Surreyjoe posted a link to this article in the Vancouver Sun about incentives designed to lure condo buyers. The article covers a number of projects in the lower mainland that are using a variety of incentives to try to get units sold:
Bosa said the summer was also a slow period for sales, and “we figured we would do a bit of an advertising blitz” to spark more interest, which has worked to drive more traffic to its sales centre.
Developer Ledingham McAllister is offering different incentives on a couple of its projects — a $10,000 decorating allowance on units in its Silhouette project and five-per-cent cash back on September sales in its Perspectives building near Lougheed Town Centre.
Ledingham McAllister president Ward McAllister said incentives are offered during slow sales to encourage buyers “to get off the fence” so the company can meet its sales targets, but he hasn’t seen more than minimal discounting.
“I don’t think there’s much discounting going on in the market at all,” McAllister said. “People are thinking that prices are going to come down, and we don’t believe they are.”
It may or may not be true that theres ‘not much discounting going on’, but there certainly are a lot less sales happening. Perhaps I’m missing something here, but aren’t incentives just an attempt at hiding price drops? If you throw in a “$10,000 decorating allowance” or a “free honda fit” isn’t that just a price drop of that amount?
