Can I sell an off-plan property before completion?

Sometimes — it is called an assignment (cesión) of the private contract, and it needs the developer’s consent, which many contracts restrict or charge a fee for. In a rising market developers increasingly refuse assignments so they control the resale themselves. Check the assignment clause before you sign, not when you want to use it.

What happens if the developer goes bankrupt?

If your payments went into the special account and were covered by the legally required bank guarantee or insurance policy, you recover everything paid plus legal interest by executing the guarantee. That protection depends on holding the individual certificate for each payment — which is why your lawyer should verify the guarantee before every transfer.

Is buying off-plan cheaper than buying a resale?

Not automatically. New-build prices per square metre generally sit above comparable resale, and the tax is higher — 10% IVA plus 1.2% AJD against 7% ITP in Andalucía. Early-phase pricing can sit below expected delivery values, but you pay for that in an 18-to-30-month wait and process risk.

Can I get a mortgage for an off-plan purchase in Spain?

Only at completion. Banks lend against the finished, registered property, so the construction-stage payments — typically 20–30% of the price plus IVA — come from your own funds. Non-residents can then finance roughly 60–70% loan-to-value (EU buyers; 50–60% non-EU) on the delivered home.

What deposit do I need to buy off-plan on the Costa del Sol?

Expect a reservation of €6,000–€20,000, then 20–30% of the price paid in stages across the construction period, each payment carrying its 10% IVA. The balance is paid at the notary on completion, usually with the mortgage signed the same day.

Off-Plan Property on the Costa del Sol: 2026 Buyer’s Guide

A striking share of what is marketed on the western Costa del Sol in 2026 does not exist yet. The apartment with the render-perfect pool deck is, for now, a plan, a building licence and a payment schedule — and buying it is a genuinely different transaction from buying a finished home. Our office sells the finished side of this market, and precisely because we have no new-build inventory to push, we can afford to walk you through off-plan buying honestly: how the stage payments work, the bank guarantee that protects them, what the taxman charges, and the cases where a resale is simply the better purchase.

Why so much of the 2026 supply is off-plan

The centre of gravity of new construction on this coast moved west years ago. Marbella's core has little developable land left, so the pipeline concentrated in Estepona's expansion belt — the New Golden Mile and the hillsides behind it — which now carries one of the deepest new-build inventories on the Costa del Sol. The practical consequence for a buyer: if your search filters for contemporary specification — oversized sea-view terraces, current energy performance, spa-level communal areas — much of what matches is sold off-plan, eighteen to thirty months before anyone gets keys. That is neither good nor bad in itself. Off-plan is a trade: you accept time and process risk in exchange for specification and a staged payment plan. Whether the trade makes sense for you depends on knowing exactly how the process runs — so that is where we start.

How buying off-plan actually works in Spain

The sequence has four stations. First, the reservation: typically €6,000 to €20,000 depending on the price bracket, paid to take a specific unit off the sales list, with the private contract to follow within two to four weeks. Engage an independent lawyer before you sign the reservation, not after — the reservation document already commits you to the developer's contract framework, and this is the cheapest moment to walk away.

Second, the private purchase contract (contrato privado de compraventa). This fixes the price, the delivery date, the payment calendar and — critically — annexes the floor plan and the memoria de calidades, the specification document that defines what "luxury finish" legally means. A typical Costa del Sol payment structure puts 20 % to 30 % of the price into the construction period — the reservation, a larger payment at contract signing, then instalments against the calendar — with the remaining 70 % or so due at completion.

Third, the bank guarantee, the part of the system most buyers have heard of and few can cite. Spanish law requires every euro you pay before delivery to be secured: the developer must receive the funds into a dedicated special account and cover them with a bank guarantee (aval bancario) or an insurance policy that returns your payments plus legal interest if the home is not delivered on time. The framework is the first additional provision of the building act, Ley 38/1999, as rewritten by Ley 20/2015 and in force since January 2016, and the developer's obligation to guarantee runs from the granting of the building licence. In practice: demand the individual guarantee certificate for every payment you make, and never transfer to an account that is not the special account named in the contract. The guarantee is only as good as the paperwork in your hands.

