Project · 2026-04-24 · 6 min read

Off-plan delivery risk · the buyer's due-diligence checklist

Most foreign buyers spend 90% of their diligence on the unit and 10% on the developer. That's backwards. Here are the 12 questions to ask before you sign · the ones Alexandre asks his Société Générale clients before they commit.

The financial questions

· What is the developer's net debt-to-equity over the last three years? Is it trending up or down?
· Are they SET-listed? If yes, pull the latest 56-1 form. If no, ask for audited financials and a banker letter.
· What is their inventory-days metric · how long does completed unsold stock sit?
· What's their project transfer rate on completed buildings?

The track record questions

· How many projects have they delivered in the last 5 years? What was the average delay?
· Have any of their juristic-person handovers been disputed in the courts?
· What is the resale liquidity in their delivered buildings? Are units selling within 6 months at acceptable spreads?

The project-specific questions

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· What's the current sales velocity on this project · units per month, and is it accelerating or stalling?
· What's the foreign-quota status · how many foreign units sold, how many remaining?
· What's their EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) status? Approved? Conditional? Delayed?
· Who is the construction contractor and have they delivered on previous developer projects?
· What's in the SPA contract about delays · is there a financial penalty clause if handover is more than 12 months late?

Red flags that should make you walk

· Net D/E above 2.0 with no clear deleveraging plan
· Multiple recent projects delayed by 12+ months
· Sales velocity declining quarter-over-quarter on this project
· EIA still 'in review' beyond 24 months
· SPA has no developer-side penalty clause for delay
· Sales staff cannot tell you sales velocity numbers · means they are not tracked centrally

Yellow flags worth investigating

· Construction contractor on first major project with this developer
· Foreign quota nearly full · means you're at the back of the line for any quota release
· Phase 4 or 5 sales prices identical to phase 1 · the project is not running hot

Three days of due diligence on the developer prevents three years of regret on the unit.

What we do for you

Every project we underwrite carries a developer-health card with the 12 questions answered. You don't have to dig through SET filings · we hand you the summary. Ask for it.