From cars to cooking classes and holidays, developers are splurging on freebies to lure apartment buyers

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Urbis Economics and Market Research director Mark Dawson said developer incentives could “sweeten or simply speed up” the decision-making process for a buyer.

In the neighbouring leafy east, penthouses within Malvern East’s Vanguard development – with kitchens designed by Vue de Monde’s celebrity chef Shannon Bennett – have every mod-con imaginable, from steamer ovens to warming drawers and wine “conditioning units”. Elements of Vue de Monde’s kitchen – including the moody colour palette and induction technology – feature at Vanguard. Appliance brand Miele, with Bennett, will run cooking classes for residents, as it did for new owners at Little Projects’ Central South Yarra apartments last year. Vanguard’s developer, Bensons Property Group, was founded by businessman Elias Jreissati, who is Bennett’s long-time friend – and loyal customer.

At Forza Capital’s upcoming Supply & Co apartments, where Richmond meets the Yarra River, off-the-plan buyers are scoring free customised furniture from decor store Matt Blatt, as well as interior styling help.

Urbis Economics and Market Research director Mark Dawson said developer incentives could “sweeten or simply speed up” the decision-making process for a buyer.

“Incentives have been around for some time and appear in most, if not all, property sectors to some degree,” Mr Dawson said.

“They can be advantageous in a number of ways to developers, whether drawing more enquiries, brand/lifestyle association or just that little extra value to the purchaser.

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This is to some extent about drawing attention to your project, but also about appealing to a certain segment of the market in a way that helps them imagine their lifestyle in an apartment.

“The incentives are naturally secondary to the core fundamentals of the project – these being location, quality, surrounding infrastructure and residential market performance.

“This is to some extent about drawing attention to your project, but also about appealing to a certain segment of the market in a way that helps them imagine their lifestyle in an apartment.

“Flight reward points might also be more about appealing to a certain sector of the market and helping to promote and even facilitate a jet-set lifestyle.”

Mr Dawson said Urbis data pointed to strong off-the-plan apartment sales in Melbourne.

“Regardless, in a competitive market, developers will continue to strive to provide a point of difference through their product, their design, their marketing, not to mention price,” he said.