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COMMENTARY

A property launch in all but name

Times are hard, but cautious developers may be going overboard

Published on Sep 20, 2014 1:06 AM

By Melissa Tan


YOU know times are hard in the property market when developers cannot even call a launch a launch.

Before sales of private homes slowed down so badly, developers would, with much fanfare, open a project for preview one weekend and launch it for sale the next.

These days, however, projects seem to spend a prolonged period moseying through an untold number of preliminary stages before they finally muster up the courage to take that big, scary step of making the sale official.

Their main goal throughout seems to be to keep the sale under the radar just in case it turns out to be a flop.

When they do finally launch it, they make only a smaller portion of the total number of units available for sale, so that they can proclaim high take-up rates.

Some may also proclaim that they have secured "commitments" from buyers to pick up units, which may or may not translate to actual sales.

Even if the project's showflat is already completed, many developers are happy to let dust collect.

Like spiders spinning a web, they now quietly complete their showflat first and then wait and wait. The hunt begins only once they believe enough interest from prospective buyers has been drummed up.

It starts off with a tentative and somewhat tense song and dance often known as the "VVIP preview", since clearly only one "V" no longer cuts it in these uncertain times.

This preview can stretch up to several weeks, and though it may make it sound rather exclusive, those not in the Tatler set do not have to fear being shut out.

As I have found over the months I spent visiting showflats as part of my job, "VVIP" pretty much applies to anyone who picked up an agent's call and looks capable of opening a bank account.

Having become extremely flexible in this regard, developers are balancing that out by being extra cautious in others.

This is completely understandable, given the moribund state of the property market - which is not within their control - and their need to keep the public perception of the project positive.

In their eagerness to do that, however, some developers could go somewhat overboard.

I can think of at least one new project where the developer insisted that marketing had not started yet, even though real estate agents had begun to distribute fliers for the condo and send out promotional e-mail.

At another project that had already begun sales, the developer took pains to steer clear of the taboo word. Rather than call it a "launch", it insisted on saying that units were "released" for sale to the public, which to me sounds no different.

Of course, private developers are free to call their project sales anything they want. The Urban Redevelopment Authority does not stipulate precise definitions for the word "launch" in its data dictionary available online.

But I cannot see how smokescreen tactics like that would truly help sales, which depend far more on the project's location, design and, of course, pricing.

After all, what's in a name? A launch by any other name would sell just as sweet - or poorly - as it would otherwise.

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