Black Friday, a holiday of great shopping opportunities, has long been associated primarily with promotions for electronics, clothing, or beauty products. However, in recent years, a new trend has been noticeable – discounts offered by housing developers. This is evidence of increasing competition in the real estate market and the need to attract buyers’ attention towards the end of the year.
The high supply of apartments and limited demand due to restricted access to loans makes this year’s discount season full of various attractive offers from the developer market. Experts from Metrohouse and Primse.com have decided to take a closer look at the most common purchasing incentives.
Anna Kochańska, President of the Board at Primse.com, a platform connecting developers and real estate brokers, emphasizes that promotions like Black Friday are becoming an important element of marketing strategies in the primary market. – Developers are increasingly eager to use the potential of Black Friday, not only to increase sales, but also to present their investments to a wide range of customers. Add-ons like a SMART system, cheaper or even free parking spaces or flexible payment schedules are real added value for buyers. Often promotions coincide with open days, allowing customers to familiarize themselves thoroughly with the offer and negotiate prices.
Discounts from a few percent up to 20%
One of the most popular mechanisms for attracting customers is housing discounts. As part of this year’s Black Friday, attractive discounts are available for select units in many developments located in Poland’s biggest cities. Reductions are up to a few percent, which for customers means savings of an average of several tens of thousands of zlotys. One developer also offers a promotional cashback of up to 4% of the purchase price of the property. That’s not all. Just before the big discount week, one of the leading developers announced reductions reaching 20% of the catalogue price for apartments. We haven’t seen such large discounts for a long time – the bar for competition has been set really high.
Return to flexible payment schedules
More and more developers are betting on flexible payments, which is particularly attractive for customers planning to buy real estate on credit, but also for those who buy the apartment in cash and want to delay the final payment as much as possible. Companies introduce payment schedules such as 20/80, or even 10/90, which means that the customer only pays 10% of the value of the property at the time of signing the contract and the remaining 90% only upon receipt of the keys. Thanks to this, buyers can gain more time to gather funds or obtain a loan. Such programs were already very popular several years ago – we can expect that in addition to classic price discounts, this mechanism will encourage some undecided clients to check out the offer.
Attractive additions to apartments
In 2024, developers increasingly offer something extra as part of the purchase of an apartment to stand out from the competition. In advertisements for individual investments, we will encounter freebies including parking spaces (when buying an apartment from the promotional pool – usually with larger areas) or a discount on a storage unit. In the case of an underground parking space, the promotion is particularly worth considering – it can save, depending on the investment, between 40 and 80 thousand zł on average.
There are also various add-ons in the form of gift vouchers for purchases of RTV, AGD, interior fittings. Modern systems of the “smart house” type are popular. – In the past, we had cases where a new car was added to the purchase of an apartment. We don’t yet have such spectacular examples, but e.g., one developer offers a holiday voucher worth up to 30 000 zł when buying, says Marcin Jańczuk, Metrohouse expert. He adds, however, that it is not excluded that developers will increasingly compete, even beyond Black Week, with attractive additions to the purchase, to increase their competitive edge. – It often happens that two very similar investments are being built next to each other at similar prices. Sometimes, one incentive can tip the scales in favor of one of them, adds Marcin Jańczuk.
More and more developers, responding to investment purchases, offer facilitations related to later rental of such premises, offering cooperation with a proven partner handling rental service. This is a novelty in marketing communication – so far, such cooperation has not been very widespread.
One opportunity, many benefits
Promotions at developers are not only a saving at the time of purchasing a property, but also a lower mortgage loan amount. – For example, a cheaper property by 50 000 zł translates into about 350 zł lower monthly instalment. With a fixed interest rate of 7%, it will save over 20,000 zł in just the first 5 years. A lower loan is also a lower required life insurance sum, which directly translates into a lower premium for the policy. Marek Jackiewicz, Credipass Financial Expert calculates.
Additionally, by choosing a 10/90 payment schedule, especially in the case of investment in the early construction stage, the moment for filing a loan application is delayed by a few months or even a year. Adding to this the fact that the vast majority of banks only charge the interest part of the installment during construction, the savings often reach thousands of złotys.
Promotions offered as part of Black Friday are proof of developers’ flexibility and their ability to adapt to changing market needs. In the face of a slowdown in the real estate sector, resulting from waiting for decisions regarding the “0% loan”, such offers may be an attractive alternative.
Source: https://ceo.com.pl/black-friday-w-nieruchomosciach-deweloperzy-kusza-znizkami-i-dodatkami-do-mieszkan-39124
