The ‘Show And Sell Strategy

Do professional sales galleries help sell housing projects? How important is a good site office to sell a residential or commercial project? Sunil Mishra, Head–Strategy, ANAROCK Group, has the answers. 
 

The sales office – that is something property buyers see at every new housing project site but probably cannot guess how much thought and investment has gone into creating it. The sales or site office or sales gallery is an integral part of the entire real estate transaction lifecycle. A project’s sales prospects decrease drastically without an attractive and well-functioning sales office to display its USPs to the best advantage, handle walk-ins and manage scheduled site visits. When we visit a mall, our senses immediately take in and respond to the creativity of displays. The appreciation and response process is almost entirely subconscious.

However, as most retailers and mall developers know, it is by far the most powerful marketing tool. Naturally, the stakes in selling properties are much higher for both buyers and sellers. Today, the site office is an inalienable feature in housing projects from affordable to mid-segment and luxury. To recount a short history, the professionally crafted on-site sales office is still a fairly new phenomenon in India. Before expert agencies began to perfect the art of ‘mega-conversion’ sales offices, housing sales in India used to take place from portable cabins or sample flats.

The sales office concept was first introduced in select luxury projects to give buyers a more experiential sense of the developer’s offering. The concept was eventually adapted even for affordable housing projects to accommodate more customers on the site and streamline the sales processes to increase conversions. Now the sales office has evolved to become an indispensable part of the overall property marketing process. At an under-development housing project construction site, the sales office creates the very first impression in the minds of potential customers. Here, the marketing team gets the only real opportunity to showcase the virtues, benefits and appeal of a project that has yet to come into existence.
 

An Experiential Tool
As the project’s development gathers pace, the site office supplements and helps complete the visible signs of progress, helping customers to visualise how life will be once they move in. Most customers may see the sales office only once or twice, but it must obviously remain functional and effective for much longer. It is by no means a use-and-dispose feature and has a rather prolonged lifecycle. We see that in the mid-to-large real estate developments, it remains in place for at least 2-3 years from the day of launch, until at least 90 per cent of the project’s overall inventory is sold, or until the space it occupies is eventually required for the final development push. That is a long time, and developers must make considerable effort to ensure that it serves its full purpose over such a period.
 

A Significant Investment

Considering its vital function in the overall project marketing process, they invest significant resources into their sales offices. The capital investment can range from Rs 60-70 lakhs to Rs 2-5 crore depending on the scale and scope of the project. The actual cost of erecting and maintaining a good sales office usually comes to as much as 0.5 per cent of the total project cost. There are distinct advantages to making the sales office part of a permanent structure rather than investing in a temporary sales office. Many developers make the sales office a part of the clubhouse, which is finally handed over to the housing society. This way, it becomes an asset that homebuyers inherit – adding to the overall value proposition and reducing setup and maintenance costs.

The size of a sales office is usually anything from 1,200 sq. feet to 5,000 sq. feet and some township sales galleries are as large as 8,000-10,000 sq. feet of covered area. For larger new phase launches, developers invariably refurbish or build new sales offices and show flats. How big a role does a site office play in the overall project marketing? How much does it usually add to the final revenues? These are fair questions. The fact is that until the project is fully developed and occupied, the sales or site office is its nerve centre. Apart from the online space, it is the primary bridge connecting developers to their customers and vice versa.

From here, customers can seek and obtain critical information as well as clear doubts and queries. The sales office is also the place where price negotiations take place and cheques are signed. With the exclusion of NRI customers, almost 100 per cent of property transactions take place at the site office. Not only is the sales office effectively the developer’s point of sale (POS) but in the case of new launches, the customer’s entire physical property experience happens there. Up to 80-85 per cent of a project’s sales can be attributed to an on-site sales office. Moreover, the customers’ positive experience at a good sales office becomes a matter of word-of-mouth promotion, which increases the site visits’ rate. 
 

Boosting Visibility and Revenue

In terms of revenue, a good sales office with a streamlined and aesthetically pleasing process can increase the conversion ratio by 4-5 per cent. Moreover, the quality of the site office can lead to better per unit revenue for the developer. Even in new markets, the combination of a developer’s brand and an excellent site or sales office can deliver adequate sales numbers even without ‘show’ flats. Grade A and B developers can expect a sales boost of as much as 50 per cent in mature markets by investing in a superb site office. Creating an impactful site office is now largely entrusted to specialist marketing agencies who understand all the audio-visual nuances that positively impact buyer psychology.

To cite a few examples of effective site offices, the pan-India Joyville line of projects and Northern Lights in Thane benefitted greatly from superlative site offices in the affordable segment. In the mid-segment, Park West (Bengaluru), Capitol Heights (Nagpur) and Tritvam (Kochi) saw site offices proving to be very effective ‘sales converters’. In the luxury and ultra-luxury segments, The Imperial (Mumbai) and Imperial Avenue (Dubai) have helped ultra-HNIs to visualise and redefine their end-use requirements thanks to well-crafted site offices. Some of India’s best sales galleries can currently be seen at the sites of Lodha Group in Mumbai, DLF, Sumitomo, M3M in Delhi-NCR, and Embassy and Sobha in Bengaluru.