Festival offers misleading: Real estate experts

With the arrival of the festive season, prospective buyers have been spoilt for choices with almost all developers offering attractive ‘discounts’ and ‘offers’ on their projects.

However, real estate experts are not convinced about the authenticity of these offers as they feel these are just gimmicks by the developers to galvanise sales of their “poorly planned” projects.

Ajay Chaturvedi, CEO of Accommodation Times, said, “Developers are giving offers and discounts not because there is not enough sales in the market, but because developers have not done enough planning before building them. Developers in the city suburbs and its outskirts have built 2BHK and 3BHK flats, but in reality there is more demand for a 1 BHK. Now in this case, the developer has to give discounts and freebies such as ‘zero stamp duty and registration’ to meet their targets.”

Mr Chaturvedi further added that buyers should do proper homework and consult experts before falling into the trap of freebies, which according to him is nothing but just a “flowery term called offer”.

Recently a report by JLL India observed that the housing market was flush with options for prospective buyers and developers were offering discounts in almost all the projects, especially in the ready-to-move-in category.

Shyam Vyas, president, South South Metro City Association Realtors, said the offers and freebies made available during this period must be closely examined to establish their true contribution in terms of the overall value of the property, and the deal itself.

“Buyers should not base their purchase on freebies alone, but rather they should check where the developer is actually ready to do price cutting or bring down prices of a particular flat. Freebies such as modern amenities are not practical in nature but rather buyers should go in for projects, which have better connectivity to the city and good infrastructure nearby.”

Pointing out to the promises made by builders regarding free parking space, Mr Vyas said that the parking space is not a freebie but the right of a buyer. “Parking is something on which any developer or builder according to law cannot charge,” he said.

Anuj Puri, JLL India chairman, in a report said, “Sales traditionally increase by up to 25-30 per cent during the festive season. However, this year we do not anticipate more than 15-20 per cent increase as the sentiment is still subdued...”