Buying an Off-Plan Apartment in Romania: Payment Stages, Guarantees, the Preliminary Agreement (Antecontract) and What Happens When the Developer Is Late

1What is an off-plan purchase in Romania, and what changed in 2025?

An off-plan purchase in Romania is a commitment to buy a future property: a unit that has not yet been built, or that has been built but not yet registered as a separate unit. In practice, the buyer signs a bilateral promise of sale (promisiune bilaterală de vânzare-cumpărare, commonly called an antecontract) and pays advance payments. The final sale contract, which transfers ownership, is signed only after construction is completed, the building has been accepted and the units have been registered in the land book (Cartea Funciară).

On 11 December 2025, Law 207/2025, known as the “Nordis Law”, entered into force. The law amended the Construction Quality Law (Law 10/1995) and the Cadastre Law (Law 7/1996), and for the first time set a binding framework for off-plan sales. We review the background and main points of the law in a separate article. Here we focus on the practical questions: how to build a payment schedule, which security to demand, what the preliminary agreement must include, and what to do when the developer does not meet the timetable. It is important to know that the law does not apply to preliminary agreements and sale contracts that were signed before it entered into force.

2What are the stages of an off-plan apartment purchase in Romania?

The transaction usually goes through six stages, from the reservation agreement to registration of ownership. The buyer's risk is particularly high in the stages between the preliminary agreement and acceptance of the building, because this is the period in which most of the money has already been paid and ownership has not yet passed.

1. Reservation agreement (contract de rezervare): holds the unit for a short period in return for a small deposit.
2. Due diligence on the project and the developer: checking the status of the land book, the building permit, the security interests in favor of the financing bank and the condition of the developer company.
3. Notarial preliminary agreement: signed before a public notary, who sends it for a notation in the land book.
4. Payments by milestones: to the project's dedicated bank account, in line with construction progress.
5. Acceptance and registration of the building: a completion acceptance protocol is signed at the end of the works (proces-verbal de recepție la terminarea lucrărilor), and the building and the units are registered in the land book.
6. Final sale contract: signed before a notary, the balance of the price is paid and ownership is registered in the buyer's name.

3Reservation agreement: how much may you pay, and when do you get the money back?

Since Law 207/2025, the term of a reservation agreement is limited to 60 days, and the deposit, which is later deducted from the price, may not exceed 5% of the price. A reservation agreement that sets a higher deposit is void from the outset. Within the term, a notarial preliminary agreement or a sale contract must be signed.

If the preliminary agreement or the sale contract is not signed in time through the developer's sole fault, the developer must return the entire amount within 30 days of the end of the term. Two conclusions follow. First, if you are asked for more than 5% at the reservation stage, this is a warning sign and not merely a technical matter. Second, the refund is guaranteed only when the fault lies entirely with the developer, so it is worth documenting every approach you make to advance the signing.

4When may a preliminary agreement be signed, and what must it include?

A preliminary agreement for a future unit can be signed only before a notary, and only after all of the following conditions have been met: the building permit has been noted in the land book; in a condominium project, a preliminary division into units (pre-apartamentare) has been carried out; land book pages have been opened for the units; and there is a land book extract (extras de carte funciară) for the future unit itself. The notary must request that a notation of the agreement be made in the land book on the day of authentication, or at the latest on the next working day.

The notarial form guarantees that the document is in order, but not that the terms are good for you. The notary does not represent the buyer. These are the clauses we check in every preliminary agreement:

• Description of the unit: usable area and built area, floor, orientation, storage room and parking, and the apartment plan and technical specification as signed annexes.
• Price and VAT: whether the price includes VAT and at what rate. As of October 2026, the standard rate, 21%, generally applies to the delivery of a new apartment. The transitional rate of 9% applies only to certain transactions in which the advance payment agreement was signed before 1 August 2025, and was extended until 30 September 2026.
• Payment schedule: tied to construction milestones, not only to dates.
• Delivery and sale-contract signing dates: a delivery date, a defined grace period, and a narrow definition of force majeure.
• Compensation for delay: a liquidated damages clause (clauză penală) calculated per day or month of delay.
• Cancellation and refund: when the buyer may cancel, within what period the money is returned, and what happens with interest.
• Security interests: a commitment by the developer to provide a release letter from the financing bank as a condition for signing the sale contract.
• Changes to the unit: under the new law, if the total area or the location of the unit changes, the buyer's consent is required. Other changes to the registration, for example in the number of units in the project, do not require the buyer's consent.
• Assignment of the contract: whether the agreement may be transferred to another person before delivery, and under what conditions.
• Liability for defects: a mechanism for repairing defects and non-conformities after delivery.

5How do you build a payment schedule that reduces the risk?