Fourth, completion and delivery. The developer obtains the licence of first occupation, you inspect the finished unit and log the snagging list, and the deed is signed at the notary — balance paid, mortgage (if any) signed the same day, keys handed over. From delivery, the statutory building warranties run: one year on finishes, three on installations, ten on structure.

Taxes and costs: new build versus resale

This is where the two routes separate most cleanly, and the numbers below are current for Andalucía as of August 2026. A new build carries 10 % IVA plus 1.2 % stamp duty (AJD) — 11.2 % in tax. A resale carries 7 % transfer tax (ITP). At €500,000 that is €56,000 against €35,000: a €21,000 gap at the same headline price. Note also that the IVA is not saved up for completion — each stage payment carries its 10 % at the moment you pay it. With notary, registry, legal and gestoría fees on top, budget roughly 12.5 % to 14 % in total transaction costs on a new build against 11 % to 13 % on a resale. Our Costa del Sol tax guide takes the whole stack apart line by line, including what you pay annually once you own.

Financing off-plan as a non-resident

Spanish banks do not mortgage a property that does not exist yet. The stage payments during construction come from your own funds; the mortgage is signed at completion, against the finished, registered home. That single fact drives the whole financing plan. It means you need the construction-period 20–30 % — plus the IVA riding on it — in liquid funds, and it means you fix the purchase price today but your mortgage terms only when the building is delivered, two years of interest-rate weather later. Non-resident lending in 2026 runs at a 60–70 % loan-to-value ceiling for EU buyers and 50–60 % for non-EU buyers, so have a bank pre-assess you before the reservation, not during the snagging visit. Some developers offer subrogation into their own construction loan at delivery; treat that as one offer to compare, not a default. And if anyone implies that a €500,000 purchase still brings a residence permit with it — Spain's property golden visa was abolished in April 2025 and nothing equivalent has replaced it. The full lending picture — documentation, timeline, the valuation quirk that catches buyers out — is in our non-resident mortgage guide.

The real risks, and how to de-risk them

Delay is the most common problem, and on this coast it is measured in quarters, not weeks. Your protections live in the contract: a firm delivery date with a defined grace period, and either penalties or an exit right if it slips further. If the guaranteed date passes, the bank guarantee lets you recover everything paid plus legal interest — the choice to exit or wait becomes yours instead of the developer's.

Specification drift is subtler: the delivered kitchen is not the render. Your protection is the memoria de calidades annexed to the contract — have your lawyer strip out open-ended "or similar" substitution clauses, and photograph the show flat if there is one.

Developer failure is the fear everyone arrives with. The honest answer: the guarantee system exists precisely for this scenario, and it works — if you hold the certificates. The due diligence that matters before signing: confirm at the land registry that the developer owns the plot, confirm the building licence has actually been granted (the guarantee obligation runs from it), identify the guaranteeing bank by name, and look at what the developer has delivered before — and whether it arrived on time.

Your own completion risk rounds out the list. If you cannot complete — financing falls through, circumstances change — the contract usually puts your staged payments at risk. Which is another way of saying: solve the financing question before the reservation, not after.

When resale beats off-plan

We said this guide would be honest, so: off-plan wins on specification, energy performance, the staged payment calendar, and unit choice if you enter at launch. Resale wins on five counts that get less marketing. Location — the best land was built first, so frontline beach positions and the walkable old-town streets are almost entirely mature stock. Certainty — you buy the actual light, the actual noise at eight in the morning, the community's actual accounts, not a projection of them. Time — keys in six to eight weeks, not six to eight quarters. Tax — 7 % against 11.2 %, the €21,000 at half a million. Negotiability — individual sellers negotiate; developer price lists rarely move until a phase needs closing out. If your timeline is this year rather than 2028, or your target is the beachfront and the town centre rather than the hillside, the practical answer is usually a finished home. Our properties for sale in Estepona cover exactly that market, updated daily and personally inspected, and the complete Estepona buying guide walks the resale process end to end.

And if you are weighing a specific off-plan offer against the resale alternatives at the same budget, that comparison — payment plan against payment plan, tax against tax, delivered specification against promised specification — is exactly the conversation we have with buyers every week. We sit on the buyer's side of the table, and the first conversation costs nothing.