How to Buy an Apartment from a Developer: Documents, Stages, Contract

Buying an apartment from a developer is simpler than the forums claim, and stricter than the advertising sounds. You are not dealing with a neighbor, but with a legal entity, a property and a pack of papers. If the building is already in operation, you are buying finished walls. If construction is still underway — a right of claim and a schedule risk. Below is a working scheme: which documents to gather, how to move through the stages, and where surprises usually sit in the contract. The logic is the same for any city, not only for Ekibastuz.

Finished home or off-plan: where to begin

The first fork is the building's status. Off-plan, you assess the project, the company's standing and how shared construction is documented. In a completed building you can walk the resident's route: courtyard, parking, lobby, apartment. Do not compare brochure with brochure — compare what already stands.

For finished housing, the first document must be the commissioning certificate. Without it, talk of “move in whenever you like” is worth nothing. Next, review the land title, the building's technical passport and how common property is documented: parking, storage rooms, utilities, courtyard.

A benchmark of the finished format is HAYAT Residence in Ekibastuz, 24 Academician Mardenov Boulevard. A business-class complex by Gidroprom LLP: six floors, brick with ochre-yellow clinker and a dark graphite marble plinth, 60 free-plan apartments of 112–190 m² without finishes, 3 m ceilings. The building is being occupied. Here you inspect what already works: a car-free gated courtyard, underground parking with a lift to the residential floor, storage rooms, CCTV, IP intercom and smart locks.

Documents when buying an apartment: three stacks before the deposit

Documents when buying an apartment from a developer are best gathered in three stacks: the company, the building, the specific apartment. Reservation and deposit — only after the stacks are on the table. A presentation is not a legal pack.

From the developer, request:

• registration documents of the legal entity;
• the charter and the resolution of the body that authorized the sale;
• signatory documents: if this is not the first executive — a power of attorney with a current term and a defined scope of authority;
• confirmation of the right to dispose of the property.

For the building:

• title to the land plot;
• the construction permit — even for a completed building, this is the object's history;
• the commissioning certificate;
• the building's technical passport;
• documents for common property: parking, storage rooms, utility networks, the plot under the courtyard.

For the apartment:

• measurements and the technical passport;
• plan, explication, number on the floor layout;
• a certificate of no mortgage, arrest or other encumbrances;
• the draft contract with all annexes;
• separate identifiers for the storage room and parking space, if they are part of the deal.

If the sale runs through an assignment from a contractor or an affiliated company, request the full chain. Otherwise you are buying someone else's risk. Do not sign anything “so the apartment does not slip away” until you have seen the commissioning certificate and a clean record on encumbrances.

How to buy an apartment from a developer: deal stages

Laying out how to buy an apartment from a developer step by step is useful even for those who have “already decided.” Most mistakes happen not at registration, but at reservation and handover.

1. Shortlist. Compare two or three buildings of the same class: density, daylight, noise, courtyard, parking, lifts, windows, finishes in common areas.
2. Viewing. Come by day and in the evening. Check access, through-traffic into the courtyard, where the windows face, how the riser sounds.
3. Legal review. The pack from the previous section plus open sources on the developer's disputes.
4. Reservation or preliminary contract. In the text — the object, term, amount, price composition, refund terms, liability of the parties.
5. Main contract. For finished housing this is, as a rule, a sale and purchase, not shared construction.
6. Payment only to the details and schedule of the contract.
7. Handover: snagging list, keys, access, meter readings.
8. Registration of title with the authorized body.

On the viewing, walk as a resident, not as a guest of the sales office. Go down to the parking, take the lift to the floor, open the storage room, walk to the Romana children's playground and the sports court with workout and basketball. In a complex such as HAYAT Residence, separately check the panoramic windows with energy-saving glass, ceiling height, the lift from underground parking, the 80 kW charging station, intercom and CCTV with online access. Next to Baiterek Square and the Oner City Culture Center, assess noise and the evening flow; on the ground floor, see what occupies the premises: a living CHEKHOV café is more useful than incidental retail.

What to watch in the contract

“A standard form, everyone signs it” is the most expensive advice on a deal. The contract is read before the signature, not after a claim.

• Subject. Exact address, apartment number, floor, area, number on the plan. Storage room and parking space — separate items if they are part of the deal.
• Area. “Approximate” with no recalculation formula is a red flag. Ask from which figure they calculate and what happens if it diverges from the survey.
• Price and composition. What is included: the apartment without finishes, utility connections, meters, a share in common property. What is not included — record that too.
• Payment. Schedule, bank details, the moment of performance. The buyer's penalty and the seller's mirror liability.
• Handover and warranty. Term, notice, certificate, deadline for remedying defects. Warranty on structure and engineering — as a separate clause, not a general reference “under the law.”
• Encumbrances. The object is free of third-party rights, mortgage and arrest. If there is a pledge in favor of the developer's creditor — the procedure for release before or at registration.
• Termination. Who, when, which amounts are returned and within what term.
• Annexes. Plan, specification, list of infrastructure. Without annexes the courtyard exists only on the banner.

Practical rule: everything shown at the meeting — a gated courtyard, charging station, children's and sports playgrounds, designed lobbies, smart locks — must be in the contract or an annex. Oral promises are not registered.

A practical checklist before the deal

An empty line on the checklist is a reason to postpone the deal, not to speed it up.

A short takeaway

The scheme does not depend on the sign on the fence: first the building's status and documents, then a viewing through a resident's eyes, then the contract to the last line, and only then the money. That way you buy an apartment, not someone else's story about it. If you are considering finished housing in Ekibastuz, the HAYAT Residence sales office is open daily from 9:00 to 20:00, phone and WhatsApp +7 775 333 30 14, website hayat-residence.kz. Apply the same stages and the same checklist to any complex.