Faced with the stark realities of the harsh economic situation leading to downturns in the real estate business, developers and players in the sector are tapping into opportunities provided by the festive seasons, considered as the most auspicious for investment in the sector to make quick returns.
Since 2018, the sector has witnessed downturns largely due to several factors ranging from government macro economic policy to over-supply in commercial and retail sectors as well as inappropriate supply in the residential sector.
This also impacted negatively to the sector’s contribution to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The latest GDP figure shows a negative growth of -2.68per cent at the end of October 2018 and the Q3 contribution to GDP dropped from 7.09 per cent in Q2 to 6.88 per cent in Q3.
With various developers launching new schemes and announcing attractive prizes on purchase of a house and land, they expect to log better sales.
The strategy is to capitalise on seasonal festivities by offering mouth-watering incentives to attract buyers during the Muslim festival.
The incentives come in form of substantial discounts, gifts, household appliances and international trips.
The developers are not slacking during festive seasons, especially, during the last the Moslem festival of Eid-El – Kabir as they hyped the tempo in a bid to outsmart each other to get a fair share of the market.
As per market experts, sales get a boost of about 10-15 per cent on an average during the festive seasons.
According to one of the developers, festive season is considered to be most auspicious for investment in real estates.
The real estate firms have adopted the enticement of gifts, foreign trips to stave off the lull in the real estate sector and maximize profits.
For instance, RevolutionPlus Property is offering a trip top Dubai for purchase of land as well as a ram, one bag of rice, gallons of ground nut oil among other incentives.
The same goes for Adron homes. The real estate firm is offering prospective buyers of their property 100 per cent discounts, one ram, and free house hold appliances for purchase od their houses or land in Shimawa, Ikorodu, Abuja, Ibeju Lekki and others.
Another real estate firm, Landmark Corporate Realty Limited has also upped the incentive with Sallaj promo splash which included an all expenses paid trip to Mecca, vegetable oil, bags of rice and big ram for buyers of their property in Okun-Ahaj, Ibeju Lekki, Simawa,, Kuje, Abuja, Isheri North GRA and others.
An official of the firm, Adekunle Stephen described the Sallah promo as a nice concept conceived to give back to their customers.
He stressed that the company has already given up to 39 rams with those who pay the sum of N1million getting two rams each while those that paid for N500,000 got one . They also got one bag of rice and 20 litres gallon of oil each.
For, Adron Homes and Properties, the firm is utilizing the festivity to offer investors the opportunity to own land in different parts of the country.
The firm said, it was offering discounts of up to 50 per cent on land spread across Lagos, Abuja, Ogun and Oyo states, with title documents and flexible payment plans to suit all budgets.
It stressed that it was set to make a landlord out of every adult citizen in the country in a relatively easy acquisition manner in major cities of the country such as Ibadan, Abuja, Shimawa, Lekki, Atan etc, in estates characterised by fast development in serene atmospheres.