The New Nation - Internet Edition

Our Correspondent, Chittagong

With port city's location in the active seismic zone, frequent earthquakes under the influence of moving sub-soil crust-plate and the ongoing economic recession have allegedly dropped multistoried apartment and real estate business drastically in the port city, according to leading developers.

Only a handful among 50 plus apartment builders cum real-estate companies in the city is struggling hard for being in the business by applying cleverly formulated marketing strategy.

It is learnt that many of the real-estate companies have been facing tremendous financial hardship due to the ongoing recession.

"We never have predicted such an ugly time. If the scenario doesn't change soon, the budding real-estate sector may have to suffer permanent wound," an official of a leading developer said.

Pointing finger to desperate moves for catching customers by different real-estate companies and apartment builders through increased volume of newspaper advertisements, a senior architect said that there was a time when one or two newspaper commercials was enough to sell 25 - 30 unit-complex far before beginning of construction.

"Buyers used to pay even total price of their apartment two years before the project implementation. But, now many readymade apartments are remaining unsold for want of potential buyers," he added. He also hinted that saturation of market and the drive against black money also responsible for this dull situation.

Local entrepreneurs considering importance and future prospect of the port city undertook high-rise residential apartment projects in late 80s. Overnight, it became popular to relatively wealthier section of the society apart from expatriates because of growing demand for well-organized residential accommodation.

Many in the real-estate business believed that the high-rise apartment business took a downward ride when mass media began campaign for earthquake safety, construction quality of the buildings and pushed the idea of international certification on earthquake resistance structures.

Buyer's preference for staying close-to-ground and relatively earthquake resistant and safer accommodations has forced many under-construction high-rise commercial cum apartment complexes in the city and its suburbs to become abandoned.

An earthquake researcher in the port city said that the drastic fall of high-rise apartment business was an indicator to growing awareness of the buyers on seismic hazards.

This has not only thrown hundreds of construction workers out of employment but also blocked individual investments of several hundred million as majority of the developers depend on customers' advance payment for implementing their projects.

"The amount may become double by now if I put it on saving certificate instead of paying advance for an apartment to be built after four years," an aggrieved apartment buyer said.