Developers turn net-savvy to beat sales slump

Mumbai, Oct 9: With the real estate industry facing a deep slowdown, developers are now taking recourse to social media to promote their properties and attract buyers.

"We use the social media to the optimum potential to market our properties. We use these platforms to create awareness and engage our customers proactively. This has increased our sales by 20-25 per cent," Tata Housing Development Company Marketing Head, Rajeeb Dash told PTI here.

Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Linkedin, among others, are rated as the most popular sites for both B2B as well as B2C interactions.

Similarly, the Lodha Group has also turned to the social media and mobile service routes to attract new buyers.

"Our intention is to leverage the large pool of users active on the social media, inform, engage and interact with them and the peer groups, thus creating a positive aura around our brand and influence buying decision over a period of time," Lodha Developers Senior Marketing Vice-president Samujjwal Ghosh said.

"Given the increasing penetration of the Internet, developers and marketers have found success in brand building, lead-generation and sales through the use of mass-based social media platforms, as well as real estate specific platforms like 99acres.com, iProperty.com and Magicbricks.com among others," Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry Secretary Boman Irani said.

Apart from the regular social media sites, portals like Groffr.com and Grouphomebuyers.com have also gained popularity among home buyers.

"These websites facilitate home purchase in a cost effective and efficient manner through the power of group buying, wherein, developers can offer discounts against assurance of getting many customers.

"This will not only help buyers in getting discounts, but will also help the developers in selling their inventories and getting funds to support new projects, which have been stuck due to lack of finances," Group Infracom Managing Director Hem Tejuja, said.

PTI