Just when I thought I’d heard every creative way of flogging off property when the chips are down - along comes a new one to prove me wrong – an entrepreneurial developer in Beijing, China, has decided to lure buyers to his luxury Ecological Bay project with the offer of a wedding to one of their sales ladies – and he’s even throwing in a dowry to seal the deal…
In an astounding display of what going beyond the call of duty for work means, the sales girls working in the Jin Tai Cheng sales office in Beijing have agreed to act as bait to tempt buyers.
The Ecological Bay villa development is hoping to entice Chinese men who are finding it tough to nab a wife – thanks to the Government’s ‘One Child’ policy, there are around 120 men to every 100 women.
The Chinese economy has slowed down dramatically over the past six months and demand for real estate in China’s major cities declined sharply.
In a sign of increasingly desperate times for China’s property market, with housing sales plummeting by as much as 20 per cent – new ways to sell property are constantly being thought up- but this has to be the most novel idea yet.
The Ecological Bay website asks, ‘Planning to buy a house? Can we tempt you with the offer of a young bride – and a dowry as well?’
Once buyers decide to purchase a home, when they are on the site choosing kitchen colours and curtains to kit out their new pad, they can also browse the sales girls’ age, height and read information about their other…assets.
If a buyer and a sales girl date successfully and go on to marry, the company is offering a wedding present of £6,000 to couples who are still married after a year.
The company lured the sales ladies with a commitment to pay eight per cent in sales commissions as well as the opportunity to secure a wealthy husband.
Mr Li Jingguo, Director of the research centre for urban development and environment under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, “Last year was the gloomiest period for China’s real estate market since housing reform in 1998, in the face of the global economic downturn.”
For more information on property in China and the market in general, please visit http://china.themovechannel.com/
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