Most London new-build is sold before it is finished, so for our buyers this is not an exotic option but the normal one. That makes it worth understanding properly rather than avoiding, and the honest version has four things that can move and five that hold still.
None of these is a scandal and none is hidden. They are the ordinary consequences of paying for something that does not exist yet, and each has a question that gets you a written answer.
Construction slips for reasons nobody in the transaction controls. The date you are given at reservation is an expectation, not a promise, and it can move by months.
What is the anticipated date, and separately, what is the backstop date in the contract after which I have rights?
Materials, layouts and finishes may be altered. Most changes are minor and permitted by the contract; a significant one can give you a right to cancel.
What is fixed, what may change, and what counts as significant enough to give me an exit?
In a phased development the view, the courtyard and the shops are often later phases. You are buying into a plan as much as a building.
What is consented next to this plot, what is under construction, and when does each phase land?
A mortgage offer is issued with a validity period, and a long build can outlast it. Currency can also move a long way between reservation and the completion payment.
If completion is far out, when would an application realistically need to be made?
Off-plan is not a leap of faith. The protections are documentary, and each one is a specific thing you can ask to see before you pay anything.
It would be easy to write this page as a list of dangers and finish by suggesting you buy something completed instead. That would be dishonest, because almost the entire London new-build market is sold this way and because buying early is how buyers get first choice of plot at a price fixed before the rest of the phase is released.
What we will not do is pretend the trade is free. You are accepting timing risk and specification risk in exchange for choice and a fixed price. Whether that trade suits you depends on your horizon and how much certainty you need, which is a conversation rather than a rule.
We will tell you which of the four moving parts actually applies to that development, and what to ask before the reservation clock starts.
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