Article summary · 30 s
The pre-sale threshold is the sales target set for your financing. Its definition and the supporting documents required should be clarified with your bank. To move it forward, work on the visibility of your units, the qualification of enquiries and follow-up through to reservation.
- 1
Clarify with your bank the required threshold and the financing conditions for your development.
- 2
A month without reservations costs carrying charges, schedule, and sometimes a convinced buyer who loses patience.
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Portals, the broker’s network and dedicated campaigns complement each other to make your development known.
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What moves the threshold: creating demand before launch, qualifying, following up, measuring during the sales campaign.
- 5
Preparing the website, campaigns and follow-up before launch means you are ready for the first enquiries.
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In a Swiss condominium (PPE) development, the question is not whether the units will sell. At a sound price and in a sound location, they will. The question is when. And that “when” has a name in the financial plan: the pre-sale threshold. This article explains what it is, what it costs until it is reached, and what makes it possible to reach it sooner.
What the pre-sale threshold is, and who sets it
To finance construction, the developer relies on a construction loan. The bank granting it does not want to carry the commercial risk alone. It requires part of the development to be reserved before releasing the funds. That share is the pre-sale threshold.
Units to reserve before the loan
Required threshold · 50%
6 / 12 units reserved: construction can start
Example assumption
A requirement of the bank, not the developer
The exact level varies by lender, development, location and the developer’s track record. A well-located development, led by a developer the bank knows, will get different terms from a first project in a less sought-after town. But the mechanism is the same everywhere: below the threshold, nothing gets built.
In units or in sale value
The threshold is expressed as a percentage of units, or as a percentage of total sale value. The distinction matters. On a development where two penthouses weigh as much as four apartments, reserving the small units first moves the count without moving the value. You need to know on which basis the bank will judge you before deciding which units to push first.
What counts as a reservation
Not all banks recognise the same commitments. Some require signed deeds, others accept firm promises to sell or reservations with a deposit. A reservation that does not count for the bank does not move the threshold, even if it is reassuring. Clarify this with your adviser before launch, not when presenting the sales report.
What waiting changes for your project
Until the pre-sale threshold is reached, three things happen at once. None of them appears in a sales table.
- 01
The construction loan waits
Without the loan, construction does not start. The general contractor, subcontractors and schedule wait for a signal that depends entirely on the pace of sales. The pace of reservations helps prepare the next stages of the development.
- 02
Capital stays tied up
Land, studies, the permit, architect and engineer fees were committed before the first reservation. That capital, whether equity or financed, costs money every month while producing nothing. A month’s delay is therefore not a month of revenue pushed back. It is a month of carrying costs.
- 03
The schedule slips for everyone
The delivery date promised to the first buyers moves. Some wait. Others, especially those who have to sell their current home or end a lease, tire of a date that keeps slipping and turn to a development where construction has started. A shifting schedule calls for close follow-up of interested buyers.
Where your buyer enquiries come from
A development on sale receives enquiries from three places. They do not reach the same people and, above all, they do not give you the same control over the pace.
Portals: demand that is already searching
A portal answers someone who has decided to search. They type a town, a floor area, a budget, and your development appears in a list next to the others. It is valuable demand, and you need to be there. But the first move is not yours: if nobody searches in your town this week, nobody sees you this week.
The broker and network: demand that already knows
The broker brings their buyers on file, their contacts, their knowledge of local prices. That is often what makes the first reservations possible: people close to the project, regular investors, clients on a waiting list. This pool is real, but finite. Once exhausted, the broker too depends on incoming demand.
Dedicated campaigns: demand that is forming
The couple renting in the next town who talk about buying “one day”. The manager who has just been transferred and has not opened a single listing. The parents looking for their daughter without knowing where to start. These people will buy, some of them from you, if they learn that your development exists before they draw up their list. It is the only source whose pace you set yourself, because you decide when it switches on, who it speaks to and with what budget.
| Source | Who it reaches | Who sets the pace | What you measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portals | People actively searching in the town | The market: current searches | The number of contacts, rarely what follows |
| Broker and network | People who know the developer, the broker or the place | The pool of contacts, until exhausted | Reservations, without the source of enquiries |
| Dedicated campaigns and page | Profiles likely to be interested in the development | You: budget, message, launch date | Enquiries, their known sources and their progress |
What moves the pre-sale threshold forward
The reflex at launch is to ensure presence: a listing on the portals, a brochure, a board on the site. It is necessary, but it only responds to demand that already exists. Moving the threshold sooner means creating demand from launch, and losing none of the enquiries obtained. Four mechanisms follow one another.
- 01
Get your development discovered
Campaigns that present your units to potential buyers in the selected areas. The message does not describe square metres: it speaks to a situation, a move, a first purchase, an investment. The landing page is the development’s page, not the developer’s home page, and it asks for one thing only: the brochure, or a meeting.
