Buying Off-Plan in Colombia: How Sobre Planos and Fiducia Protections Work

Buying sobre planos — literally “on plans” — is common in Colombian cities. You commit to a unit before or during construction and pay in stages, usually a separation deposit, installments during construction, and the balance at delivery. No existing post on this site covers it, so this report sets out the mechanism, the protection it offers, and the gaps. It makes no claim about off-plan prices, discounts or appreciation; we don't have sourced figures and we won't invent them.

How a sobre planos purchase is structured

The usual structure is an encargo fiduciario de preventas: a pre-sale trust arrangement in which a fiduciaria (a trust company) receives the buyers' money instead of the developer. According to Aval Fiduciaria's consumer guide to real-estate fiducia, the fiduciaria keeps those funds separate from the builder's and other investors' money, typically in a collective investment fund (fondo de inversión colectiva, FIC) that it manages, under a standard adhesion contract (Aval Fiduciaria, checked October 2026).

Two practical points follow. First, you will usually sign at least two documents: a contract linking you to the fiducia arrangement and, at some stage, a promesa de compraventa (the binding preliminary sale contract) with the developer. Second, because the money sits in an investment fund, it can change in value while it waits. The guide says the contract should state who bears any loss.

The punto de equilibrio

The punto de equilibrio (break-even point) is the moment the project meets the technical and financial conditions written into the fiducia contract. Those conditions are set project by project; the guide says they can differ from one project to the next, so the only way to know them is to read your contract. Before releasing anything, the fiduciaria must verify that the conditions have been met (Aval Fiduciaria, checked October 2026).

Ask what the deadline is for reaching the point, and what happens if the developer asks to extend it. The guide we used does not give a standard term; your contract should.

What the fiducia doesn't protect

The same consumer guide is unusually direct about the limits. The fiduciaria cannot guarantee a return on the funds it holds, does not guarantee the project's viability or proper operation, does not cover construction or the financial risks of the investment, and is not responsible for technical aspects such as quality or design. It does not back the project with its own assets. Some fiduciarias only manage the pre-sale phase and play no role during construction (Aval Fiduciaria, checked October 2026).

In plain terms: the fiducia protects you against a project that never gets started. It does not protect you against one that starts and then runs late, changes specifications, or fails after the money has been released. The guide suggests checking the project's insurance policies and whether there is an independent construction supervisor (interventor).

Checking the fiduciaria and the licence

The fiduciaria. Trust companies in Colombia are supervised by the Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia (SFC), which publishes the entities it supervises on its website. Confirm that the named fiduciaria appears there. The SFC also requires fiduciarias to publish their approved standard contract models on their own websites with the filing number and approval date, and sales rooms must display the consumer guide and hand buyers a copy with the contract (Aval Fiduciaria, checked October 2026). If the contract you're given doesn't match a published model, ask why.

The licence. Construction in Colombian cities requires a licencia de construcción, issued by a curador urbano (an independent licensing office) or the municipal planning authority, depending on the city. Ask for the licence number and the issuing office, and confirm it directly with that office: that it is in force, that it covers the number of units being sold, and whether it has been modified.

Reading the contracts

Have a Colombian lawyer read the promesa and the fiducia documents before you sign. The terms worth reading twice:

• Delivery date and extensions. Is there a fixed date, a grace period, and a penalty or compensation if it slips?
• What exactly you are buying. Unit number, area (and which area — private or built), specifications and finishes, parking and storage.
• Changes. What the developer may modify without your consent, and what happens if it does.
• Price and payment schedule. Whether any part of the price can be adjusted, and what happens if you miss an installment.
• Exit terms. Penalties (arras or clauses) if you withdraw, and whether you can assign your position to someone else.
• Deed timing. When the escritura is signed and registered, which is when ownership actually transfers.

Paying installments from abroad

An off-plan purchase is many transfers, not one. Each payment that comes from abroad should enter through the Colombian exchange market with a declaración de cambio (exchange declaration) identifying it as foreign investment. Banco de la República's rules register foreign-currency investments automatically when that declaration is reported, and they list real estate as a destination (Banco de la República, Circular DCIP-83 chapter 7, checked October 2026).

Keep every declaration. When you eventually sell, those records are what support sending the proceeds back out. Our common mistakes report lists skipping this registration among the errors that cause trouble later, and it is easier to get right twelve times as you go than to repair once at the end.

After delivery, and getting out early

Structural protection. Ley 1796 of 2016 and Decreto 282 of 2019 require builders of new housing projects with five or more units to cover owners' losses if, within ten years of the certificado técnico de ocupación (the technical occupancy certificate), the building collapses or threatens ruin. The builder can do this through its own assets in a guarantee trust, a bank guarantee, a ten-year insurance policy or other approved mechanisms. Camacol's guide says this became mandatory for projects whose new-construction licence was filed after 31 December 2021, and that finishes fall instead under the one-year legal guarantee of the consumer statute (Camacol, checked October 2026). This is protection against structural failure, not against delay or disappointing finishes.

Liquidity. Before delivery and deed registration, you own a contractual position, not an apartment. Whether you can sell that position, to whom, and at what cost depends on the assignment terms in your contracts and on the developer's and fiduciaria's consent. Budget as if you will hold until delivery.

Off-plan concentrates risk in the gap between the punto de equilibrio and delivery. Verify the fiduciaria and the licence yourself, read the contracts with a licensed Colombian abogado, and confirm the tax and exchange side with a contador before the first transfer.