Behind the Real Estate marketing
HAVE you ever thought? That a Real Estate developer is doing all the prerequisites and formalities regarding land purchase, feasibilities and state approvals etc, but what happens when it comes to sales and marketing of the project? Why most of the developers find it inevitable to engage third party marketing agencies to sell the product into the market? What leads them to this decision? Why they don’t sell by themselves? And why general public is not questioning this weird triangle?
In another perspective, it is also true that marketing in Real Estate has become an independent domain with all the right tools to attract customers but, is this really happening in the right way in the market? Do marketing companies really make sure that whichever project they are advertising into general public are really approved and hold a full legal qualification? With all these questions into the mind, we can devise a transparent marketing strategy, based on the right variables, for greater interest of general public and aspirants of Real Estate investment.
The foremost thing that a customer should think before investing in Real estate is the legal security.
The customers should demand an NOC either from a developer or a marketing agency. All the other attractive and lucrative property benefits come later. Unfortunately, there are not many developers and Marketing agencies that are following this sequence.
Most of them possess only initial approvals or no approvals at all but with the help of their catchy marketing campaigns they are engaging customers and investors based on false commitments. This mantra has further led to a delay in delivery, unexpected outcomes and eventually things become vulnerable enough to have a fear of losing hard earned money.
The one who suffers the most are mostly end users and the middle class, who usually possess a dream to have a property and investment in urban areas.
Their dreams are catched well by lucrative yet cheap investment offers with no description of their legal qualification.
It is true that the buying power has significantly declined in the last two years which has further escalated the client’s interest in non approved real estate with the bleak hopes to change their life. This must be avoided by the general public.
It is also worth mentioning that competent state authorities, that are responsible for the development in the districts like CDA, LDA and RDA etc, are taking robust measures to curb these practices and they are using multiple platforms like newspapers, their official websites and dedicated verification centres to make people more aware.
Meanwhile, general public also has to remain cautioned and aware of such malpractices in Real Estate Marketing and should never compromise and show any flexibility towards the final legal status of the advertised project.
The general public should check, counter check and investigate the legal status of the property before proceeding to buy or book.
Similarly, it is also pertinent to mention that newspapers and other public platforms prove to be a great market place to reach customers.
In this regard, such mediums should also set criteria in which they advertise only those Real Estate projects that hold a final legal approval of competent state authority.
In Conclusion, It can be summarized that Real Estate marketing without full state approval is an attempt to hide and over shadow the legal status of the property by giving customers a spoon of false lucrative offers.
It is a mutual obligation that falls equally on developers, marketing agencies, state institutions and general public to play their responsible part in making Real Estate marketing more transparent, accountable and fair.
—The writer is real estate analyst based in Islamabad.
