How to compare two off plan projects properly

Buyers usually arrive with a shortlist of two or three projects and a spreadsheet comparing price per square foot. That column is necessary and nowhere near sufficient. Here is the comparison we write for clients.

1. Price per square foot, against the right comparison

Compare against completed stock in the same community, not against other off plan launches. Off plan launches price against each other and can drift as a group; finished buildings are where the market actually clears.

2. Efficiency of the layout

Two units of identical area are not equivalent. Balcony-heavy area, long corridors and awkward columns all reduce usable space. Read the floor plan, not the total.

3. Developer delivery record

What have they completed, how close to the announced date, and what is the build quality of those completions now that they are a few years old? Nearby completed buildings are walkable evidence.

4. Payment plan against your cash flow

Model cash out before handover, cash at handover, and cash after. See our payment plans guide for the arithmetic.

5. Estimated service charge

Per square foot per year, and its effect on net yield. A high headline rent in an expensive-to-run tower can net less than a plainer building next door.

6. Supply coming into the same community

How many units complete in that community in the same window? Concentrated completion pressures both rents and resale at exactly the moment you need one of them.

7. Exit

Assignment terms in the SPA, resale depth for that unit type, and whether your intended buyer at exit actually exists. A 5-bedroom penthouse and a 1-bedroom apartment have completely different exit markets.

The projects worth buying survive all seven columns. Most shortlists lose a name by column four.

We provide this as a written comparison across your shortlist rather than a single recommendation, including, where it applies, the recommendation to buy neither.