The normal practice in Spain for a property developer to proceed is as follows;
First he will produce the plans and then agree finance with a bank. Bank support will depend on “Pre-Sales”. The developer will then set up his sales office on the land and declare his development to the general public.
The public will at this point begin reserving their apartments from the plan and pay to the developer, a reserve figure which is usually a small sum – say Euros 6,000.00.
At this moment the prospective buyer will be advised that his contract will be ready to sign at a time determined by the developer. This may be 4 weeks from the reserve date for example.
Once the agreed time has passed the prospective buyer will pay to the Developer the balance of his deposit – normally bringing him up to a figure of 20% of the total purchase price.
The buyer will now be required to pay a fixed sum either monthly or quarterly for the remainder of the construction period – say 24 monthly payments of Euros 1250.00.
This means the buyer will have paid in this example a total of Euros 60,000 by the time the keys are ready to be handed over. This represents 40% on an apartment costing Euros 150,000.00
Because the developer is tied in with a bank, a 60% mortgage is guaranteed and our buyer simply continues to make his monthly mortgage payment to the bank,
Source – Versed Automation