Freebies galore to lure buyers

To lure buyers, developers at a four-day property exhibition organised by MCHI-CREDAI at Thane resorted to marketing gimmicks like free foreign trips to Malaysia and Dubai in return for paying 5 per cent of the total amount of the flat as down payment. The likes of free stamp duty and registrations and freebies such as iPhones were offered to net potential buyers.

“Potential buyers in the market were waiting for the right time and we have had several small-time developers who have offered free foreign trips to Malaysia and Dubai to lure buyers. It is a psychological and marketing strategy to give freebies to attract maximum buyers. Interestingly, we had firms like Dosti Group, Rounak Group and a real estate portal, mytricks.com, who have experimented with such strategies to lure buyers,” said Founder, MCHI Thane, Mukesh Savla.

Developers at an exhibition organised last week in Navi Mumbai used the same strategy of offering free foreign trips. “We cannot say that just because the real estate market is going through a rough phase, there are such offers. At times, such offers are made because buyers do bargain in monetary terms (total amount of the flat) in exchange for freebies. So, such offers are kept, anticipating that the buyer will ultimately negotiate in monetary terms. Besides, such offers work for buyers who want to buy 1 and 2 BHKs in areas like Thane and Navi Mumbai. Developers don’t resort to such offers while selling flats in south Mumbai,” said COO, Radius Group, Ashish Shah.

However, Cosmos Group, owned by the late Suraj Parmar, who committed suicide last year, also had a stall at the exhibition. Business partner of the deceased, Manish Mehta, said, “We are not offering any freebies to potential buyers. But we have adopted a method of doing price correction and we are quoting a rate of 6,500 per sq ft which is comparatively lower than what others are offering.”