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The whispering campaign that uses super-stars to sell property
Rumors about super-stars have been used by many Vietnamese real estate developers to entice buyers at a time when the real estate market is at a low.
Recently, whispers suggested that singer Dam Vinh Hung had signed a contract on purchasing a penthouse at the high grade Sunrise City project rumored to have a price of several million dollars. According to Novaland, the investor of the project, this is a penthouse designed specifically to order by the client.
Prior to that, investors also provided information that singer Cam Ly purchased an apartment at the high rise building for her small family. Now the apartments are being considered as homes of the rich and famous.
Linking the names of super-start to real estate projects has become a favorite marketing strategy of many real estate developers. In mid 2009, news spread on online forums about the multi-million dollar apartments on a small island in HCM City. In late 2009, the rumor appeared in local newspapers. Especially, local newspapers quoting the project’s investors as saying that Brad Pitt and Vietnamese singer Tuan Ngoc visited the apartments and expressed a desire to purchase the apartments.
The project is Diamond Island developed by Binh Thien An Company. In fact, this is just a small isle located on Saigon riverside in district 2. The HCM City People’s Committee at first decided to build a residential quarter here, and then decided to build a high grade complex including an apartment and hotel.
In order to make the apartments more valuable in the eyes of people, the investor came up with a marketing plan. He said that it would sell 50 percent of the apartments (550) to selected buyers, then it would sell the other 50 percent to the general public.
Buyers have been advised to remain cautious of such campaigns launched by real estate developers. When the real estate market was hot, all apartments advertised as ‘high quality’ and ‘high grade’ sold well. However, it seems to be quite different now. Now it is getting more difficult to sell, real estate developers have thought of using the names of famous people to entice buyers.
Meanwhile, in many cases, the quality of the products is not as high as advertised.
VietNamNet, Dan tri
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