An under-construction home is cheaper than a finished one for a reason: you are carrying risk the developer would otherwise carry. That trade can be an excellent one — it is how most people afford a better address than they could buy ready — but only if you actually price the risk instead of ignoring it.
Here is the checklist we hand to buyers, including the ones who end up buying from someone else.
Before you pay a rupee
- Find the project's RERA number and look it up yourself.Do not accept a screenshot. The portal shows the promised completion date, the approved plan, and every complaint filed against the project.
- Match the carpet area in the agreement to the one in the brochure. If the brochure quotes built-up or super built-up area, do the arithmetic before you fall in love with the number.
- Ask for the title certificate and the commencement certificate.A project selling without a commencement certificate is selling a hope.
- Check what is funding the construction.A project financed by a bank has been underwritten by people whose job is suspicion. That is free due diligence for you.
While you negotiate
- Get the payment schedule tied to construction milestones,not to calendar dates. You want to pay for a slab that exists.
- Read the delay clause both ways. Almost every agreement penalises you for a late payment. Check what it pays you for a late handover — and whether that rate is anywhere close to symmetric.
- Pin down the specification list in writing. "Premium vitrified flooring" is marketing. A brand and a size is a specification.
- Ask what is excluded. Floor rise, parking, club membership, and the electricity meter deposit can add a surprising amount to a number you thought was final.
Before you take the keys
- Do the snag inspection with a professional, not a relative. Two hours of a surveyor's time is the cheapest insurance in this entire process.
- Do not accept possession without the occupancy certificate.Moving into a building without one puts you in a home you cannot legally sell.
- Get the society handover timeline in writing — including the maintenance corpus the developer is transferring.
If a developer is happy to answer all eleven of these, you have learned something good about them. If they get impatient around question six, you have learned something more useful.
The honest summary
Nothing on this list is exotic. The reason buyers skip these checks is not ignorance — it is momentum. You have spent four weekends looking at flats, you have found one you like, and the sales team says two others are interested in the same unit. That is the exact moment to slow down.
A good project survives scrutiny. That is more or less the definition of one.
