Since December 2, 2025, Technical Provision DNRT-DT-2025-001 has enabled the provisional registration of contractual rights over real estate. Five months later, the off-plan sales market continues to operate based on chains of private contracts that the registry never sees
In the due diligence I've conducted in recent months, one constant has emerged with a frequency that should no longer be surprising: nearly 90% of developers selling off-plan projects are not the registered owners of the land where they intend to build. What they have is a preliminary sales agreement signed with the registered owner. And, in most of these cases, even that agreement isn't registered with the Land Registry.
We want a market with robust legal security, but we aren't using the tools the registration system offers. The National Directorate of Title Registration published Technical Provision DNRT-DT-2025-001 on October 16, 2025, regarding Preventive Annotations, Provisional Registrations, and Informative Annotations, which came into effect on December 2 of that same year. This provision incorporates a formal proposal submitted by the 2024-2026 Board of Directors of the Association of Real Estate Agents and Companies (AEI), aimed at minimizing the risks of off-plan property sales, strengthening preventive legal security, and bringing the Dominican registration system closer to the standards of internationally recognized jurisdictions like Dubai. Five months after its formal enactment, the sector has yet to incorporate its use into the daily operations of off-plan sales.
A chain of contracts that the registry never sees
The typical off-plan sale transaction rests on three contractual links. The first is the registered owner, the only one with the property right registered with the Land Registry. The second is the developer, bound to the owner by a preliminary sales agreement that is rarely registered. The third is the final buyer, bound to the developer by another preliminary sales agreement that also operates outside of the registry.
The result is a chain where no link after the first is enforceable against third parties. Construction takes place, promotions are made, reservations are collected, and installment contracts are signed on a legal structure that the land registry system simply doesn't recognize. And meanwhile, the system itself has already provided the technical answer.
What DNRT-DT-2025-001 allows you to do
Article 12 of the provision allows for the provisional registration of legal situations related to real estate rights arising from validly executed contractual agreements between the parties. In practical terms, a preliminary sales agreement between the registered owner and the developer can be provisionally registered. And a preliminary sales agreement between the developer and the final buyer can also be provisionally registered.
Article 17 even contemplates the conversion of provisional registration to definitive registration once the conditions of the transaction have been met. This allows contractual rights to transition from initial enforceable protection to full ownership without any break in the registration process. In other words, the system offers incremental protection that accompanies the buyer from the signing of the contract until the delivery of the individual title deed.
The real obstacle is not the tool, it's consent
Why does almost no one use it? Article 13, paragraph I, requires the express consent of the registered owner for provisional registration arising from an agreement between parties. That is the key to understanding the sector's silence.
For a developer to provisionally register their sales agreement, they need the consent of the registered owner. For a final buyer to register theirs, they need the developer's consent. Each level implies a degree of transparency that not all market players are willing to accept: public disclosure of contractual commitments, traceability of transactions, and reduced operational flexibility.
The tool is not lacking. What is lacking is the sectoral decision to use it.
The imminent regulatory horizon
What is currently a technical option will soon be a regulatory requirement. The Real Estate Intermediation and Advertising Bill, already approved by the Senate and currently pending consideration in the Chamber of Deputies, will close the structural gap on which a large part of the market operates: no agent or developer will be able to promote or sell real estate projects that they do not legally own, nor justify off-plan sales based solely on a preliminary sales agreement with the registered owner.
When that law takes effect, DNRT-DT-2025-001 will cease to be an optional, unused tool and will become an essential technical complement to the new market standard. We want a market with robust legal certainty, and when the law takes effect, its use will no longer be optional.
What each market player can do today
If you are a buyer or investor: are you requiring that the sales agreement you sign with the developer be provisionally registered with the Registry of Titles, or are you satisfied with the mere notarization of the signatures?
If you are a real estate agent: before promoting a project off-plan, are you verifying that the developer is indeed the registered owner of the land, or are you selling without knowing the chain of rights on which your commission rests?
If you are a developer: when you buy the land where you plan to build without having paid the price yet, do you provisionally register that promise of sale to protect yourself, or do you continue working the old way —without the same protection that you also don't offer to the final buyer later?
If you are a real estate attorney: when advising a buyer, are you suggesting they include an express clause obligating the developer to consent to provisional registration with the Land Registry? And when advising a developer, are you recommending they apply this clause when acquiring the land and incorporate it as a standard clause in their contracts with end buyers? This protection, far from discouraging sales, actually promotes them: it translates into a legally binding agreement the trust that today's informed buyer no longer grants without proof.
We want a robust legally secure market. The tool has already been given to us. The decision to use it remains ours.
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