The number of property advertisements — in print, radio and the electronic media — has fallen nearly 60 per cent in the last 10 days. This comes in the wake of the Supreme Court notices to the Centre and states on a public interest litigation (PIL), seeking guidelines for advertisements to counter misleading and false campaigns by real estate developers and builders.

The print medium has suffered the most since the March 25 notices because fly-by-night operators and small-time builders largely advertised in newspapers and on FM radio. The impact on TV channels has been minimal. Advertising industry experts say that as a result of this slump, property supplements of leading national dailies have had to halve the number of pages from an average of 32-34 pages a week.

“The case in the apex court has affected property advertisements to a great extent. We are even noticing a softening of advertisement rates as a consequence,” says Seema Singh, media director of MNA Associates Pvt Ltd, which deals with a number of property clients.

Most builders used to advertise without securing licences and generated crores of rupees with pre-launch offers, interest in which was primarily generated through full-page advertisements. Says Graphisads MD Mukesh Gupta, “Apart from the PIL, another reason for the decline in property advertisements is the fact that people are becoming cautious. Now they know where to put their money and are not easily lured by big, glossy advertisements.”

The PIL was filed by NGO Sanrakshak, which alleged that real estate companies and builders in UP, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan had repeatedly published advertisements, both in the print and electronic media, despite the fact that the government had not approved their projects.

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