Developers resort to repartitioning and try-before-you-buy scheme to boost sales

Real estate developers are looking for new ways to promote homes, given that sales are down to one third of the 2007 level and they still have finished but unsold homes.

Whereas representatives of real estate developer Impact offer apartments in Greenfield complex in Bucharest in a "try before you buy" scheme for a weekend or even a week, Negoita brothers have started to repartition the apartments in the Confort City complex to make them easier to sell at this time.

In order to get to "try" a two-room apartment in the Greenfield complex in the Baneasa area of Bucharest, one has to make a down payment of 5% of the apartment price, which starts at 2,750 euros and is refunded in full in case the clients decide not to buy the home.

"The money can be refunded either because one doesn't like the complex or the neighbours, or because the bank does not approve the loan application. We currently have three apartments available for testing, fully furnished and available for a weekend with the possibility to extend the trial to one whole week," stated the representatives of Impact, the developer of the Greenfield project.

Impact did not say how many apartments were still available in its project in northern Bucharest.

The company of Negoita brothers, which is developing the Confort City project in southern Bucharest will repartition the apartments so that a three-room apartment and a studio will be turned into two-room apartments, which are in highest demand on the market, the company officials say.

"Customers want two-room apartments. Almost 60% of the 300 apartments sold since the beginning of the year were requests for two-room apartments. The repartitioning is part of our strategy to adjust to the market," said Ionut Negoita, who controls a group whose 2008 business he puts at almost 71 million euros.

The price of the apartments put up for sale has gone down by 25-30% since the beginning of the year. Therefore a two-room 52 square-metre apartment currently costs 45,000 euros, while a 64 square-metre home costs 59,000 euros.