Apartment sales in a development project

Because project sales are a sequence, not a single transaction. A reservation retains the prospective buyer, a preliminary agreement binds the parties during construction, and a purchase agreement transfers the completed unit. Each addresses a different phase and risks. If they do not connect, gaps emerge at the first problem, whether delayed occupancy approval, a withdrawing buyer or a declined mortgage.

Higher standards of fairness. Terms disproportionately favouring the developer, such as one-sided penalties or rights to change essential conditions, may not stand up in a dispute. We therefore protect your timetable and cash flow in ways that withstand buyers' and lawyers' scrutiny. A well-written agreement also speeds up the sale: the buyer signs without weeks of comments.

We link payments to construction stages and occupancy approval, considering how you finance the project and how buyers pay, from their own funds or a mortgage. The aim is balance: the developer needs ongoing funding from sales, while the buyer needs confidence that they are not paying for something not yet built. We propose the detail according to the project and the lender's requirements.

Buyer changes are the most common source of friction in off-plan sales: the buyer wants different flooring, the developer postpones handover, and nobody knows who pays the difference. We therefore include a clear process defining when changes may be requested, who approves and prices them, and their effect on price and handover. The sales team then need not treat every change as an exception.

Ownership transferred by agreement is acquired through Land Register registration (§ 133(2) of the Civil Code). For apartments, the law expressly repeats this for co-ownership shares in common parts, facilities, appurtenances and land (§ 5(4) of Act No. 182/1993 Coll.). In off-plan sales, this follows occupancy approval and registration of the building as completed. One obligation rests directly on you: the first transfer agreement must include floor plans identifying apartments, non-residential premises, garage spaces and storage units, their numbers and the land, and the seller must submit both the registration application and these documents (§ 5(5)). We prepare and file applications for every unit and coordinate them with buyers' mortgage drawdowns.

By law, the seller — you. The seller bears costs associated with transferring apartment and non-residential-unit ownership; you may require the acquirer to reimburse administrative fees demonstrably paid and the notary's fee (§ 5(8) of Act No. 182/1993 Coll.). This must be factored into project pricing rather than shifted entirely to the buyer by contract. We therefore specify exactly what is recharged, avoiding surprises at signing.

Building management cannot wait until the end: the duty to arrange management through an owners' association or a manager arises on the FIRST transfer of an apartment or non-residential unit in the building (§ 6(1) of Act No. 182/1993 Coll.), and multiple management forms cannot coexist in one building. It must therefore be resolved before the first purchase agreement is signed. That is also why the acquirer's declaration of accession to the owners' association agreement or management agreement is a mandatory part of the transfer agreement (§ 5(1)(f)). We prepare documents to start management and a complaints process with clear deadlines, enabling you to pass defects to the contractors responsible.