The Risk No One Talks About Enough
Pre-selling condominiums offer genuine advantages: lower entry prices, flexible equity payments, and the opportunity to participate in appreciation before turnover. But they carry a risk that glossy brochures never discuss honestly: developer execution risk. You are not buying a unit. You are buying a developer's promise to build, deliver, and hand over a unit — on time, to specification, without cutting corners — years from now. The quality of that promise varies enormously across the Philippine market.
1. How many projects have they completed — and can you visit them?
A developer's completed portfolio is their most honest reference. Not renders. Not testimonials on their own website. Actual buildings that buyers now live in, that you can walk through and inspect. CLI's completed developments in Cebu are accessible and verifiable. PHINMA's portfolio is documented and visible. Wee Community's completed Davao projects are available for site visits. Before you reserve any pre-selling unit, visit at least one completed building by the same developer. What they delivered then is your best indicator of what you will receive.
2. Is the project registered with DHSUD?
Every legitimate pre-selling project must hold a current Certificate of Registration and License to Sell from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (formerly HLURB) before units can be offered. Ask for the registration number. Verify it. Any developer who resists providing this documentation immediately should be treated with significant caution. This is a non-negotiable baseline check, not an aggressive due diligence move — it's the minimum.
3. What is their actual delivery track record — slippage from announced to real?
Ask the broker — not the developer's sales team. Better yet, talk to owners in the developer's completed buildings. Philippine real estate has a well-documented culture of delays, typically running six months to two years beyond announced turnover dates. Some developers consistently deliver on time. Others treat announced timelines as aspirational marketing targets. This information is knowable if you ask the right people. Build a conservative delay assumption into every financial model: if the brochure says 2027, plan your cash flows around 2028–2029.
4. What exactly is included at turnover?
Bare unit, semi-furnished, and fully furnished are completely different financial propositions. A bare studio unit requires ₱150,000–₱400,000 of fit-out before it can be occupied or rented. A condotel unit like Aeon Bleu Aria in Davao is delivered fully furnished to hotel specification — zero fit-out cost, revenue-generating from day one. Wee Community markets an all-inclusive total contract price as a specific differentiator because hidden post-turnover costs have been a pain point for buyers elsewhere. Build total cost of ownership into your numbers from the start.
5. What does the secondary market for their units look like?
Search Lamudi, Carousell, and Facebook Marketplace for pre-owned units in the developer's completed buildings. How quickly do they sell? At what price per square metre relative to the original? Strong resale liquidity — units that move quickly and at a premium — is the most honest validation of a developer's product quality and the real demand in their locations. If secondary market units in a developer's completed buildings sit for months at discounts, that's material information about your eventual exit strategy. We apply this framework to every project we recommend. Contact us for an honest assessment of any development you're considering — including the things the brochure doesn't say.