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Do they have a deal for you - or not? By Ranit Nahum-Halevy Tags: Israel News The holidays are famous for being a bonanza for retailers, and building contractors want a piece of the pie. Thus even they may offer special deals during this time of year. The discount off of the original asking price for an apartment may range from NIS 20,000 to NIS 100,000, or they may throw in an upgraded kitchen, or something of that sort. Or they may not. The truth is that there is no consensus in the real estate market about the merit of offering special deals during the holiday season. Opinions differ from company to company. "This year, the number of special holiday deals is about a third lower than it was last year," estimated deputy chief executive Roni Cohen of the Eldar Projects Marketing agency. One reason is the sheer demand for housing: Why should builders bend over backward to court potential buyers if they do not need to do so? Advertisement On the other hand, the holidays are a good time for builders to promote their projects. Parents and kids are on vacation, and it may be a convenient time for them to view prospective future homes. Housing & Construction, which generally gets involved in major-league projects of, say, 1,000 apartments, is actually planning "happenings" complete with animals and special effects to bring in prospective buyers en famille. "During the intermediate days of the [Sukkot] holiday, we intend to hold giant happenings at all the projects, including an animal safari, an Omega [a ride via a harness attached to a cable], wall-climbing and a light-and-sound show," said Dorit Sadan, marketing manager for Housing & Construction Real Estate Development. "The idea is to turn the transaction into an experience for the whole family." Is this part of the holiday spirit? The feeling that you have forked over a fortune for a leg of lamb, so you might as well make out a check for a house? Is it perhaps a nagging fear that prices are soaring and you had better buy now, not wait? What makes the holidays such a lucrative time for the real-estate sector? Whatever the reasons, realtors say that in the last couple of years, they have noticed a trend. Increasing numbers of young couples are seeking to buy homes during the holidays, said Danny Daniel of the Hanan Mor group, who is also putting together a "happening" including a disk jockey, stand-up comedy and sound-and-light shows to push projects. Clear discounts However, potential buyers are becoming blase to special deals. Offers of "Buy now, get an air conditioner," or even "a really good air conditioner," do not work on anybody anymore, especially not in a market where prices have risen by 10% in the last year. "A lot of these special deals have run their course. The only thing that works for the public at times of rising prices is a discount in a clearly defined deal, not a discount on financing or slicing the mortgage payments thinner," said Cohen of Eldar. Thus we find the biggest builders offering discounts of up to NIS 100,000 on a new apartment. Itzik Amsalem's company, Almog CADI, for example, is offering a variety of deals in the Young project in Be'er Yaakov. People buying a four-room apartment for NIS 960,000 will get NIS 20,000 off. Buy the penthouse for NIS 1.5 million and Almog will hack NIS 50,000 off the price. Gindi Holdings is also extending a special deal until after Sukkot. At its Gindi Prime project in Netanya's Hasharon neighborhood, the company is offering an NIS 110,000 discount on penthouse apartments. At Gindi Hills in Ramat Gan, buyers will be eligible for special financing deals and rent subsidies until the apartment is ready for delivery. Bayside (Gav Yam), which belongs to Property & Building, will subsidize loans up to NIS 500,000 if you buy into its Green project in Kiryat Motzkin's Neveh Ganim neighborhood. The loan will bear 1.9% interest for 15 years. Hish Nofei Yisrael, which is marketing the Nof Zion project in Jerusalem's Armon Hanetziv neighborhood, will grant discounts of NIS 80,000 to NIS 100,000 on apartments during the holidays. It is all a question of what the company aims to achieve: If it is content to sell two or three apartments a month in a given project, maybe it does not need to woo potential clients with special deals, said Sharon Muman, marketing manager at Gindi Holdings. Gindi, however, wants a brisker pace of sales, and the holidays are a good time to drum up business, because people have the leisure to visit the marketing offices. Not everybody agrees with this. Amos Dabush, marketing manager for Y.H. Dimri, thinks that marketing through special deals is a waste of resources. Special deals may lure families into visiting this or that project, Dabush explained, but at that stage, they are just sight-seeing. They are not going to leap into a deal on the spot. "In many cases, the special deal simply lowers the quality of the project," he added. Companies can spend tens of thousands of shekels or more on advertising, grandiose happenings and so on, Dabush said, yet at the end of the day, a camel ride or free television set is not going to convince a family to buy a house. People should not expect any favors for buying into projects where apartments are selling like hotcakes. Furthermore, if a special deal is being offered at any time other than a holiday, it is a sign of weakness, warned builder Hanoch Kess. Daniel of Hanan Mor agreed: A special deal may be a Band-Aid covering some sort of problem in a project. But it all depends on the type of special deal, he said: For example, his company offered an upgraded kitchen with homes in Talmei Menashe, but would not give a penny in purchase discounts. "At the end of the day, it isn't a question of how many apartments were sold. It's a question of how thoroughly the company established its presence in the public mind," said Racheli Brizel, marketing manager at Neve Gad, a Property & Building group company. The company plans to grant subsidized mortgages or some other form of perk - perhaps a package of electronic appliances and furniture, or a discount on legal fees. "People like to feel that they're getting added value," she smiled. "We give them that feeling." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Iranian support Khamenei: Iran will never abandon Hamas, its holy warrior Ismail Haniyeh. Weight connection Israeli, Palestinian women come together to lose weight and stay healthy.

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