Realtors secure spot orders worth Tk 5 billion in 2 overseas fairs

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Sonia H Moni The realtors have secured spot orders worth Tk 5.0 billion in the recent overseas fairs in New York and Toronto, reflecting high demand for flats among the Bangladeshi expatriates, REHAB officials said. This opportunity has come at a crucial time when the country's real estate industry is facing a setback due to power and gas crises which caused drastic fall in apartment sale. "The developers have got the opportunity to sell plot or flat worth Tk 5.0 billion to the Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs). We have organised this two fairs for market expansion of housing industry and inspiring the expatriate investment," REHAB president Nasrul Hamid Bipu told the FE Tuesday. "The response in the two fairs was quite positive. The response was half than our expectation due to bad economic situation of American people". At the same time we have entered into Canadian market for the first time which is a potential market' he added. REHAB organised a three- day long 8th fair from September 24 at New York and another three- day long fair from October 1 at Toronto in Canada. Around 75 developers participated in the New York fair and 51 developers in Toronto. REHAB president said, "The country's developers are facing image crisis due to their failure to hand over plots or flats in time to the buyers. The developers are facing lack of confidence among the non- resident Bangladeshis." He added: "We have to maintain the government rules and regulation and code of conduct to regain the confidence of buyers and for that reason REHAB is taking some steps as well as adopting tougher procedure in giving REHAB membership." REHAB general secretary and fair committee chairman Murad Iqbal Chowdhury said, "The NRBs are interested to buy flats in Dhaka but the price of land and flats are very high. The price of a 2000 square- feet flat in Gulshan was Tk 8.0 million three years back but now it costs around Tk 40 million." "The NRBs are thinking before investing in the housing sector due to high expenditure and image crisis of developers, he added."