Diary of a real estate journalist
Greater Noida West, arguably India’s most notorious property market, had a whiff of fresh change when a developer – ABA Corp – was cheered by the home buyers for its fair play and best practices in the business. Going beyond the industry-usual rhetoric of customer centricity, the developer leads by example with the refund of CAM (Common Area maintenance) charges to the residents of project Cherry County.
Driving down the Noida-Greater Noida property market in general and the Greater Noida West, better known as Noida Extension in popular parlance, could be a delightful rendezvous for any news hungry journalist. Which scribe won’t want a dose of controversy and sensationalism for filing a juicy story? And this market has it all – housing project delays, defaults, cheating, harassment, builders’ high handedness, blatant lies with oozing confidence, and last but not the least, consumer protest all around.
What a journalist doesn’t expect to see in this part of the world is the buyers approaching the media to glorify the builder. But wait! A builder seems to have set the cat among the pigeons. The cat carrying best practices is among the pigeons who are no one else but the defaulting builders having adopted buyers’ harassment as a business practice with a brave face claiming who is not at fault.
The builder happens to be ABA Corp (a non-listed entity & yet ranked Number 4 with Track2Realty BrandXReport 2020-21) where the supportive and sporting buyers have come on the streets for something that would put music into the ears of any real estate developer in any part of the world. After all, the sound of trumpet is all the more melodious when someone else is beating it for you. It is pertinent to mention here that property tops the consumer grievances not only in India but across the world.
The said builder at his project Cherry County, Greater Noida West, is being hailed today for refunding the Common Area Maintenance (CAM) charges to the buyers after it was audited by the builder that the expenses have been lesser during the Covid period. The refund amount is at the rate of INR 4.36 per sq feet and the overall refund amount is INR 1.10 crore (11 million). To put in context, the amount roughly translates into a credit transfer of about two months of maintenance amount for a group housing project where maintenance charges are INR 1.85 per square feet plus GST at the moment.
Over and above that, the developer has switched the power back up from the diesel genset to the PNG gas with the incurred expense of INR 17 lakh (1.7 million) per Genset (four in total) amounting to INR 68 lakh (6.8 million) and the additional burden has not been passed on the buyers.
In my Diary of a Real Estate Journalist I have been raking up all sorts of controversial issues that plague the business of real estate in India. Builders’ charging exponentially high & unjustified CAM and playing more foul than fair to deny the RWA formation is a rule than exception in this micro market. I am a real estate critique and such sordid sage of home buyers’ exploitation has shaped my poor perception about the vast universe of the developers here.
I am nevertheless taking an exception this time to evaluate what has now become one of the most forwarded social media messages of various housing societies across Noida-Greater Noida. I also question whether this is another publicity stunt by a builder? Is there any method in the madness? How will it benefit the builder? Is there a hidden agenda and the ploy has something more than what meets the eyes? There are more questions than answers as I look at the builder’s overt best practices in arguably the most notorious property market of India.
My apprehensions are put to rest as I interact with a few buyers of the project and also look deeper to understand the method into what many would believe is a financial madness. What I came to know through my interaction with a couple of buyers is that the decision to refund the surplus maintenance amount was shared by the builder in a meeting with the buyers. It was not a media opportunity for the brand; neither was there any press release. But some of the buyers took lead in spreading the message across the housing societies’ WhatsApp groups in the region, which was later shared with the local media as well.
Looking at the data available with Track2Realty for the brand evaluation of the developers for BrandXReport, I realize the developer has played his game very smartly. It has been played so very well during the last few years that they don’t even need to explore media opportunity. The strategy of consumer connect has made the media chase them more often than not. In this media pull strategy rather than push for the media coverage the developer has not only positioned his brand on a higher pedestal but has also reduced his client acquisition cost in the process.
Today, a large share of the buyers with ABA Corp projects are repeat and referral buyers; reasons why their projects’ sales velocity is higher than the market average. Needless to say, it also reduces the marketing and publicity cost for the company. Along with the better brand goodwill and recall value, the developer is among the rare case studies in this part of the world where the buyers insist the builder to keep the maintenance service with them.
The show stopper for ABA Corp in the region is the fact that in the very same market that is witness to the homebuyers and residents shouting slogan against developers and protesting all around, the buyers and a few home buyer associations are glorifying the builder all across the social media platforms. Some of the buyers have even gone overboard to suggest Padam Shree (4th highest Civilian Award in the country) for the builder. It may be an exceptional case study but nevertheless holds the power to raise the bar of buyers’ expectations with the large universe of the builders known for the callous disregard to the best practices in the business.
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
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