion percentage with the Dubai Land Department (DLD), and if your instalments are tied to construction stages, ask for the approved consultant's letter. A good update is dated and placed on the plan, so you can hold it against the last one.
You aren't imagining that dates are moving. Construction Week reported on 29 September that 70 percent of the Dubai homes scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2026 were delayed, against roughly 40 percent at the end of 2025, citing DLD data, and that delays were already rising before this year's disruption. The same piece argued that developers benefit from realistic schedules and early disclosure when timelines change, which is the conversation you are trying to start, so the useful move is a short list of specific requests, sent in an order that escalates only when the earlier ones go unanswered.
Why construction updates go quiet
Most buyer updates are put together by a sales or customer team from whatever the site sends them, so each one depends on someone on site taking pictures and someone in the office choosing which to send. When the programme is being revised, or the site's photos stop arriving in a usable form, the newsletter is the first thing to slip, which is why silence on its own tells you little about the building. It does tell you that the developer's reporting depends on people with other jobs, so the requests that work are the ones that are easy to answer with something dated.
The regulator has heard this complaint often enough to answer it, because the DLD's FAQ asks why most investors complain that they can't communicate with some developers, or find out a project's completion percentage, while being asked for new payments. Its answer is the fourth request below.
What to ask for, and in what order
- The current programme in writing: the expected completion date, any change since you signed and the reason for it. Keep the reply with the date you received it.
- A 360° walk of your floor and its corridor recorded within the last two weeks, or at least dated photos taken from points marked on the floor plan.
- The official figure, which you can look up yourself on the DLD's Project Status Enquiry, noting the completion percentage and when it was last updated.
- If your instalments are tied to construction stages and a payment has been requested, a letter from the DLD-approved project consultant confirming the completion percentage. The DLD's FAQ says you aren't obliged to pay until the stage in your schedule is confirmed.
- If the answers still don't fit together, a completion report from the Real Estate Regulatory Agency's technical auditor, which the same FAQ prices at AED 15,000 per unit, read alongside your contract by a property lawyer.
Keep every reply, link and report with its date, because if the project slips past the grace period in your contract, those dates become the records that show when a delay began.
What a good construction update looks like
An update you can rely on is one you could hold against the next and see what changed, which is why the date and the place matter more than how good the footage looks.
| An update that settles little | An update you can check | |
|---|---|---|
| Date | "This month", or none at all | The day it was captured, shown on the update |
| Place | A wide shot of the tower | Your floor, with the route marked on the floor plan |
| Viewpoints | New angles every time | The same viewpoints as the last update |
| Coverage | The areas that look finished | The areas your next stage covers, finished or not |
| Changes to dates | Mentioned on a call | In writing, with the reason and the new date |
| Access | A video file sent over a messaging app | A link that opens in a browser and stays available |
When most of what you receive sits in the right-hand column, the update is doing its job even when the news is a delay, and you have become the buyer whose questions get dated answers.
- A date you can checkThe walk shows when it was captured, not when it was sent.
- Your unit, not a show flatThe unit number and its place on the plan are in the walk.
- No app neededIt opens from a link in the phone's browser.
If you're the developer reading this
A buyer who reads this post will send you the requests above, and a one-line reply that construction is progressing as planned will only move them to the next request on the list. The easier answer is one they can check, which is a dated walk of their floor and any change to the handover date in writing, sent before they ask. It is also how a delayed project keeps its buyers' trust, because the news may be bad but the record is honest, and how to send construction updates buyers trust sets out the routine.
Where SpatialSense fits
SpatialSense is used by the developer and its site team, so as a buyer you can ask for what it produces without using it yourself. The site team records a walk with the Trace app and a 360° camera on a helmet, and in Video Mode every frame carries GPS and a timestamp, with the walk's path drawn on the floor plan. From two dated walks SpatialSense writes a station-by-station progress report that says what changed at each station and links every finding to the 360° images it came from, and someone on the developer's team reviews each finding before the PDF goes out, because AI proposes and a person approves. The developer then sends a share link that opens without a login, which covers most of the right-hand column in one message, and it is the same dated walk that lets a client sign off a week's work without a site visit.
If your developer already sends a dated video along the same route every month, keep asking for that, because it does most of the same job. A walk also doesn't replace the consultant's letter or the official percentage, which are the documents your contract and the regulator rely on.
Capture. Understand. Take Action.
See SpatialSense on your project
If you are a developer whose buyers are asking where the updates went, you can run the full platform free for 30 days on one project with no card, uploading 360° photos from your own camera in the browser, and send the first dated walk before your next instalment cycle. Support is 24/7 and one to one, from a person at Kodifly. If you are the buyer, send your developer the five requests above with your next due date, and this page with them.
SpatialSense isn't only for big projects, and you don't need to learn every part of it to use it, because on a custom plan you can take the 360° viewer on its own. Book a demo and we'll go through the details with you.
FAQ
What should I do if my off-plan developer is not responding?
Write to them with specific requests, starting with the current programme in writing and a dated walk or photos of your floor. Check the project on the DLD's project status service yourself, and keep every reply with the date you received it.
Does a low completion percentage on DLD mean construction has stopped?
Not on its own, because the figure reflects the project's last update, and the DLD's FAQ says RERA reviews projects periodically and asks developers to refresh their completion rates. Check when it was last updated, and ask for a dated walk to see what has happened since.
Can I get an independent report on my off-plan project's progress in Dubai?
Yes. The DLD's FAQ says RERA's technical auditor can prepare a report on the percentage of completion, for a fee of AED 15,000 per unit.
What should a construction progress update include?
The date it was captured, where on the plan it was taken, the same viewpoints as the last update, and any change to the completion date in writing.