Five criteria for taking any project apart — and the rule that you must write a downside under each one

A useful discipline when choosing an off-plan home is to break the project down into five criteria and force yourself to write a drawback under each of them. What follows is the frame, with examples of how it looks in practice.

1. Location

The upside is usually obvious: central, metro nearby, walking distance to a mall, an easy exit onto the road network.

The downside sits in the same words. The city's main artery is twelve lanes of traffic, noise and exhaust. Below the twentieth floor, open windows let road dust into the apartment. "First line off the highway" and "in the centre" are one circumstance described from two sides.

2. Price

Compare in two directions at once: against new schemes next door, and against the district average including the resale market. The typical picture is a project that is cheaper than the neighbouring launches, more expensive than the district average, and noticeably more expensive than resale stock.

3. The payment plan

What matters is not the size of the first instalment but the share falling due before you hold the keys. A plan of "80% across four years of construction, 20% at handover" is worse for the buyer than a 50/50, or than instalments continuing after handover — even when the headline price is identical.

4. The building and the amenities

A striking facade and forty lines in the amenity list are the upside. The drawbacks live in the detail: specification that differs between floors, awkward layouts in the most heavily built unit type, and whether the promised facilities actually function once the building is occupied.

5. The developer

A recognised name is a plus. Delays on previous projects are a minus, and the minus weighs more than the name. Look separately at the completion date: the further out it sits, the more accumulated risk it carries.

How to use this

The rule is simple. If you could not write a single drawback under one of the five headings, you have not looked hard enough — there are no flawless projects. A filled-in table with an honest minus under all five criteria tells you more than any presentation.

Based on practice in assessing off-plan projects on the Dubai market.