Selling condos or a fashion show?

I was invited to a launch of a showhouse for a property development on Thursday last week without knowing that I was going to such an event. Weird huh? Usually, when one is invited to an event, you will know what it is that you are going to get yourself into. I mean, in the invitation, there will usually be the itinerary saying, "A Showcase of our Latest Collection" or something like that.

How the story unfold is quite interesting as I received an invitation through the email inviting me to an evening at the Pearl@KL City. Then it says that there will be a preview of a new collection by Coach and Tumi. Oh, the invite comes from the luxury brand company in Malaysia, the Valiram group, which is well known to have quite a few luxury brands as their franchise. I have been going to many of their events this past few years.

So, when the day comes, my wife and I picked a friend whom we have invited to go o the event. The place is also quite vague as it is within the premier shopping area in Kuala Lumpur called Bukit Bintang but the name of the road has the word "off" which was 'Jalan Delima, off Jalan Bukit Bintang". We spend nearly 10 minutes looking for it and was surprised to see that it is actually just off the main road but is not quite prominent. Hmmm...

Then when we get off the car, gave the key to the valet (there is no choice as to parking), we were greeted with a bungalow which is actually a showhouse. The whole bungalow is a showhouse! Then in the middle of it, there is the model of a condominium, which is not even going to be built on the site of the bungalow. It is a few hundred meters away and is tapping into the famous area around KLCC, the twin tower which is now our national icon.

I met a few familiar faces and some of them were actually complaining of the underhanded tactic by the developer trying to get them there. No one actually read the invitation as the launch of a condominium showhouse and sale office. Most thought it was a luxury showcase event. The event itself was okay (though some do complained about the food) and there was the fashion shows (as promised) but I actually saw a few VIPs whom I know personally entered the place, looks around (with a bewildered realisation of the real reason they are there) and then actually left. Within minutes of arriving....

I think you cannot fault the developer in trying to snag as many people they can get to see their showhouse in this current economy. The sale of condominiums within KLCC has dropped and even the price of those already finished have dropped significantly. There are a lot of untenanted properties and people are actually selling. Then, comes this developer (which is quite unknown) selling condominiums around a stagnated area. That may have been the reason for the lukewarm reception. Even the salepeople were not really enthusiastic in selling. The way the invites were send may have also contributed to them snubbing the event. Even in business such as this (or is especially in business such as this), honesty is still the best policy.

The model of the condo in the middle of the room

 

 

The a different type of models parading their wares

 

The lovely ladies I was with that night

and below are pictures of the showhouse