Off-plan property in Albania: what can slip?

An unfinished apartment is a contract, then a wait, then a registration at ASHK. You do not own it because a brochure says you do, or because money has already left. The risks that decide the file are delay, specification changes, weak milestone payments, and incomplete permits. Pay against progress you can check, into the developer's account, and keep this phase's permit beside the price.

Topics

• Which permit covers this phase?
• Milestones and the account
• Put a day on the handover
• Name the finish in a list
• Cash leaves before you move in
• Coast stock and city stock
• Before the payment gets large
• Wrapping up

Which permit covers this phase?

A permit for phase one does not authorise phase three, and a permit for a smaller building does not authorise floors added later, so ask for the permit that covers this building and this floor and have the lawyer compare it with the plan before the reservation is large. If the permit is "on the way," you are funding a hope.

Cap the deposit.

Earlier registrations by the same developer are history, not a promise for your date. The contract should say who returns the price, in how many days, if this unit cannot be registered. "We always register" is not that clause.

A foreign individual can buy the apartment in their own name when the cadastre can treat it as a building. Farm, forest, and pasture are not a direct personal purchase. A plot with a promise to build later still has today's category. A future building does not rewrite it. The same check on a finished flat is in due diligence and title checks.

What does the permit actually cover?

Milestones and the account

Pay for progress you can verify: a permitted start, a structure to a defined floor, a weathertight shell, then completion and registration. The percentages are a negotiation. The shape matters more. Most of the price at reservation, and a token at handover, means you have already given away your position.

Check the account.

Pay the developer, into an account the contract prints in the developer's name. A diversion to a cousin, a personal account, or a "supplier" is a stop. Keep every swift copy. From abroad, a power of attorney that releases money should name this project, these milestones, and this ceiling, and it should not let anyone waive a missed date. It still has to be notarised, apostilled where required, and translated. How to draw it is in buying remotely.

Your lawyer should read the parent title before the first large payment. The land, and any construction mortgage, are already on an ASHK kartela. A seller PDF is a copy. Your price should not vanish into a general facility while the pledge stays on the parcel.

Who gets the next tranche?

Put a day on the handover

Summer, or next season, is not a date. Write a day, then write the remedy if it passes: a reduction, a right to walk away and recover what you paid, or another remedy your lawyer says you can enforce. A sentence against a company with no assets is only a sentence. Ask whether a guarantee or a deposit account exists. If the answer is only the company's promise, price that in.

Name the day.

Walk a finished building by the same developer if one exists. Corridor width, waterproofing, and the gap between the show flat and the delivered flat tell you how this developer uses a date. Ask when earlier phases were actually registered at ASHK. Between keys and registration you may pay service charges and still not hold title.

Vlora International Airport did not open in 2026. A memo that assumes guests land beside the bay that summer is using a fact that failed. Flights use Tirana International Airport, then the road. Do not pay a premium for an opening year that did not happen. See Vlora airport and property prices.

Name the finish in a list

Name the floor, orientation, area, parking, storage, and finish. Say whether the kitchen, wardrobes, and air conditioning are included. A numbered plan beats a brochure that can be reprinted. If the area can shrink, write the percentage and what it does to the price. A smaller flat at the same price is a change you paid for.

Get it in writing.

Pool, concierge, gym, and generator are expensive to run. Ask for the draft administrator budget. If the apartment arrives and the amenity does not, the product changed. Your remedy should cover that, or the amenity should not have been in the price.

Require written approval before a structural or area change. A site manager's "this is better" is how a sea view becomes a side view. Photograph the show flat if that standard is what you are buying. The schedule is what you can enforce. The show flat is a sample.

Cash leaves before you move in

Registered developers generally charge VAT at 20% on a new build, while a private resale often does not, so compare the two only after you know whether 20% sits inside the off-plan figure. A lower "from" price that excludes VAT can be the larger cash sum. Ask for one number: what you will transfer, with VAT if it is due, with parking if it is extra, without furniture if the handover is a shell. The tests are on VAT on a new build.

Hold the cash.

Closing costs still apply at the deed, often about 4-7% including the lawyer, after months of instalments. The notary tariff is roughly 0.23-0.35% of value. ASHK registration is about 3,500 ALL, and the filing is about 4,000 ALL. Keep that reserve outside the milestone account. The seller's 15% on the gain is not a 2% transfer tax for you to add to each instalment.

Money paid a year or two early is a cost even when the contract charges no interest. A finished apartment in Vlora that you can register this month has a higher headline and a shorter path to your name on the kartela. The off-plan unit has to beat that path after the permit and the milestones are in writing. Income after handover, if you want a yield, is in investing in Albania.

Coast stock and city stock

Golem and Saranda off-plan stock is often a summer product. Open into a quiet winter, and the first year of costs arrives before the first full summer. Tirana off-plan is more often a year-round home. The legal checks match. The empty months do not. Write the use down before you compare a bay rendering with a city one.

We would rather see a calendar day than the word summer. Service charges on a pool building can exceed what you modelled from a small finished block. Vatreja Q3 2026 asking levels, about EUR 2,084 per square metre in Vlora and about EUR 1,900 in Tirana, are listings, not a forecast for your unfinished floor. Consul 2026 reference prices are a fiscal schedule, not the contract. Use the contract number for every milestone.

Browse projects for what is on offer. A project page is not a permit or a completion date. The investment pages are the same kind of start.

Before the payment gets large

Hold the first large transfer until one folder has the permit for this phase, a current ASHK extract for the land, a milestone table with dates and accounts, a specification, a VAT line that says included or excluded, and a lawyer's note on what you recover if the date fails. If any item is "to follow," the payment stays optional.

Walk a completed building if you can. If you cannot, send an inspector who is not paid only when you sign. The brochure will still be there next month. Your cash will not, if you send it against a season.

What you own on reservation day is a claim under the contract, plus whatever security it actually gives you. Calling it "your apartment" after a 10% transfer is a sales tense. You own it when the deed is registered and the kartela shows your name. A let, if that is the plan, starts after handover, fit-out, and a real tenant. It does not start at reservation.

Wrapping up

Keep the permit, the account, and a real date in the same folder as the price. A project introduction from us is not a permit, a date, or a specification. Use the appointment page if you want a local partner, and read VAT on new-build property before you treat two headlines as the same cash.