By Stefanos Chen | The Wall Street Journal
Presales of luxury condos all but disappeared after the housing market went bust, but now many luxury developments are selling out just months after putting a spade in the ground. To persuade people to buy a home sight unseen, developers are getting creative. Photo: Williams New York.
One real estate developer hired a drone; another displayed life-size sculptures of polar bears. A third charged potential buyers $100,000 just to take a peek at the floor plans. The common goal: selling something that doesn’t exist.
Spurred by tight inventory and plenty of interest from foreign buyers, real-estate developers in cities such as New York and Miami are reviving the boom-era practice of pitching new buildings months—and even years—ahead of completion.
