Customers prefer Cash discounts over Freebies: CommonFloor Survey

Festive season brings auspiciousness in life and hence, there has always been a surge in demand for real estate during this time. With the ongoing festive season, developers are geared up with unique payment plans and discounts to lure prospective home buyers.

From newspapers to text messages to personalised mails, these market players are not ready to leave any stone un-turned.

“In India, buyers generally prefer to buy properties during some auspicious events and Diwali being one of the most holy times of Hindu calendar, we usually witness a greater footfall of customers as compared to other days. Thus, we come out with several schemes during this time of the year,” says Rupesh Gupta, director, JM Housing.

Reiterating the same, Abhay Kumar, CMD, Griha Pravesh Buildteck Pvt Ltd says, “We are quite upbeat about the festive season and are sure that it will lead to optimism across stakeholders in the real estate segment. The fence-sitters who believe in a wait-and-watch situation also looks at investing in this festive season.”

The developers see this cultural trend as a great marketing opportunity and also come up with attractive offers in the form of value-additions, launch attractive schemes and dole out freebies to customers as it gives a further boost to the sentiment of investment in realty.

Like every year, no pre EMIs, free holiday packages, gold coins and electronic items are all up for grab if you buy a property. But are prospective home buyers really interested in these freebies? To understand this, CommonFloor conducted a survey titled “Property Buying during Festive Season”.

Interestingly, majority of the respondents are looking for cash discounts rather than freebies. As per the survey, nearly 75 per cent respondents are looking for discounts on price per sq. ft. This clearly indicates that budget is the most important criteria for the home buyers. However, very few developers are actually offering cash discounts.

Whatever may be the case, the market is showing signs of positivity. The impact is also reflected in the number of queries that CommonFloor has received in the last quarter. A whopping increase of about 30-35 per cent in the sales queries have been recorded.

In the backdrop of this, we spoke to several leading developers to find out the festive offers. Here is a snapshot.

Flexibility of paying

Ajnara India Ltd has announced a unique scheme for its projects located at Greater Noida West, namely Ajnara Homes and Ajnara Le Garden. For both the projects, the company has introduced a unique payment plan along with No Pre EMI clause till offer of possession of the units. The customers will be asked to pay 10 percent as the booking amount followed by 80 percent amount within 45 days from bank funding and finally, the remaining 10 percent on offer of the possession- Ashok Gupta, CMD, Ajnara India Ltd

JM Housing has launched a unique 20:80 buying scheme for the auspicious occasion of Navratri. This offer is for their ongoing project JM Florence located at Greater Noida West. Under this scheme, buyers will pay the initial 20 per cent of the amount at the time of booking and the remaining 80 percent of the amount will be loan taken from the bank on which the Pre EMI will be borne by the company till the offer of possession. At the same time, a 100 percent guaranteed return on the contribution of the customers will be offered as an option at the time of possession of the unit – Rupesh Gupta, director, JM Housing.

Ansal Housing is offering a new payment scheme for its customers for its ongoing projects; Ansal Highland Park located at Sector 104, Gurgaon, Ansals HUB 83 located at Sector 83 and Ansal Heights 86 at Sector 86, Gurgaon respectively. The company has come out with a 30:70 scheme, where 30 percent of the total amount will be paid at the time booking and the remaining 70 percent to be paid at the time of possession- Kushagr Ansal, director, Ansal Housing.

Supertech Limited has started a scheme for its buyers for the festive season under which 10% of down payment shall be made at the time of booking and rest will be done at the time of possession. During this, no EMI will be paid by the customer. In projects like Capetown, Eco Village, Golfcountry, Upcountry customers can avail the scheme- R K Arora, CMD, Supertech Limited.

Emaar MGF Land Ltd has announced for ‘Mohali Hills’. The company is offering special discounts to the customers like ‘On Time Payment Rebate’ of 15%, wherein customers have to make the payment within 18 months from the date of purchase. Similarly, company is also offering ‘Down Payment Rebate’ of 20% in which payment has to be made within 60 days. Along with these, rebates are also being offered on Basic Selling Price (BSP) and Preferential Location Charges (PLC). These offers are applicable on all the residential as well as commercial projects of the coveted township in Mohali- Rajiv Gupta, Head Sales (North), Emaar MGF Land Ltd.

Holiday Packages

Agrante Realty is offering a combination of offers with its each unit for the project, Beethoven’s 8 located at Sector 107, Gurgaon. There is a discount of 2 percent on the total cost of the unit along with holiday packages differing with the size of the unit. With a purchase of a 2 BHK unit, a package of Thailand & Bangkok is provided along with the discount, a package of Hong Kong & Macau will be available with a 3 BHK unit along with the discount. The final offer is for the 4 BHK unit where the company will provide a package for Switzerland along with the discount. This offer has been exclusively presented for the project Beethoven’s 8 at Sector 107, Gurgaon- Arvinder Singh, MD, Agrante Realty.

Owing to the excitement of the buyers, Tata Housing is planning to offer Europe trip vouchers for projects such as Gateway Towers in Mulund, Primanti in Gurgaon and The Promont in Bangalore- A. Harikesh, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Tata Housing Development Company.

Gold Coins

Griha Pravesh Buildteck and Tata Housing are offering 5gm 24 carat gold coins and Gold vouchers respectively.

Other offers

KV Developers announced the ‘Everybody Wins’ scheme , wherein the customers will get assured gifts when they come to book their dream home at ‘ WindPark’  this festive season. All the customers will be entitled to participate in a contest wherein through a lucky draw or a scratch card, the buyers can win from a host of exciting options, including, three fully furnished flats, 32” inches LED TV, a branded fridge, a split A/C, modular kitchen, wardrobes in all the rooms and much more. The buyers can also win a free car park and club membership, in this exciting scheme- Aman Agarwal, Director, KV Developers.

All these schemes clearly indicate that while several offers are available, not many developers are offering cash discounts. Though they say, ‘something is better that nothing’, we hope that developers will come up with cash discounts next festive season.