Off-Plan Investing: How I Vet a Developer Before I Trust Them With My Money

The pitch is always seductive.

"Buy now, before construction starts. Pay 30–50% less than the finished price. By the time the estate is delivered, your property has appreciated before it even exists."

I have heard that pitch a hundred times. And here is the uncomfortable truth: it is often accurate. Off-plan investing — buying into a development before or during construction — genuinely does offer some of the largest gains in Abuja real estate. The entry prices are lower, the appreciation runway is longer, and the best organised estates sell out before they are finished.

But there is a reason the gains are large: the risk is large. Because when you buy off-plan, you are not buying a property. You are buying a promise. And promises, in this industry, are only as good as the person making them.

I have seen off-plan buyers win big. I have also seen them lose everything — developers who collected payments and vanished, estates that stalled at foundation level for years, projects that delivered something completely different from what was sold. The difference between the winners and the losers was never luck. It was due diligence.

Here is the exact process I run before I trust a developer with my money — or recommend that a client does.

The Problem: Why Off-Plan Deals Go Wrong

Before the solution, you need to understand the failure modes. Off-plan deals fail in predictable ways, and each one is preventable if you know what to look for.

Failure mode 1: The developer has no track record. A new company, a slick brochure, a beautiful render — and no history of actually delivering. You pay, construction starts slowly (or never starts), and your money is trapped.

Failure mode 2: The estate has no underlying title. The developer is selling plots on land they do not properly own or have not properly titled. Even if they build, your ownership is legally defective.

Failure mode 3: Payments go straight to the developer's pocket. No escrow, no milestone-based release, no accountability. When the developer runs out of money (or motivation), your payments are gone with them.

Failure mode 4: The timeline was never real. You were told 18 months. Three years later, you are looking at a foundation slab and a fence. Your capital is locked in an asset that is not generating and may not finish.

Failure mode 5: What gets delivered is not what was sold. The renders showed premium finishes and spacious layouts. The delivery shows something smaller, cheaper, and different — and your recourse is limited because the contract was vague.

Every one of these is preventable. That is what the vetting process is for.

The Solution: My Six-Step Developer Vetting Process

This is the process I run — and that we run at TLP — before we touch an off-plan deal. Six steps. Each one closes a failure mode.

Step 1: Verify the Developer's Track Record

This is step one for a reason. A developer's history is the single best predictor of their future. I want to see:

• Previous projects they have completed — not started, completed
• Those projects delivered on time, or close to it
• Buyers from those projects who are willing to speak about their experience
• A company that has existed long enough to have a track record (not a company registered last month with a beautiful website)

If a developer has never delivered a project, that is not automatically a dealbreaker — but it means every other step in this process becomes more critical, and your risk premium should be higher. A first-time developer with no track record asking for full upfront payment is a hard no.

Step 2: Confirm the Company Is Registered and Real

This sounds basic, but you would be amazed how many people skip it. I verify the developer's company registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission. I confirm the directors. I check that the company is active, not dissolved, and that the people presenting the project are actually the people behind the company.

A developer who is vague about their company name, their registration number, or their directors is a developer you walk away from. Legitimate developers are proud of their corporate identity. They do not hide it.

Step 3: Verify the Estate's Title at AGIS

This is non-negotiable, and it is where most off-plan scams collapse. The developer is selling you a plot in an estate — but does the developer actually own or control that land with proper title?

I take the estate's title documents — the C of O, R of O, or allocation documents — to AGIS and verify them. I confirm the land is registered to the developer (or their principal), that the boundaries match, and that there are no encumbrances, disputes, or competing claims.

If the estate has no title, or the title is in someone else's name, or there is a caveat on the land — you stop. An off-plan deal on untitled land is not an investment. It is a donation.

Step 4: Examine the Payment Structure

How you pay is as important as what you pay. I look for:

• Milestone-based payments — you pay as construction progresses, not all upfront. This aligns the developer's incentive with yours: they only get more money when they deliver more progress.
• Escrow or regulated accounts — your payments sit in an account with some oversight, not in the developer's operating account where they can be spent on anything.
• Reasonable deposit — a small initial commitment, with the bulk tied to milestones. A developer demanding 80–100% upfront, before construction has meaningfully started, is a massive red flag.

If the payment structure is "pay everything now, trust us to build," you walk. Legitimate developers who believe in their project are willing to tie payments to progress — because they know the progress will happen.

Step 5: Assess the Allocation Timeline Honestly

I ask for the construction timeline, and then I pressure-test it. I visit the site. Is there actual work happening — or just a signboard and a cleared patch of land? I ask to see the construction schedule, the contractor, and evidence of financing.

I also apply a realism discount: if they say 18 months, I plan for 24–30. If they say 24 months, I plan for 36. This is not cynicism — it is how construction actually works in Nigeria. The investors who get burned are the ones who believed the brochure timeline and planned their finances around it.

A developer who cannot show you a real construction plan, a real contractor, and real financing is a developer whose timeline is a wish, not a plan.

Step 6: Scrutinise the Contract for Delivery Standards

The final step is the contract itself. I read it — or have a lawyer read it — for what it actually promises. I look for:

• Clear specifications of what will be delivered (sizes, finishes, inclusions)
• A delivery timeline with consequences for delay
• A description of the common areas and infrastructure that will be provided
• A dispute resolution mechanism
• A refund or compensation clause if the project fails to deliver

Vague contracts protect the developer, not you. If the contract says "finishes to a high standard" without defining what that means, you have no recourse when the standard turns out to be lower than you imagined. Specificity is your friend.

The Red Flags I Never Ignore

Through all six steps, I am watching for these warning signs. Any one of them is a reason to slow down or walk away:

• No verifiable track record of completed projects
• Pressure to pay the full amount upfront, quickly
• No clear title on the estate land, or resistance to AGIS verification
• A company that is hard to verify or whose directors are hidden
• A site with no actual construction activity despite claims of progress
• A contract that is vague on specifications, timeline, or recourse
• A developer who will not put you in touch with previous buyers

None of these alone guarantees a scam. But each one is a door you should not walk through without asking hard questions first.

The Bigger Picture: When Off-Plan Makes Sense

I do not want to scare you away from off-plan investing. Done right, it is one of the most powerful strategies in Abuja real estate. The entry prices are genuinely lower, the appreciation is real, and the best organised estates — like the projects we work with — deliver exactly what they promise, on time, with clean titles.

The key is that "done right" part. Off-plan makes sense when:

• The developer has a proven track record
• The estate has verified title
• Payments are tied to milestones
• The timeline is realistic and backed by evidence
• The contract protects you

When all five are true, off-plan is not a gamble. It is a calculated, high-upside investment. When any of the five are missing, it is a gamble — and the house usually wins.

How We Help

At Tessy Luxury Properties, we do not just sell off-plan deals. We vet them — using exactly the six-step process above — before we ever present them to a client. If a developer cannot pass our vetting, we do not work with them, no matter how attractive the commission. Because our reputation is worth more than any single deal, and so is your money.

If you are considering an off-plan purchase — whether it is one of our projects or someone else's — and you want a second set of eyes on the developer, the title, the payment structure, and the contract, reach out to us. We will walk you through the vetting, honestly, even if you end up buying elsewhere.

Because the best off-plan investment is the one where you sleep fine from the day you pay to the day you collect your keys. That only happens when you have vetted the developer before you trusted them with your money. Not after.