Creative Marketing in a Down Market

A strange thing is happening at Yanchep in northern Perth. There are a bunch of people camping at a developers sub-division. And they are not being moved on as squatters either!

Camping at Home, or for a Home?

Now the sub-division is in its way not at all remarkable. Its the usual standard-sized blocks which people will build a dream home on, or a least 4 bed, 2 bathroom with outdoor patio. The MacMansions will go up with 10cm clearance on all sides: the triple garage out front and the little boxes will be pink and yellow and blue and any other colour as approved in the building covenants.

No the Capricorn Sub-Division is not particularly remarkable. Its the marketing which is interesting. Be one of the first 20 buyers when the next stage of the development opens tomorrow and you will be given $50,000 from the developer. On top of the first home buyer’s grant of $21,000 for buyers of new homes or land that is a fair chunk of the land value which are around the $190,000 mark. Considering today’s statistics that confirm Perth’s house prices have dropped 5.7% so far this year this is inspired marketing. These new home owners could be onto a winner too especially with interest rates still expected to drop further before the end of the year.

Hence the headline TV news story of 20 strangers living Big Brother style in a show home with quite a few campers and caravans parked outside. It looks like it might be too late for the initial offer - but bargaining may well be on order. Capricorn is the on the extension of Marmion Avenue the seaside north south arterial road from the CBD which is approximately 50 minutes drive to the south. Eventually the urban train line will extend this far north as well, and the prices are better than the equivalent distance south of the river.

Other developers around Australia are making buying attractive with everything from Woolworths vouchers to boats on offer. But bottom line cash has certain appeal!

Group Negotiation Gives Power to the Home Owner

On the other side of the coin a group of Canberra residents have clubbed together to put together an attractive package for developers. The neighbours who own 6 adjoining blocks in an area of the city zoned for town house development have the combined land area which would convert to 30 or 40 townhouses.

The package is proving popular with the group currently negotiating at a figure of around $3.3 million. That would see each home owner with $550,000, a clear $100,000 above the market value of the properties if sold separately.

So maybe a bit of old-fashioned getting to know your neighbours can be a very good thing if you want to negotiate a great price to downsize your family home. Its really a remarkable story because getting six neighbours to agree to sell and negotiate as a group is quite an achievement. Someone in the group has great negotiating skills and the developers better send in their best negotiators!
Photo Credit: Dylee