5 Things to Check Before You Buy Off-Plan in Abuja

Buying off-plan is, unit for unit, the best value in Abuja's property market — prices at launch typically run 20–30% below completed-unit pricing on the same development. It's also the stage at which buyers have the least to actually inspect. You're paying against drawings and a construction schedule, not a finished apartment. That trade-off is worth taking, but only with a few things checked first.

1. Title, not just location

A good location doesn't fix bad title. Ask the developer directly which of the following applies to the land: a Certificate of Occupancy already in the developer's name, a Governor's Consent in progress, or an allocation letter awaiting perfection. Any of these can be legitimate, but you should know which one you're buying into, and your solicitor should verify it independently rather than taking the sales brochure's word for it.

2. Payment plan structure

The safest off-plan payment plans are staged against construction milestones — foundation, superstructure, roofing, finishing — not against a fixed calendar. A calendar-based plan keeps collecting your money whether or not the building is actually progressing. Ask what happens to your payments if a milestone is missed, and get the answer in writing.

3. Track record on delivery dates

Ask the developer for the completion dates on their last two completed projects, and check whether those dates were hit. Every developer will show you their best renderings; fewer will volunteer their actual delivery history. A developer with a public, verifiable track record on timing is worth a premium over one who can't produce one.

4. What's already built, not just what's promised

Renderings show the finished product. Site visits show what's actually true today. Before committing a deposit, visit the site and look specifically for infrastructure that's easy to skip: has the access road been built, is drainage in place, is there a functioning borehole. These are unglamorous, and also the things that are hardest and most expensive to retrofit after homes are occupied.

5. What happens after handover

Off-plan marketing is almost entirely about the unit. Ask about what happens after handover instead: who manages the estate, what the service charge structure looks like, whether accounts are published and audited, and who you call if something breaks in year one. A defects liability period should be standard — ask for the length of it in writing.

None of these checks should slow down a purchase from a developer who's already doing them properly. If anything, a developer who volunteers this information before you ask is usually the one worth buying from.