Real estate giants lure clients with free cars, LCD TVs

DOWNTURN: Property prices across the country have been falling due to the financial crisis.

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New Delhi: As the financial crisis grips world economies, the real estate sector is giving away freebies to lure customers.

Unitech is offering a free LCD TV on booking of property while one can get free Solitaire worth Rs 1.25 lakh on booking of property from Tulip. Another real estate giant, Jaypee Greens, is giving away a luxury car on purchase of property.

So it is raining discounts in the real estate market this festive season. But that is no the only thing luring customers.

Developers feel that this is the best time to invest in realty as the current financial crisis has take property prices down with it.

"For long term investment it is the right time to enter because market prices are low now," says Moutani Goswami of the Jaypee Group.

"Real estate has a shortage of 24.71 million units in our country. So that market exists in not just metros but other areas too," Sanjeev Srivastva, MD, Assotech Ltd, says.

Customers are also seeing value investment in these times. Taking advantage of these times are buyers like Devendra Singh, who works for an MNC and has been hunting for a house for some time.

"Economy is going down so obviously prices are coming down. So we thought that this is the good time to buy something," Singh says.

According to property watchers, prices across the metros have come down in the past six months. In the north, Delhi and the NCR region has seen a fall by Rs 500 to Rs 1700 per sq ft while Mumbai has seen a decline of Rs 800-3000 per sq ft.

Bangalore has seen a drop of Rs 250-1000 per sq ft while in Kolkata there has seen a drop of Rs 900-1000 per sq ft.

But before you make that investment here's a word of caution.

"Look at the long term and also you can never catch the bottom. So you never know when is right time to buy. Take an informed decision as to why should the prices increase in that area in the near future," says Anshuman Magazine, MD of property consultancy firm, CB Richard Ellis.

In a downturn, real estate might be a good option to check out this Diwali.