Builders roping in Mary Kom to Maria Sharapova to sell homes

Will you buy a home in a gated community just because Mary Kom will set up a boxing academy inside it or because Maria Sharapova is endorsing it? Sounds bizarre but builders seem to believe that the idea will sell.

At a time when home sales have dipped across the country, builders are doing whatever it takes to sell a home: they are even roping in sporting greats like Maria Sharapova or Michael Schumacher as brand ambassadors for some of their projects, hoping consumers will book their flats. A developer has even launched a commercial project with India's tallest water fountains while another has polo as the theme for an apartment complex with dedicated space for horse riding. But do such innovations work?

"There will certainly be an initial traction for such projects because of these names, especially in a slow market, but with high premiums the novelty value does fade away," says Sanjay Dutt, executive managing director, south Asia, at property advisory firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Noida-based builder Supertech announced on Saturday a boxing academy by Mary Kom at its 100-acre upcountry township project on the Yamuna Expressway, near Noida. Last week, Gurgaon-based Homestead launched the Maria Sharapova Tower in Gurgaon at a huge premium. The same builder had earlier launched a similar project with Michael Schumacher in Gurgaon.

"In this slow market, it will certainly help," says RK Arora, managing director of Supertech, who is hoping that offering a boxing academy will attract young buyers as Mary Kom's Olympic medal is fresh in people's mind.

In Gurgaon, Homestead launched Michael Schumacher Towers in Sector 105 last month at 9,000 per sq ft when most other projects in the vicinity were priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,500 per sq ft. "People tend to get attracted to big names and they are willing to pay a premium for that," says Manoj Shrivastava, chief operating officer at Homestead. Now, the new project with Sharapova branding in Sector 73 of Gurgaon is being launched at Rs 10,500 per sq ft when other luxury projects in the area are in the range of Rs 6,000-Rs 7,000 per sq ft.

But there are others who do not see much merit in such strategies. "I do not think these premiums are justified," says Santhosh Kumar, CEO, operations at Jones Lang LaSalle India. "These are just marketing gimmicks. Consumers are willing to pay a premium but only up to a point. Prices can be determined by the market only."

"There isn't much benefit that a project gets from such branding. What has Maria Sharapova got to do with anything in Gurgaon," asks Abhay Khemka of Khemka Investments & Properties, a real estate brokerage firm in Gurgaon.

Home sales across the country, especially in the NCR and Mumbai, have slipped in the past year and inventories have been piling up. According to data provided by property research firm Liases Foras, across top six cities of the country, an average of 22 months of inventory remains unsold. In the NCR, 28 months of inventory has piled up, while in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, the pile-up stands at 39 months. Year-on-year, average prices across the six cities has grown 20%.

In 2011, Gurgaon-based M3M Developers launched the Polo Suites, which was a high-end residential development that saw very good sales and price rise in the first few months. But for the past few quarters sales have lagged and now there's a huge difference between the price being offered by the developer and that of its apartments in the resale market. In Noida, the Bhasin group is trying to sell a new office and retail destination by offering India's tallest water fountain at the centre of it, but brokers aren't excited about such offerings, especially in a slow market.

Source: articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com