Is the Price Fixed — or Can It Rise? Read This Before You Sign

Before unexpected costs catch you off guard after buying a home, make sure your contract clearly addresses two things. Only two — but in eight years I have watched more disputes grow from these two than from everything else combined.

Question one: is the price fixed, or can it increase?

Some developers offer a fixed price. Others include provisions for price adjustments. Neither is automatically wrong — but you must know which one you are signing.

If the price is fixed, confirm what it includes. Finishing? Taxes? Ownership-transfer fees? Parking? Utility connections? Any cost you must pay separately should be clearly identified from the start, in writing, with an amount or a formula — not discovered at handover. "Fixed" only protects you if you know what it is fixed around.

If the price can increase, the question becomes: how will the adjustment work? Simply stating that "the price is subject to adjustment" is not enough. That sentence gives the developer a door and gives you nothing. Your contract should explain:

• What can trigger an increase. Material costs? Currency movement? Regulatory changes? Only those, or anything at all?
• How it will be calculated. For example, if construction material costs rise — which materials are involved? What baseline prices are being used? Where will the new prices be taken from?
• Whether there is a limit. A cap — a maximum percentage the price can rise — is the single most protective sentence a buyer can ask for.
• How it affects your remaining payments. Does the increase spread across the schedule, or land as one lump sum before handover?

Question two: what are the hidden fees?

Ask for the complete list of costs between the first payment and the keys — and then ask what is not on the list. Common ones: finishing packages priced separately from the "shell" price, the building's management or service fund, legal and registration fees, the cost of the ownership-transfer process, and connection charges. None of these is improper. What is improper is learning about them after you have signed.

If any clause is unclear, review it with a legal professional before signing. The fee for an hour of a lawyer's time is small next to the price of a clause you did not understand.

Three questions that belong next to these two

A contract that handles price well should also handle the things price depends on. I have written about each: what "gross area" hides and why the price per square metre can mislead, what happens if handover is late, and why the title document alone is not enough. Read the price clause alongside those three and you have covered most of what goes wrong.

Know what you are committing to before you buy

Price increases and hidden fees can disrupt a payment plan that took a family years to build. The protection is not suspicion; it is clarity — two questions, asked early, answered in writing.