Buyers preferred ready apartments at REHAB Chattogram Fair

Developers this year have mostly sold ready apartments at the Chattogram REHAB Fair, which ended on Sunday.

Organiser of the event, Real Estate & Housing Association of Bangladesh, said that ready apartments were on the top of the customers' choice as previously many people had not received their apartments on scheduled time. 
Visitors at the fair collected information on finished apartments and visited the sites. Then they booked apartments at the fair. 

Mahmudul Haque, chief operation officer of ANZ Properties Ltd, said, "Buyers showed much interest in ready flats. We have sold five apartments worth around Tk8 crore. We also have a commitment from customers to buy six more apartments.

"People are losing confidence in unfinished flats because of not getting their apartments on scheduled time and getting cheated. The developers have to increase their own investment to take this sector ahead."

Saifuddin Mahmud Bappi, manager of Lucent Development Ltd, said his company has sold two apartments worth Tk2 crore at the fair and got buyers' commitment for 10 more apartments. 

Rakibul Ahsan, a visitor at the fair, told The Business Standard that he found information on many developers' ready apartments showcased at the fair. This provided him with a range of choices for buying an apartment.

Meanwhile, another visitor at the fair Lokman Hossain said, "Price of the apartments seemed comparatively higher at the fair, but I'm still looking for one at my favorite location."

Shahanul Islam, assistant manager of the City Bank's Agrabad branch in Chattogram said that some banks and financial institutions also participated in the fair, as people often sought information on home loans when buying an apartment.

"We waived 0.4 percent interest on home loans during the fair," he added. 

The real estate companies have expressed their satisfaction over the fair organised at the Radisson Blu Chattogram Bay View.

Abdul Kaiyum Chowdhury, chairman of REHAB Chattogram, said, "We had targeted to sell apartments and products worth Tk450 crore, which we managed to achieve by the end of the fair."

This year, 73 stalls of 55 companies participated in the fair.