A First-Time Buyer's Guide to Pre-Construction

Start with whether pre-construction suits you at all

Pre-construction is not simply a newer version of buying resale. You are committing now to a purchase that completes years from now, at a price fixed today, on a date that can move. For some buyers that is an advantage. For others it is the wrong shape of risk entirely.

It tends to suit people who have time, whose housing situation is stable, and who can absorb a delay. It suits people who need to move by a particular date considerably less well.

Understand the deposit schedule before the price

First-time buyers often focus on the purchase price and skim the deposit schedule. The schedule is where the immediate pressure lives: it sets out how much you pay and when, usually in instalments across the first year or more.

Map those dates against your own cash position honestly. An instalment falling due before a bonus, a maturing investment or a mortgage approval you are counting on is a problem worth seeing early rather than late.

A pre-approval is not an approval

A lender's pre-approval is an indication based on your circumstances today. Your mortgage is finalised close to closing, on the lender's assessment at that time, under the rules in force then.

The gap between those two moments can be years on a pre-construction purchase. Keep your financial position stable across it, and avoid taking on other credit in the run-up to closing.

The decisions you cannot undo

Some choices are reversible and some are not. Finishes can often be changed later at your own cost. The lot cannot. The model cannot. The builder cannot.

• Which lot you take, including its orientation and position in the community
• Which model and elevation you sign for
• The builder, and therefore the specification and process you are buying into
• The closing structure set out in the agreement

Get the agreement reviewed

Have a lawyer read the purchase agreement during any statutory review period that applies to it. This is not an optional refinement. The agreement determines what happens if dates move, what you are owed, and what you have agreed to accept.

The representative explaining the document in a presentation centre works for the builder. That is normal and not sinister, but it does mean nobody in that room is acting for you unless you have arranged it.