The rule is to pay only for progress that can be verified, and to leave a significant balance for the signing of the final sale contract. The new law helps with this: advance payments are made to a separate bank account of the developer, which is used only for the project for which they were paid. The developer may use the money only after the project manager or site supervisor (diriginte de șantier) has approved the payment.

According to summaries by Romanian law firms, the law limits advance payments to 25% of the price for the structural works, and after those are completed to a further 20% for the building services works. One of the summaries notes that it is unclear whether the cap applies to the collection of the advance payments or only to their use. Use of advance payment funds contrary to the law carries a fine of 1% of the developer's turnover for the previous year. Either way, we recommend setting in the contract a payment schedule that is more conservative than the statutory cap:

Also pay attention to the costs of the preliminary agreement itself. According to the notaries' minimum fee schedule (Order of the Minister of Justice 177/C/2024), the notary's fee for a bilateral promise of sale in which part of the price is paid is 1% of the amount paid, and not less than 230 lei, plus VAT. A notary may charge more than the minimum.

6What guarantees can you demand from a developer in Romania?

Unlike the Sale Law (Securing Investments of Apartment Buyers) in Israel, Romanian law does not require the developer to provide a bank guarantee for every payment. The main protection the law provides is the dedicated account and the supervision of withdrawals. Any additional security is a matter of negotiation, and it is worth asking for it in advance:

• A bank guarantee for the refund of advance payments (scrisoare de garanție bancară): this is the strongest security. Large developers sometimes provide it for large payments.
• A letter of undertaking from the financing bank: the bank holding a mortgage over the land undertakes to release the unit from the lien when the buyer pays the full price.
• A mortgage in favor of the buyer (ipotecă): a security interest over the land or the unit that secures the refund of the advance payments. It is subject to prior security interests.
• An escrow account: with a bank or notary, for the balance of the price, to be released upon signing of the sale contract.
• A guarantee from the parent company or the shareholders: particularly suitable when the developer is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with no other assets.

7What happens when the developer is late with delivery?

Law 207/2025 does not set mandatory compensation for construction delay. Your rights therefore depend almost entirely on what is written in the preliminary agreement and on the rules of contractual liability in the Civil Code. When a delay occurs, we usually act in this order:

1. Check the contract: what the delivery date is, how long the grace period is, and what counts as force majeure.
2. Send a formal notice: a notice that puts the developer in default (punere în întârziere), through a bailiff or by registered mail. It documents the breach and starts the running of damages.
3. Claim liquidated damages: if the contract has a liquidated damages clause, it is the short route to compensation, because there is no need to prove the amount of the damage.
4. Cancel and demand a refund: if the delay is material, the agreement can be cancelled and a refund of the advance payments and damages can be demanded. Under the Civil Code, where the contract provides otherwise, amounts paid under a promise of sale are treated as an advance on account of the price. If the contract defines them as earnest money (arvună), different rules may apply, which in certain cases allow a claim for double the amount.
5. Enforce the sale contract: if the building is completed and registered but the developer refuses to sign, you can ask the court for a judgment that takes the place of the contract (Article 1669 of the Civil Code).

The hardest scenario is the developer's insolvency. In such a situation, a buyer who holds only a preliminary agreement is essentially a creditor, and the ranking of claims and the status of the land book notation are examined under insolvency law. This is why the security described above, mainly a bank guarantee and a release letter from the bank, is worth much more in a stalled project than any compensation clause.

8What should you know as an Israeli buyer?

• Remote signing: the preliminary agreement and the sale contract can be signed through a special notarial power of attorney. It can be prepared at the Romanian consulate, or before a notary in Israel with an apostille and a certified translation into Romanian. The power of attorney must define the unit, the price range and the authorities precisely.
• Transferring funds: pay only to the dedicated account that appears in the contract. Verify the account details in an independent phone call and not by email, because bank-detail-substitution fraud is common in real estate transactions. Keep all the documents, because the bank in Israel will ask for them for the purpose of verifying the source of funds.
• Currency: prices in projects are usually shown in euros, so the contract should state in which currency you pay and at what exchange rate.
• Taxation in Israel: an Israeli resident is subject to reporting and tax in Israel on rental income and capital gains from the property, subject to the tax treaty between Israel and Romania and to a credit for tax paid in Romania. It is worth coordinating the structure of the purchase, private or through a company, with your accountant before signing.

9Before you sign: how we accompany an off-plan transaction

Before any payment, we check the land book, the building permit and the security interests, and examine the developer itself. We negotiate a payment schedule tied to milestones and financial security, and redraft the delay, cancellation and refund clauses. We accompany the signing at the notary in both languages, and follow the construction through to registration of ownership. Our experience as active developers helps us identify in advance where a project may get stuck.

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The information in this guide is general in nature and does not constitute legal or tax advice on any specific transaction. Every transaction is assessed on its own facts.