Where the money sits while the building goes up

Off-plan deposit protection, six markets

Portugal is the only one of the six with no automatic statutory scheme standing behind a buyer's staged payments.

Market	Backstop	Mechanism
France	Statutory	Garantie financière d'achèvement. A guarantee of completion is required on off-plan sales.
Spain	Statutory	Every advance payment must be individually guaranteed by a bank or insurer (Ley 20/2015).
Germany	Statutory	The MaBV regulates the instalment schedule itself, tying payments to defined construction stages by law.
Netherlands	Near universal	SWK and Woningborg warranty schemes, reaching near-universal coverage through market and lender practice rather than statute.
United Kingdom	Near universal	NHBC Buildmark, likewise driven by lender and market practice rather than imposed by law.
Portugal	None automatic	A garantia bancária in the buyer's favour and a lawyer or notary escrow account both exist and both work. Neither appears unless it is negotiated into the promissory contract. The default is that staged payments go to the developer's working capital.

What follows from the last rowEvery safeguard on a Portuguese off-plan purchase is opt-in, and the opting-in happens before signature or not at all. That is also why overpaying relative to construction progress is not a cash-flow inconvenience here. It is unsecured exposure, with no fund standing behind the buyer if the developer runs out of money mid-build.

Sources: France, garantie financière d'achèvement · Spain, Ley 20/2015 · Germany, Makler- und Bauträgerverordnung (MaBV) · Netherlands, SWK and Woningborg · United Kingdom, NHBC Buildmark · Código Civil, Article 1225.º. Legal framework reviewed 11 September 2026.