When a property is sold to a developer, a debt is created: the purchaser must reimburse the seller up to the financial value fixed in the commitment contract.

A barter transaction is a procedure that allows the Real Estate developer to replace totally or partially a debt by the transfer of one or several new apartments, generally built on the land that has been sold.

These are frequently residential units to be built on the land that has been transferred by the selling party. Most of the time, the barter transaction in real estate is only partial and comes in addition to a financial transaction.