Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Realtors eye a good business from this year’s REHAB fair as apartment and plot sales are slowly reviving from a downtrend caused by political turmoil and power and gas crises, insiders said on Friday.
“We are looking for brisk sales of flats and plots in the fair taking advantage of buyers’ positive response,” Liaquat Ali Bhuiyan, vice-president of Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh (REHAB) told The New Nation yesterday.
According to him, the Association has set a sales target of flat and plot worth Tk 1000 crore from the fair.
The sales turnover was Tk 500 crore in the previous fair, he said.
“Our business turnover remained poor last year as the country’s real estate business was flagging during the period in the wake of political turmoil,” he mentioned.
There was a recession in housing sector for the last
two years and the overall sales of flats and plots dropped by 50 to 60 per cent during the period. “Shrinking bank loan for the clients, gas and electricity crises and uncertainty over political changeover were the three reasons behind the fall,” he noted.
Referring to a recent study of REHAB, he said, a total of 338 companies have 22,572 units of unsold flats worth Tk 21,506.36 crore. As the association has around 1,200 member companies, the actual number will be far higher, he added.
But, we are hopeful to recover from the downhill soon as we are getting tremendous buyers’ response, said Liaquat Ali Bhuiyan. “An increased number of customers are placing new bookings, which were almost zero during September-December last year,” he said, adding, “It is the ideal time to invest in the real estate sector as most realtors are now selling flats and plots at a low profit margin to maintain their cash flows.”
When asked, he said, we are very happy with the widespread enthusiasm of the visitors coming in the fair and this fair will be more successful than the previous with increased sales of plot and flats. The five-day REHAB Fair-2014 began on Thursday at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.
Meanwhile, Friday was the second day of the REHAB fair, a good number of visitors visited in the exhibition where 141 members the Association are displaying various housing projects in 150 stalls.
Financial institutions and manufacturers of building materials will also participate in the fair.
The fair will remain open to all from 11am to 9pm at an entry fee of Tk 50. The organisers said they would remain very strict so that no illegal and unapproved project gets any chance to be there on display in the fair.
“No member will be allowed to display unauthorised projects at the exhibition,” said Liaquat Ali Bhuiyan.
He also said that the exhibitors are also offering various special discounts apart from a raffle draw for the visitors.
The real estate sector now contributes around 13 per cent to the country’s GDP, employing around one lakh skilled people and another 35 lakh in the backward linkage industries, according to a study.
