If you have been thinking of buying a villa or an apartment in Spain and been reading about it, you might have come across the term “Off Plan Property” or “Off Plan Real Estate” and wondered exactly what was meant by it. The easy answer to this is that it applies to buying property before it has been built, sometimes even before a spade has been put in the ground.

Generally and certainly for the last decade, this (buying off plan) has been an excellent way to buy property in Spain. Builders and constructors offer the property at a substantial discount to what you would expect to pay for comparable resale properties in the locale and certainly well below what they expect them to sell for when the site is finished. In fact not only ordinary buyers have been using this system, but many investors and speculators have made large profits buying and then selling on completion.

Most off plan buyers have used inspection trips set up by property agents in the UK or their home country and Spain to find and purchase their off plan home in Spain. These are 3 or 4 day tours with the sole intention and purpose of seeing as many villas and apartments in a pre determined price range and area as possible. People are taken to all the building sites where they view show houses, view site plans, see where “their” property will be.

If suitable a deposit of two thousand pounds is paid and then within a couple of months a further fifty percent is paid over, with the balance paid on completion. In the boom years this could have been anything up to two years, but the recent slump has seen this drastically reduced in all but the most popular and expensive resorts. All deposits should be covered by a bank guarantee scheme (check before you sign anything), plus constructors are not allowed to start building before all the infrastructure is in place now days, which has sorted out a lot of the old problems of builders disappearing before roads and drains were finished.

Recently, due to the slowdown in sales and the clampdown on sub prime mortgages, the Spanish builders although reluctant to reduce prices, have been offering plenty of goodies as incentives. This often includes such things as air conditioning, marble floor tiles, top quality fitted kitchens, appliances and complete furniture packs, so don”t forget to ask as it is a buyers market at the moment. Remember those that don”t ask don”t get, especially as the agents commission is often reduced by extras.

For more property advice and help please see Off Plan Property

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