A lot of builders do speculative development as well as building for customers, and many buy vacant lots and on-sell/nominate them to buyers. But the first homers disappeared late last year, leaving many holding property they couldn't settle. I have lots of contracts here both for builders buying or my own land developments where things are overdue because buyers can't be found by the builders who bought the land on spec. This stresses the cashflow for them, and some initially settled land they thought they would quickly re-sell, but didn't, wiping out cash reserves. I've seen this play out before, and it is not pretty. But if you contract with a reputable builder and ensure that the contract specifies that payments are made after works are completed then you can keep yourself insulated from their problems.