Buyers negotiate the rate and accept the schedule. It should be the other way round more often than it is. Two projects quoting the same number per square foot can leave you in completely different positions, because the schedule decides how much of your money is exposed to the builder’s delivery risk, and for how long.
The three common shapes
Construction-linked. You pay as stages complete — foundation, each slab, finishing, possession. Your money moves at roughly the speed the building does. This is the buyer-friendly shape and it is the one worth paying a little extra for.
Time-linked. You pay on dates, whether or not anything has been built. The risk sits entirely with you: a two-year delay does not delay your instalments. Be very cautious here, especially early in a project.
Down-payment or front-loaded. A large share up front for a discount. You are lending the builder money at an interest rate expressed as a discount, unsecured, against a project that may not complete. Sometimes that is a good trade with a developer who has delivered fifteen times. It is rarely a good trade with one who has delivered once.
The number to work out
For any schedule, ask one question: what percentage of the total will I have paid by the time the structure is topped out? That is the fraction of your money exposed to the part of the project most likely to stall.
Under about half is comfortable. Around sixty per cent is normal in a strong market. Seventy per cent or more, on a project that has not started, is you funding the construction.
What else is in the schedule
- What is not included. Club charges, parking, power backup, IFMS, stamp duty and registration. Add them up before you compare two projects — the gap is often larger than the rate difference you negotiated.
- The delay clause. What the builder owes you per month if possession is late, and whether it is real money or an adjustment against a payment you have not made yet.
- The cancellation clause. What you get back if you walk away at each stage. Read this before you pay the token, not after.
- Escalation. Whether the price is fixed or can rise with material costs. If it can, ask for the cap in writing.
Match it to your own timeline
If you are funding the purchase from the sale of something else, or from a bonus in a particular quarter, map the instalments against that calendar before you sign. A schedule that front-loads forty per cent into the first year is a fine plan for somebody with the cash and a bad one for somebody who does not have it yet, whatever the project is like.
On our own listings the stage-by-stage split is set out on the project page under Payment plan. It is indicative — the schedule in your allotment letter is the one that binds you — but it is there so you can do this arithmetic before you are sitting in a sales office being asked for a decision.