Launching in phases: when it makes sense

An illustrative scene, not a real case. Launch Saturday, a packed show gallery, a waiting list with twice as many names as there are units in phase 1. The batch of 30 units is gone in three weeks. The board celebrates and schedules phase 2 for a year later, 8% higher. On paper, the development has appreciated. In present-value terms, as we will show, it may have lost money.

A waiting list proves desire. Only the next phase's price, net of time, proves gain. And time does not run only through the cash flow. Since Law 14,382 of 2022, article 33 of Brazil's Law 4,591/1964 sets a clear rule: if a development has not materialised within 180 days of registration, the developer may only resume negotiating units after recording updated certificates. Materialising means signing the transfer or encumbrance of a unit, contracting construction financing or starting works. Until that happens, the procedure repeats every 180 days.

A phased launch is a price discovery tool, not a shortcut to appreciation. It works when each phase brings the market something new: construction further along, lower risk, proven demand. When a phase is merely a higher price tag on the same risk, buyers notice, inventory stalls and time starts charging interest.

A price step holds only when the previous phase has proven demand

The mechanics are simple. Release a limited batch, close it once the agreed absorption level is reached, and open the next batch at a higher price. The completed phase proves that buyers existed at that level. Later buyers pay more, but they pay for a price validated by others and, as a rule, for a building further along.

Without a criterion, the logic flips. If phase 2 opens by calendar while phase 1 still has stock, the market now has two prices for the same product. The lower one becomes the real price. That is why we recommend writing down, before launch, each phase's closing trigger: share absorbed, maximum duration, and what happens to the remainder if the trigger is missed.

There is also a legal limit. Brazil's Consumer Protection Code (Law 8,078/1990) lists among abusive practices, in article 39, raising the price of goods or services without just cause. Prices are free; the law asks for a reason. Physical progress, updated costs and documented risk reduction are objective reasons, and it pays to record, phase by phase, what changed.

Announced scarcity must be demonstrable scarcity

A limited batch only persuades if it is real. Under article 37 of the same code, advertising is misleading when it can lead consumers into error about quantity, price or other product data. The code also makes sufficiently precise information part of the contract, and places on the advertiser the burden of proving it true.

In practice, "last units of phase 1" is a statement of fact. It needs a time-stamped inventory record: how many units existed, how many were reserved, how many became contracts and how many came back through cancellation. The unit inventory held on the Plataforma thus becomes a compliance tool: it proves that the batch announced was the batch that existed.

A phased launch does not manufacture value: it reveals, phase by phase, the value that construction and demand have already built.

The ultra-luxury segment offers a positioning reference, not a formula. Discovery Land Company describes itself on its website as a creator of private residential communities and resorts, with more than 40 properties worldwide. The site does not describe each community's commercial mechanics. Our lesson is about rhythm: buyers there acquire belonging, and the cadence of releases must respect the community, not just the price curve.

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Legal structure decides whether a phase is a commercial wave or a development of its own

Structure comes before price. One path registers the whole project's development memorandum, and phases are commercial waves within a single development. The other turns each phase (a building, a cluster of houses) into a separately registered development. Either way, only units covered by a valid registration may be marketed, and the registration number must appear in advertising and contracts.

The choice changes the buyer's risk. Article 31-A of Law 4,591 created the segregated estate (patrimônio de afetação): land, works and rights of the development are kept apart from the developer's own assets and answer only for that development's debts. The law allows separate estates for each building of two or more storeys and for each cluster of houses with the same completion date. Phases segregated separately shield one phase's buyers from another phase's problems.

The clock changes too. Each memorandum has its own 180 days, counted from its own registration, and its own optional grace period for abandoning the project. More registrations bring more isolation and more deadlines to watch. This is settled with counsel and the registry office before the first marketing piece.

Each phase can carry its own tax clock

The special tax regime for developments, under Law 10,931/2004, is optional and requires a segregated estate. It replaces four federal taxes with a single payment of 4% of monthly revenue received, computed for each development. If each phase is a development of its own, each has its own election and its own assessment.

Tax reform has added a date to the board: 1 January 2029. Under article 485 of Complementary Law 214/2025, as amended by Complementary Law 227/2026, a segregated development whose election for the special regime takes effect before then may pay IBS and CBS at 2.08% of monthly revenue. The same law cuts the federal payment from 4% to 1.92% from 2027. Two phases on opposite sides of 2029 may be taxed differently, a calculation to confirm with the project's tax adviser.

Within the group, InnConta, which handles everything outside a company's core, from tax to certificates, helps cross-check the commercial schedule against the tax regime.

The gap between phases has a cost, and the step must pay for it

The simulator accompanying this article shows how far the last phase's price drifts from the first. That is a nominal reading. Months pass between phases, and idle inventory carries a cost of capital. In series 432 of Brazil's Central Bank, the Selic target stood at 13.75% a year when we checked on 1 October 2026. That is the economy's cost of money, not your project's rate, but it sets the yardstick.

The right question is not how much more the last phase is worth. It is whether the step beats the cost of the time it requires. Pace and step are one decision. Phased works spread capital outlay, and one phase's revenue funds part of the next; on the other hand, each phase needs a fresh launch and a mobilised team. So a phased plan should only be approved against a single-launch plan, in present value, at the same rate.