- 02
Qualify every enquiry
Project, budget, timing, type of unit sought, current situation. Knowing who you are talking to lets you prioritise buyers who can reserve in the coming weeks, and avoid drowning the sales team in idle curiosity. A qualified enquiry is worth more than one more enquiry.
- 03
Follow up, then hand over to the seller
A buyer who hesitates for three months does not go back to a portal. They come back if someone calls them. Follow-up, by a person or automated when nobody is available, keeps the contact alive through to the meeting, the viewing and the reservation. The broker receives prepared contacts, not a raw list.
- 04
Measure during the sales campaign, not after
Each reservation is linked to the campaign, listing or page that produced it. That is what lets you allocate the budget while the decision can still make a difference: reinforce what produces reservations, cut what only produces clicks. Track enquiries, viewings and reservations so you can adjust your actions during the sales campaign.
“The setup does not change the value of the units. It changes the pace at which they are reserved.”
Preparing the launch: what must exist before opening
Two comparable developments, at the same price, in the same town, can reach their threshold at very different dates. The difference rarely lies in the product. It lies in what was put in place before launch.
The development’s page. A dedicated website, with the units, plans, prices if you publish them, and a single possible action: request the brochure or a meeting.
Campaigns ready to go. Messages, visuals, areas and budget decided before launch, so that the first weeks, when curiosity is strongest, produce enquiries and not just visibility.
The qualification process. Who receives each enquiry, with which questions, and how quickly.
A sales team that calls back fast. An enquiry not called back the same day goes cold. The broker or in-house seller must have the time and the tool to do it.
End-to-end measurement. Each enquiry carries its source, and each reservation traces back to it.
Depending on when you read this, the priority is not the same.
| Development status | Priority | What is waiting |
|---|---|---|
| In planning, permit pending | Set the threshold, its basis and the target date. Prepare the page and campaigns. | The start of sales |
| Ready to launch | Open with campaigns, qualification and measurement already in place. | The first reservations |
| Already on sale, threshold not reached | Take up existing enquiries, follow up, add the source you control. | The construction loan |
Mistakes that delay the threshold
Launching sales without a setup
The listing is online, the board is up, and you wait. The first weeks pass with a few contacts, often idle curiosity, and in the third month the developer discovers that the pace is the portals’ pace. The setup is then built in a rush, once the initial curiosity has faded.
Counting contacts instead of reservations
A dashboard showing the number of enquiries is reassuring and says nothing. What counts is the number of qualified enquiries, viewings, reservations recognised by the bank, and what each one cost. Link enquiries to viewings and reservations to understand what the campaigns bring in.
Letting enquiries go cold
A quick response helps the buyer clarify their project and arrange a viewing. An enquiry left unanswered is lost. The problem is almost never the number of enquiries, but what happens to them in the following hours.
Cutting prices before working on demand
A price cut is the most expensive answer to a threshold that drags, because it applies to all remaining units and worries the first buyers. Before touching it, check that demand has been created, qualified and followed up. In most cases, that is where the missing pace lies.
Three questions to ask before launching sales
- 01
What pre-sale threshold is required, on what basis, and by what date do you want to reach it?
- 02
Where will the first enquiries come from, outside the portals?
- 03
Who calls an enquiry back, how quickly, and how will you know where it came from?
If any of these questions has no clear answer, the pace of your reservations does not yet depend on you. The tools at the bottom of this page let you set out your situation in a few minutes.
Key points
Key takeaways
- 01
The threshold and the financing conditions for your development should be clarified with your bank.
- 02
Every month without reservations costs carrying charges, schedule, and sometimes buyers who were already convinced.
- 03
Portals, the broker and dedicated campaigns complement each other. Track their contribution to decide where to put your resources.
- 04
Creating demand, qualifying it, following it up and measuring it during the sales campaign: that is what moves the threshold.
- 05
Prepare the website, campaigns and follow-up before launching sales.
Frequently asked questions
01Is the pre-sale threshold the same for every development?
No. The conditions depend on how your project is financed. Your bank specifies the threshold, its basis of calculation and the buyer commitments it recognises.
02Is the threshold calculated in units or in sale value?
It depends on the bank. Both exist, and the difference matters when units have very different values. Ask which basis applies before deciding which units to promote.
03Does a reservation with a deposit count for the bank?
Not always. Some banks require deeds or firm promises to sell. Clarify it with your adviser before launch, so that each reservation actually moves the threshold.
04Can you speed up the pre-sale threshold without cutting prices?
Price is only one factor. The pace of reservations also depends on the demand created before launch, the qualification of contacts and how fast the sales team handles them. These three points can be worked on without touching the price.
05What if sales have already started and the threshold is dragging?
Take up existing enquiries, qualify them and follow them up, then add the source of enquiries you control: a dedicated page and campaigns aimed at buyers who are not yet searching. The diagnostic is precisely what sets this order.
