04 · 2 min path
Who is building it
On off-plan, the developer is the risk. Not the market, not the design – the people.
Off-plan means the developer is the risk
You are not buying a building. You are buying a promise to build one, secured by a contract in a jurisdiction where enforcement is slow and expensive. Market risk is real but second order. Design risk is real but survivable. The thing that takes people's money is a developer who runs out of it.
What to ask for, in order
- What have you finished? Not started, not handing over next quarter. Finished, handed over, occupied. Names and addresses.
- Can I go and look at it? Then go. A four-year-old building tells you what no render can: how the concrete has weathered, whether the pool plant works, whether the service charge is being spent.
- Can I speak to owners in it? A developer who will not connect you to a previous buyer is telling you something specific.
- What slipped, and by how much? Every scheme in Bali slips. The size of the slip, and whether it was disclosed early or discovered late, is the signal.
- Who is the contractor, and are they on this site full time? Developer and contractor are not always the same company, and a contractor running four sites is running yours part time.
Reading a track record honestly
Delivered projects matter more than renders, and units handed over matter more than projects. Two completed schemes and 180 units delivered means somebody has been through the hard part twice. Eight schemes announced and one finished means somebody has been through the easy part eight times.
Be careful with pedigree. Our architect worked on X is not experience of delivering in Bali. Permits, labour, materials logistics and local relationships are the difficulty here, and none of them transfer from a portfolio in Dubai or Lisbon.
Where your money sits while they build
The most useful single question: is there notary escrow? An Indonesian notary can hold staged payments and release them against verified construction milestones rather than on the developer's word. It is not universal here. Plenty of developments take payment directly, which means your money funds the build and you are an unsecured creditor if it stops.
If there is no escrow, ask what happens to your money if the developer fails. A vague answer is the answer. If there is escrow, ask who verifies the milestone: a quantity surveyor you can name is worth ten pages of contract.
The uncomfortable question
Ask what happens if they cannot finish. Not as an accusation – as diligence. A serious developer has thought about it and will tell you where the land sits, who could take over the contract, what security exists and what the completion arrangements are. A developer who has never considered the question has never considered the question.
Written by us · 2 min read · stage 4 of 9