Investment approach
How to assess a construction project before entry
A project is assessed across five blocks: licence, edificabilidad, budget with contingency, exit price and plan B. A checklist with documents and a worked sensitivity calculation.
Assessing a construction project before entry means checking five blocks against documents, not against a presentation: the legal status of the land and the licence, the permitted volume of development, the budget with its contingency, the exit price against closed transactions and the plan for when one of these does not work out. It starts with the administration's paperwork: in Catalonia the ayuntamiento issues a certificate on the planning regime of a plot within a month of the request, and the plans are public and available in the Registre urbanístic de Catalunya (art. 103 Llei d'urbanisme).
What to check in the status of the licence and the plot
A new building in Catalonia requires a prior licencia urbanística (planning permission for the works) (art. 187 Llei d'urbanisme). A licence has a validity period, is tied to a specific design and can lapse if construction does not start in time. So the phrase "the licence is in place" calls for three clarifications: for which design, until which date and whether the works have started.
The condition of the land is checked separately. Urbanización is the works that turn land into a solar: road, water supply, sewerage, electricity, lighting and a pedestrian zone (art. 27 and 29 Llei d'urbanisme). In sòl urbà no consolidat a 10% transfer of aprofitamiento and a share of the whole sector's costs are added. If that is not in the budget, the budget is incomplete (urbanización and the owner's obligations, consolidated land or not).
How to check the permitted volume of development
Edificabilidad sets how many metres can be built, and all the revenue depends on it. It is established from the plan in force, not from the description in a listing (edificabilidad under the Barcelona PGM).
Next come the burdens of the regime. For large projects in Barcelona a quota applies: in new development and full refurbishment above 600 m², 30% goes to protected housing under the general regime (Ajuntament). The maximum sale price for such housing in 2026 is 2,913.18 €/m² of usable area (Generalitat). The Supreme Court upheld the quota, STS 110/2026 of 5.02.2026 (analysis by Ecija); a separate point of the municipal rule has been challenged in the Constitutional Court, appeal 2415/2026 admitted for consideration on 9.06.2026, with no decision yet. In Catalan reserves, no less than half goes to rental housing (art. 57.3 Llei d'urbanisme as amended by Llei 11/2025).
What to request and from whom
| Block | What to request | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Land | planning regime certificate, nota simple (registry extract), encumbrances | ayuntamiento, Registro de la Propiedad |
| Licence | text of the licence, validity, link to the design | ayuntamiento, project operator |
| Design | the project with visado, geotechnical report | architect, colegio |
| Budget | budget by chapters, contingency line, payment schedule | builder, technical supervision |
| Exit price | closed transactions on comparables, not listings | valuer, registries, brokers |
| Counterparty | the company's annual accounts, ownership structure | Registro Mercantil, contracts |
The visado of a project is done once and in one competent colegio (art. 3 and art. 5), for example at Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya. The accounts are verifiable: a limited liability company must file them with the Registro Mercantil within a month of approval (art. 279 Ley de Sociedades de Capital). The full order is collected in the due diligence checklist.
What to look at in the budget and in the exit price
In the budget, the structure and the contingency. Structure means chapters of work with measurements, not a total per metre; reference prices for Catalonia come from the BEDEC database of the ITeC institute (ITeC), and they are used to check the order of magnitude line by line. The contingency sits on its own line, otherwise it simply does not exist (construction budget control).
The exit price is checked against transactions. On the Estadística Registral Inmobiliaria for Q2 2026, the price of registered transactions in the capital of Barcelona province was 5,045 €/m², and across Catalonia 2,995 €/m². The asking price for September 2026 is higher: 5,462 €/m² on Idealista. These figures cover different periods, and no bargaining discount can be derived from them, but the order of the gap between what is asked and what is paid is visible (the gap between listing and transaction).
How to test a project for sensitivity
Worked example, not a forecast. The amounts are round assumptions of the example.
| Scenario | Revenue | Project costs | Balance before tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 6 M€ | 5 M€ | 1 M€ |
| Revenue minus 5% | 5.7 M€ | 5 M€ | 700,000 € |
| Budget plus 10% | 6 M€ | 5.24 M€ | 760,000 € |
| Both deviations together | 5.7 M€ | 5.24 M€ | 460,000 € |
Two moderate deviations cut the balance by more than half. To that is added the cost of money: the 12-month Euribor in September 2026 was 3.247% (Banco de España), and every extra month of the term is paid for separately (sensitivity analysis).
What goes into plan B and who the checklist will not help
Plan B is an exit described in advance for the case where the base scenario does not happen: selling the plot with the licence instead of building, selling the asset unfinished, changing the mix of flats, pushing sales out over a longer period with the cost of waiting calculated. Each option has its own price and its own term, otherwise it is not a plan (exit plan A, B, C, when a project should be stopped).
The check itself will not help anyone looking for confirmation of a decision already taken: a checklist exists to find reasons to walk away. It does not replace legal and tax expertise: anything contentious goes to an abogado and an asesor fiscal. And it does not give a price forecast.
A specific project can be broken into blocks in the investment analysis, and DNPI's working order is described in the methodology.
Questions and answers
Where do you start when checking a construction project?
With the documents on the land and the licence. The ayuntamiento issues the planning regime certificate within a month of the request, and before that there is no point calculating the economics.
What does "the licence is in place" mean and what does it not mean?
It does not mean the licence is open-ended. A licence is tied to a specific design, has a validity period and can lapse if the works do not start in time.
How do you check the exit price if the asset has not been built yet?
Against closed transactions on comparable assets. The price of registered transactions in the city of Barcelona in Q2 2026 was 5,045 €/m², the asking price for September was 5,462 €/m²: these are different measures.
What contingency should be put in the budget?
There is no single norm, and as a rule I will not name a percentage. The contingency goes on its own line and is discussed with the technical supervisor and the builder for the specific asset.
Does the protected housing quota affect a small project?
The municipal quota in Barcelona is addressed to development and full refurbishment above 600 m². Applicability to your plot is checked against the rule in force and the text of the plan together with an abogado.
