One company collected 860,000 catties of garlic as down payment in deals for 30 homes.
A bizarre mode of transaction for buying a home has emerged from neighbouring China. Instead of currency, down payments for properties are being accepted in the form of fruits and vegetables, namely garlic, watermelons and peaches.
This innovative technique is being applied by companies in order to attract more people to purchase new homes. The reason behind these strategies is that purchase of residential properties has been on the decline in China for nearly a year. A major property developed defaulted on its debts this week.
Pay peaches for property
Payment may be done in peaches to balance an amount of as much as 188,888 Chinese yuan ($28,218 or over Rs 22 lakh) in down payments, a developer in the Chinese city of Wuxi announced last week.
Garlic was accepted as home down payment by the firm Central China Management in a 16-day campaign in May for properties in the major garlic-producing region of Qi county. The company valued the produce at three times the market price. The bizarre down payment – 860,000 catties of garlic – were collected in deals for 30 homes.
As much as 5,000 kg of watermelon can be supplied as payments by farmers buying homes from another developer in the nearby city of Nanjing. The company held the 5,000 kgs of the fruit at a value of 100,000 Chinese yuan, which is many times more that what would be the value in local markets. The company, however, wrapped up the promotion earlier than the slated date, state-run Chinese media reported. Some of the offers have now been withdrawn.
"We were told to delete all promotional posters on the social media platforms," a representative of the Nanjing company was quoted as saying. However, some of these unusual offers have now reportedly been pulled, the BBC reported.
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(With inputs from IANS)
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