Organisers claim success as REHAB Fair '08 ends
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Mehdi Musharraf Bhuiyan
REHAB Fair 2008, an annual event of the country's real estate companies, ended Saturday amid mixed response among the participating developers as well as their prospective buyers.
While a great segment of the participating developers reported significant drop in their respective sales and customer turnout; many of the visitors and prospective buyers also expressed their lack of confidence in investment in the wake of national and global economic uncertainty.
Organisers, however, claimed success as the event has generated record turnout in terms of the number of visitors as well as the number of orders received on spot.
"Last year, a gross transaction of Tk. 9.0 billion was made in the fair, and we are hoping this year's figure to exceed the previous one and might hit the Tk. 10 billion mark," Tanveerul Haque Probal, President of Real Estate Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) told the FE.
"At the same time, the fair attracted an estimated 42,760 until this evening (Saturday), including a record 12,000 on Friday," the organisers claimed.
Remarkable difference in the range of prices of flats and plots was as prevalent as ever in the capital, with a flat at the city's uptown Gulshan or Baridhara area pricing even Tk. 8,000 to Tk. 12000 per square feet while the same type of flat in places as older as Mirpur or Gandaria bearing a price tag of Tk. 3000 to Tk. 4000.
The same variation was visible in the prices of land or plot where it is as low as Tk. 0.8 million per katha at places like Pallobi or Mirpur to Tk. 1.5 million to 2.0 million in some sites at Uttara.
Apartments were on sale with spaces ranging from Tk. 1050 to Tk. 4000 square feet while a wide range of special offers were made available by the developers to their prospective clients such as 10 to 25 percent discounts for this fair.
An overwhelming majority of the participating entities, however, were discontent with the response they received, which they mostly blamed on the rising prices of construction materials as well as the people's lack of confidence in investment against the backdrop of global recession and political uncertainty at home.
Many of them also reported drastic fall in the number of orders ranging from 40 to 60 percent from the previous year.
Md. Nasifur Rahman, Senior Sales Executive of Sheltech for instance, stated that until the morning of the last day of the fair his company received 15 orders, which made them unsure about reaching their target of receiving 25 orders.
"Now, I am looking forward to this last day hoping for a bigger turnout as the fair approaches the end," Nasifur said.
His concern was echoed by people from leading real estate developers like Asset Developments, Navana Real Estate Ltd and Assurance Developments, who opined that although the price of rod has been lowered in recent times, the rising price of brick, stone, cement and other building materials have not helped to improve the scenario.
Commenting on the situation, the REHAB President asserted that the lower rod prices have helped keep the price offered to the prospective buyers at the fair mostly at a steady level.
Quite a significant number of participants, especially the land developers, reported satisfaction at the rate of sales.
"We, the land developers, actually remained mostly unscathed by the rising prices of building construction materials because of the nature of our business," observed N I Maksud, Marketing and Sales Manager of Ashiyan Lands development Ltd.
Equally mixed responses were received from the wide spectrum of visitors at the China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Center, the venue of the fair.
While the rich and the upper middle class of the city were the more active buyers like any other years; the middle class have also come forward in recent times to use it as an occasion to explore and to gain an idea about the country's real estate market.
REHAB Fair 2008, an annual event of the country's real estate companies, ended Saturday amid mixed response among the participating developers as well as their prospective buyers.
While a great segment of the participating developers reported significant drop in their respective sales and customer turnout; many of the visitors and prospective buyers also expressed their lack of confidence in investment in the wake of national and global economic uncertainty.
Organisers, however, claimed success as the event has generated record turnout in terms of the number of visitors as well as the number of orders received on spot.
"Last year, a gross transaction of Tk. 9.0 billion was made in the fair, and we are hoping this year's figure to exceed the previous one and might hit the Tk. 10 billion mark," Tanveerul Haque Probal, President of Real Estate Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) told the FE.
"At the same time, the fair attracted an estimated 42,760 until this evening (Saturday), including a record 12,000 on Friday," the organisers claimed.
Remarkable difference in the range of prices of flats and plots was as prevalent as ever in the capital, with a flat at the city's uptown Gulshan or Baridhara area pricing even Tk. 8,000 to Tk. 12000 per square feet while the same type of flat in places as older as Mirpur or Gandaria bearing a price tag of Tk. 3000 to Tk. 4000.
The same variation was visible in the prices of land or plot where it is as low as Tk. 0.8 million per katha at places like Pallobi or Mirpur to Tk. 1.5 million to 2.0 million in some sites at Uttara.
Apartments were on sale with spaces ranging from Tk. 1050 to Tk. 4000 square feet while a wide range of special offers were made available by the developers to their prospective clients such as 10 to 25 percent discounts for this fair.
An overwhelming majority of the participating entities, however, were discontent with the response they received, which they mostly blamed on the rising prices of construction materials as well as the people's lack of confidence in investment against the backdrop of global recession and political uncertainty at home.
Many of them also reported drastic fall in the number of orders ranging from 40 to 60 percent from the previous year.
Md. Nasifur Rahman, Senior Sales Executive of Sheltech for instance, stated that until the morning of the last day of the fair his company received 15 orders, which made them unsure about reaching their target of receiving 25 orders.
"Now, I am looking forward to this last day hoping for a bigger turnout as the fair approaches the end," Nasifur said.
His concern was echoed by people from leading real estate developers like Asset Developments, Navana Real Estate Ltd and Assurance Developments, who opined that although the price of rod has been lowered in recent times, the rising price of brick, stone, cement and other building materials have not helped to improve the scenario.
Commenting on the situation, the REHAB President asserted that the lower rod prices have helped keep the price offered to the prospective buyers at the fair mostly at a steady level.
Quite a significant number of participants, especially the land developers, reported satisfaction at the rate of sales.
"We, the land developers, actually remained mostly unscathed by the rising prices of building construction materials because of the nature of our business," observed N I Maksud, Marketing and Sales Manager of Ashiyan Lands development Ltd.
Equally mixed responses were received from the wide spectrum of visitors at the China-Bangladesh Friendship Conference Center, the venue of the fair.
While the rich and the upper middle class of the city were the more active buyers like any other years; the middle class have also come forward in recent times to use it as an occasion to explore and to gain an idea about the country's real estate market.