Real estate has for the first time broken into the ranks of the top five categories in terms of adspends, overtaking the likes of telecom services and insurance.

During January-May 2004, real estate companies bought media space worth nearly Rs 90 crore (Rs 900 million) -- an increase of about 35 per cent compared with the same period last year. For the whole year, the adspend is expected to cross the Rs 200-crore (Rs 2 billion) mark.

According to TAM Media research's Press Adex, the real estate and housing sector accounted for more than 4 per cent of the Rs 2,140 crore (Rs 21.4 billion) print advertisement market in the period.

Globally, real estate has emerged as the largest industry outgrowing sectors such as steel and petroleum. In India too, the sector is going through a boom aided by low interest rates on housing loans.

"Traditionally real estate advertising peaks during September-October. But in the last one year it is not restricted to a particular season. The category has grown tremendously in 2004 thanks to cheaper and varied home loan options. Also, with more organised players coming in with huge projects, real estate advertising has seen a big jump," said Anita Nayyar, managing director (north), Starcom.

Most developers usually follow a simple maths of spending 3 per cent of the total project cost on media but this year, many of them are breaching this limit. Parsvnath, a Delhi-based developer, has proposed a budget of Rs 10-15 crore (Rs 100-Rs150 million) earmarked for ad expenditure this year.

This is considerably higher than Rs 6 crore (Rs 60 million), which it spent in 2003. Parsvnath chairman Pradeep Jain said the reason for higher adspend is because the group has bagged projects worth Rs 3,500 crore (Rs 35 billion) in various parts of northern India.

"We will focus on the print media as it is localised. About 80 per cent of the spending is directed towards print. Other media like radio account for only 5 to 7 per cent of the total budget, while the rest goes for below the line campaigns like pamphlets and brochures." Jain said.

Omaxe Constructions has splashed newspapers with full page ads for its Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.1 billion) project "The Forest", a 105-unit ultra-luxury residential project coming up at Noida.

"We have spruced up our ad budget from Rs 8 to 9 crore (Rs 80-Rs 90 million) to Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) this year as we are eyeing ad spaces in some of the magazines and websites to rope in non-residential Indians," Ganesh Mahalingam, executive director (marketing), Omaxe, said, adding: "We have kept aside another Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) for corporate brand building."