Free kitchen, all-out discount, private sales… Lacking buyers for their new housing construction projects, real estate developers are doubling their inventiveness to attract clients. And on the marketing side, we’re not ruling out anything. The developer Interconstruction did not hesitate in November to launch a competition: “One apartment bought, one apartment to win”, accompanied by this fitting slogan: “there is no harm in being two goods”…
An attractive and well-crafted offer, even if you have to read the fine lines of the contract carefully: for the purchase of real estate, from a list of around 400 eligible apartments, all in Ile-de-France, the future owner “will participate in a draw to win” a studio with parking in Drancy, in Seine-Saint-Denis. There you have it, playing is not necessarily winning.
Difficult to fill the order book
A commercial offer that Antoine Guillorit, strategic director of the Ile-de-France developer, justifies by its positive aspect. “Rather than trying to sell off our stock, we try to bring a more positive note to attract customers.” He details: “for the same budget, either I offer 1,500 euros to 100 families, but that will not change their lives, nor the amount of monthly payments” of their loan to become an owner, “or I offer an apartment to an family,” he says, believing that the second option is “nicer.”
With your heart on your sleeve? Not necessarily. Remember that the serious crisis facing the new construction sector, caused mainly by the increase in construction site costs and the collapse in demand, is a stretch for the imagination. Interconstruction is not alone in this problem, far from it. It's the whole profession. Although reservations for new housing made by individuals increased slightly in the third quarter, they are still at very low levels and housing sales continue to fall, according to data from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Renewal.
Our file on housing
It should be noted that from April 2022, accommodation reservations began to fall and were almost halved in a year and a half. A small note of hope however for the sector, over the past year, with the reduction in housing put on the market, the number of reservations has once again become higher than the volumes of housing marketed, which is gradually reducing the stock to be sold (- 9.6% in one year).
