Local real estate brands build up equity on Mumbai Central Line during festive season

Passengers travelling on the Central Line of Mumbai Suburban Railway are collectively a large pool of potential customers for a whole gamut of local real estate developers in the city, particularly those that are developing affordable housing. The Central Line, stretching for 54km from CST to Kalyan, accounts for a substantial share of total 7.5 million passenger daily movement on the entire suburban rail system. Stations like Ghatkopar, Thane, Bhandup have some 600 local train halts every day.

A general observation of media advertising on the Central Line railway stations revealed that the majority of the real estate firms are reaching out to this audience with affordable housing propositions. The high number of real estate advertisements may also be attributed to the current festive season wherein customers look for making key investments. Toward that, the advertisers have also extended discounts and other offers to prospective customers.

Real estate advertising is a highly localized activity, and there’s hardly a medium other than OOH that can register so firmly in the minds of people. What’s more, the same set of people commuting on the same line every day will undoubtedly be influenced by the same advertisements that they get to consume.

The local builders have linked their advertisements to the government scheme like Pradhan Manti Awas Yojana, making the flats more economical, have offered easy loan facilities through banks, flexible terms and conditions pertaining to down payments and EMIs, etc.

It is seen that the real estate advertisers have particularly opted for media on the Central Line as most people living in the areas falling on this Line are highly pressured for housing, given the acute space crunch everywhere. As such, most commuters on this Line are either office-goers or SME entrepreneurs.