In order to beat the worst ever phase in sales of residential units, the Promoters and Builders Association of Pune (PBAP) has announced an aggressive scheme to woo buyers in these times of recession.

So, do not worry if you have lost your job and housing loans and bank interests stare you in your face. The good news is that builders in the city have offered to pay the equated monthly instalments (EMIs) for three months, including bank interest till you succeed in getting a new job.

“We want to address fear of losing jobs among the prospective buyers and therefore, we have taken a decision to pay three months EMIs for our customers,” Lalit Kumar Jain, president of PBAP and chairman of Kumar Builders told FC Estate.

Prospective buyers are postponing their decision to buy a house because of increasing job insecurity. The situation has come to such a head that even after public sector lenders slashed home loan rates to as low as 8 per cent, there has not been a perceptible effect on the real estate market in the city. Poor buyers’ response has even led some developers to delay construction work on some projects. Jain said prospective customers were refraining from investing in a new house which was hurting the builders' projects. “The new scheme will minimise the fear of losing jobs and encourage people to buy their dream homes,” Jain said.

The 260-member PBAP is upbeat that this new scheme would encourage offtake in the coming months. Jain said the builders' body in Pune, hit by slowdown and dwindling sales, had also brought down property rates to 20-40 per cent across all segments.

Rohit Gera, vice-president of PBAP and executive director, Gera Developers, said the fear syndrome of “I may lose my job” has affected sale of new housing units in the city. “But the reality is that the number of those at risk of losing their job was not very high. The problem is that this fear is spreading signals of gloom, which we hope to address by this novel scheme,” he said.

Gera said six months ago, there were hardly any enquiries from prospective buyers. “In the past few weeks, enquiries have started to pick up. Site visits have also gone up, indicating positive signs that the desire to buy a new house is still there. “Along with the fall in interest rates, our new scheme would

surely, bring in potential customers,” he added.

“If a customer takes more than three months to get a new job, we may consider waiving off the interest payable to builders,” Gera said. The new scheme has enthused new buyers and we have received some enquiries, he claimed.