Buying a residential property, a place your family can call home is a dream for most Mumbaikars. It is also one of the most important financial decisions that you will make in your life. The financial impact of your homebuying journey is likely to have far-reaching consequences, and this makes it all the more important to leverage your bargaining power and make a competitive offer on the price of your new home. Let us take a look at how you can get the best bargain in your negotiations with builders in Mumbai and the city’s upcoming suburbs.

Identifying the right property: Unsold inventory adds to the liquidity crunch for the developers. At times, large projects get sold out as soon as construction is announced. Still, certain high-rises or gated communities sometimes have one or two units that remain unsold even after other homebuyers have moved in. As a result, builders are often keen to close sales and are willing to sell these properties at a discount. This gives homebuyers plenty of space for negotiations in projects with small unsold but ready-to-move-in properties. Identifying these properties is key to making a budget-friendly offer.

Purchasing power: Like all other commodities, market power lies in numbers. If you have a strong community of family members or like-minded friends looking to invest in real estate and build a home in the same project, this increases your bargaining power. For example, a developer or builder will consider subsidising the asking price for a group of five or six prospective homeowners looking to buy flats for sale in Mumbai. This greatly diminishes the developer’s need to conclude individual sales and increases liquidity. The advantages are passed on to home buyers through subsidised pricing.

Cash is king: While large-scale cash dealings are neither legal nor feasible, a developer is much more likely to subsidise the price of a property if the buyer has upfront payment ready. This could be in the form of a pre-approved loan or a larger down payment than usual. Builders in Mumbai and property developers, particularly the larger ones, appreciate serious buyers rather than brokers and those who scout for properties but are rather indecisive. The norm is for the homebuyer to make a down payment of about 20% and secure a home loan for the rest. Increasing this to about 40% allows you to negotiate for discounts between 5-10% of the total asking price.

Timing it right: Timing is one of the most important factors when it comes to pricing a property right and making a competitive offer on your new home. Real estate sales take a dip at times when home financing interest rates are high. If you have a high credit score and have saved up a considerable amount for the down payment, you can negotiate a floating interest rate with the bank or lender and opting to buy a property at a lean period, gives you the leverage to bargain and negotiate a lower price for your property with the developer.

Right guidance: One of the main reasons homebuyers lose money in property negotiations is due to the use of middlemen and brokers who do not serve their financial interests. Taking advice from expert relationship managers through zero fee real estate platforms like Blox can help you price the property just right and also help you drive a hard bargain when it comes to pricing your dream home.

Like all financial negotiations, buying your dream property will require a great deal of research, confidence, and smart decision making.