Pune: Realty developers attract home buyers with freebies
With realty developers across Pune facing a crisis of sorts in terms of demand-supply mismatch of their residential projects, they are resorting to alternative methods to off-sale the piled up inventory at their disposal. One of the techniques adopted by many developers involves offering home buyers freebies in the form of discounts and gifts as festival bonanza. This move comes in the backdrop of a harsh year that went by in realty terms.
Residential market scenario
Incidentally 2014 saw residential sales across Pune drop considerably compared to 2013. It decreased from about 38,000 units in 2013 to about 34,870 units in 2014, recording a drop of about 10 per cent. Besides, residential launches across the city also fell by a whopping 26 per cent in the second half of 2014 compared to the same period in the previous year. As per commonfloor data, the number of apartment projects that were launched in 2014 saw a reduction by 50 per cent compared to the previous year with the number of apartment units launched in 2014 dropping by 13 per cent compared to 2013. As was evident with many other major realty markets across India, Pune is also going through a tough phase in terms of residential sales. Even the recently announced Union Budget did not do much to assuage the sentiment of the prospective home buyer.
Upcoming festival season
This has prompted developers to resort to alternative methods to sell inventory in a market fast transforming into a buyer’s market. The upcoming festival of Gudi Padwa on March 21st will provide an excellent opportunity to developers to offer freebies as festival bonanza to prospective buyers. This is expected to provide a much needed thrust to the waning residential realty market of the city, the momentum of which is expected to carry it forward. Many developers are expected to trade their projects during this festive season, with projects ranging in price from Rs 16 lakh to Rs 3 crore.
Freebies on offer
Some of the freebies that are expected to be offered vary from a 10 per cent discount in prices compared to existing market prices, special home loan rates of 8 per cent for the first two years, to a Rs 1,00,000 worth furniture voucher on the sale of selected units. Many of these are expected to be pre-launch offers. Pre-launch offers are also expected to include a buyer-friendly 10:70:10:10 home loan facility. According to this facility, buyers can book the residential unit by paying just 10 per cent of its purchase value. This will be inclusive of registration charges, stamp duty and VAT as well. Subsequently, the bank/financial institution will pay 70 per cent of the value at various stages of development following which the customer will pay 10 per cent more. Finally, the bank/financial institution will pay the remaining 10 per cent at the time of possession.
