With the recent spurt of demand in the property market, the days of pre-launch booking for investors is back. CNBC-TV18 has learnt Unitech the country's second largest real estate developer is now selling apartments in its Mumbai project to potential investors, ahead of its launch, at a whopping 75% upfront payment.

Sanjay Chandra, Managing Director, Unitech, says, “In all our future projects we have revised pricing and products and brought about affordability in the whole picture. We are giving more value for money now than earlier. We are giving smaller, more efficient and compact apartments, which is overall bringing about better affordability.”

Chandra is betting on end user demand and affordable housing. But now, nine months later, Unitech is looking to sell its Central Mumbai SRA project to investors demanding a whopping 75% payment within a month. Investors will be charged 18% if they don’t pay on time. Similarly Unitech will give you 12% interest if the project is delayed. Armed with a letter of intent issued by the SRA, a copy of which has been obtained by CNBC TV18, the company has priced apartments sized between 1350 to 3750 square feet in the range of Rs 12,800 to Rs 13,800 per square foot. On an average, each apartment will cost more than Rs 2.5 and Rs 6 crore in Mumbai's Worli area.

The project is a joint venture with Mumbai’s local developer, Omkar. It is learnt from this document that is doing the rounds among potential investors, the project will be launched in September 2010. That's when it will open for retail customers as well. Experts say the price offered is at a discount to the average price here that is estimated at about Rs 18,000 for a sq foot. However, this pre-launch booking price could set a benchmark.

While Unitech tries to tap the investor led demand once more, others like Lodha Developers and India Bulls real estate are treading cautious. Both say their agreement documents are being drawn up with a 2-3 year lock in, to keep away from an investor led sale. The property boom of 2006-07 was an investor led rally that led to prices skyrocketing. But when the tide turned, these investors were the first to exit. For now, sources indicate, that Unitech is seeing a good response for this project.

Source : CNBC- TV18