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29 March 2024

Property flash sale… Will Indian expats in UAE go for it?

State capitals, and many tourist, heritage cities are expected to witness a rapid upgrade of urban infrastructure. (Reuters)

Published
By Parag Deulgaonkar

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the UAE will have the chance to buy a property in India with access to more than 250 projects spread across the country in a flash sale planned next week.

99acres.com, a real estate portal, and Amura Marketing Technologies, a digital marketing technology company, will hold the flash sale from June 26 to 28.

On board are nearly 35 major developers offering properties ranging from Rs1.5 million to Rs200 million in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi/National Capital Region (NCR), Bangalore, Pune, and Chennai.

"We are hosting a first of its kind flash sale in the real estate industry with an expectation of selling inventory worth Rs20-Rs25 billion. Some of the developers are launching their projects exclusively through this flash sale and we are expecting over 100,000 customer logging from this sale,” Vikram Kotnis, Managing Director, Amura Technologies, told Business Standard.

“Our main objective of this sale is to boost the real estate market by creating a demand among customers to benefit from exclusive pre-negotiated deals offered by developers,” he added.

Under the sale, buyers will be offered discount coupons. Buyers during and post the three days of the sale can make payments and redeem their offer coupons.

“It is not something like buying a mobile phone, property is where you invest your life saving. I would prefer to visit the site and see the progress rather than depending on the developer’s information,” S. Krishakant, who works in a private company in Dubai, told Emirates 24|7.

“May be such flash sales may work well for the resident Indians, but for me living in the UAE it is only possible if we are offered a discount coupons with longer validity dates of over one year. I can inspect these properties only when I go for a vacation to India,” he explains.

Priya Sen echoes the same view.

“I will of course log in to check the offers, but I am not buying. I would use the services of real estate brokers in Dubai to find a suitable property for me back home rather than go online and book something,” she states.

A survey by Sumansa Exhibitions, organizers of Indian Property Show (held last week in Dubai), revealed that 72 per cent of NRIs were planning to buy a property in India within next six months with Mumbai and Bengaluru being the favourite investment destinations.

Emirates 24|7 has reported that NRIs can get maximum discount on a property if they book units during the project’s pre-launch stage.

It has been reported that developers in NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata were offering nearly 25 per cent discount on per square feet rates, lower home loan rates, free studio apartments to those who buy top floors (penthouses) of a luxury residential towers, modular kitchens, etc. to entice buyers due to a high rate of unsold inventory.

In April 2015, Indian government approved the Real Estate Development and Regulation Bill, which will pave way to set up a real estate regulatory authority, akin to Dubai’s Real Estate Regulatory Agency, which is aimed at protecting property buyers' by bringing transparency and accountability into the sector.