Worked example: the same development launched at once and in four phases

The figures below are assumptions to illustrate the mechanism, not market data. There are 120 units at a base price of R$ 450,000, the simulator's default value. In the single launch, everything is absorbed within 12 months, with revenue concentrated in month 6. In the phased case, four phases of 30 units open every 12 months, each marketed over 3 months, with revenue in months 1.5, 13.5, 25.5 and 37.5. Discounting uses 12% a year, compounded. Construction, overheads and taxes are equal in both cases and left out.

The 8% step produces 12.7% more nominal development value and still loses 1.1% in present value, because the year between phases costs more than the step returns. The 12% step delivers 4.3% more: a real gain, far smaller than the nominal 19.5% suggests. On these assumptions, the break-even step sits near 8.8% per phase.

Stress tightens the picture. At 15% a year, the 8% step loses 3.9%, the 12% step shrinks to a 1.3% gain and break-even rises to about 11%. Shortening the gap does the opposite: with phases every six months and an 8% step, the present-value gain rises to 7.6% at 12%. These are the rows where the simulator's handsome curve parts ways with the result.

Contracts and cancellations must keep up with price changes

When price changes from phase to phase, the contract must make every condition explicit. Law 13,786/2018 required a summary table at the start of contracts, with total price, down payment, payment terms, adjustment index, consequences of termination and registration number, among other items. It is the document that shows buyers which phase they entered and at what price.

The same law regulated termination in article 67-A. Buyers get back what they paid, adjusted, minus brokerage and a contractual penalty capped at 25% of the amount paid. With a segregated estate, the penalty may reach 50%, and repayment is due within 30 days of the occupancy permit. Legal structure therefore also changes the cost of a cancellation.

In a phased launch, cancellations need a written policy. A unit returned from phase 1 may re-enter inventory when the current price is already phase 3's. Which phase it joins and at what price must be decided before launch, or the curve ends up contradicted by units re-offered below it.

Construction and commercial curation must run on the same schedule

Each phase promises something physical: a delivery date, common areas, infrastructure. If phase 1 is delivered before amenities that depend on later phases, early buyers live for months next to a building site. If all shared infrastructure goes in at the start, the cost lands before there is revenue to carry it. Phase design is, above all, development engineering.

The physical and financial schedule, each phase's specification and the unit inventory must talk to each other in one system. When each team keeps its own spreadsheet, the first mismatch surfaces in the contract summary table, precisely the document the buyer keeps.

Within the group, IncorpBuilding, the development and construction arm, runs engineering from land to handover and publishes construction progress on the InnovaSphere Plataforma, where commercial curation checks it.

When it does not pay off

In three situations, a single launch at a stable price is the more sensible choice.

• Demand that cannot carry the step. If phase 1 only moves with discounts or special payment terms, a pricier phase 2 tends to stall. The announced step becomes inventory, and inventory becomes discount.
• Time costs more than the step. With long gaps and a high cost of capital, as in the 8% example, nominal appreciation hides an economic loss.
• A product that does not divide. A tower with indivisible common areas, or a project whose infrastructure must be built in full upfront, offers no phases with distinct risk. The price difference has no objective cause.

Checklist for a phased launch

1. Define with counsel and the registry whether each phase is a commercial wave or a development of its own, and the effect on deadlines.
2. Decide whether each phase gets its own segregated estate and how far that shields each buyer.
3. Model with the tax adviser each phase's regime against the 1 January 2029 cut-off.
4. Compare the phased and single-launch cash flows in present value, at the same rate, with a stress case.
5. Write each phase's closing trigger and the policy for re-offering cancelled units.
6. Record the unit inventory on the Plataforma with dated history, so every scarcity claim has proof.
7. Align each phase's physical schedule with the dates promised in the contract summary table.

Frequently asked questions

Does a phased launch guarantee appreciation?

No. It allows prices to rise if demand and construction support the step. Real gain appears only after discounting the time between phases.

Can I raise prices between phases freely?

Prices are free, but the Consumer Protection Code forbids raising them without just cause. Documenting what changed between phases, whether construction, cost or risk, supports the step.

Do I need to register a separate development for each phase?

Not necessarily. You can market in waves within a single memorandum. Separate registration allows distinct segregated estates and gives each phase its own deadlines.

What happens to a cancelled phase 1 unit?

Repayment follows the termination rules of Law 4,591. The re-offer price follows the policy set before launch, applied transparently to all buyers.

Does tax reform change phasing strategy?

It can. An election for the special regime that takes effect before 2029 gives access to IBS and CBS at 2.08% of monthly revenue. Later phases need their own analysis.

Legal basis

• Law 4,591/1964: arts. 31-A (segregated estate), 32 (memorandum), 33 and 34 (deadlines), 35-A (summary table) and 67-A (termination).
• Law 14,382/2022: current wording of art. 33 of Law 4,591/1964.
• Law 8,078/1990: arts. 30, 36, 37 and 38 (offer and advertising) and 39, X (price without just cause).
• Law 10,931/2004: arts. 1, 2, 4 and 8 (special tax regime).
• Complementary Law 214/2025, as amended by Complementary Law 227/2026: arts. 485, 510 and 544.
• Law 13,786/2018: summary table and termination rules in Law 4,591/1964.