Behind the scenes6 min read
Acquisition cost of a condominium buyer: work it out before launch
What does a buyer cost for a new-build development? How to calculate the acquisition cost, from brochure request to signed reservation.
By Diego Penaloza Lopez ·
Contents
A developer launching a sales campaign almost always asks the question this way round: “What budget do we need?” The right question comes first: how many reservations do we need, and what does each one cost? The budget is simply the two multiplied together.
What the acquisition cost of a buyer covers
The acquisition cost of a buyer is everything spent to bring in buyers, divided by the number of buyers actually signed. It includes the advertising budget (Meta, Google, paid portals), but also production: the development's website, 3D visuals, video, brochure, launch event.
It is often confused with two other figures. Cost per click measures attention, not interest. Cost per enquiry measures declared interest, not intent to buy. Only the cost per reservation tells you what a buyer really costs.
The three stages to track
- The enquiry. Brochure download, contact form, phone call. It is the first sign of interest, and the only one the advertising platforms see directly.
- The viewing. An appointment on site, at the sales office or by video call. This is where the curious are separated from the buyers.
- The reservation. A signed reservation contract, deposit paid. This is the unit that counts for the pre-sale threshold and for the bank.
Between each stage there is a conversion rate: the share of enquiries that become viewings, then the share of viewings that become reservations. These two rates show where the system leaks. Many enquiries and few viewings: targeting or qualification is at fault. Many viewings and few reservations: it is the product, the price or the sales pitch.
The calculation, step by step
Take a development of 20 units where the bank requires 10 reservations before construction starts. Assume one viewing in five leads to a reservation, and one enquiry in four leads to a viewing.
Scroll the table horizontally ↔
| Stage | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Reservations needed | Threshold set by the bank | 10 |
| Viewings needed | 10 reservations × 5 | 50 |
| Enquiries needed | 50 viewings × 4 | 200 |
| Budget if an enquiry costs CHF 100 | 200 × CHF 100 | CHF 20,000 |
| Acquisition cost per buyer | CHF 20,000 ÷ 10 | CHF 2,000 |
The useful figure is not the last one, it is the structure. If the viewing rate drops from one enquiry in four to one in eight, you need 400 enquiries instead of 200: the budget doubles without the advertising having changed. That is why the most profitable improvement is often found after the click, not in the ads.
Why cost per enquiry is misleading
Meta's instant forms produce very cheap enquiries: two taps, fields pre-filled, no page to load. Some of these people do not remember asking for anything when they are called back. Cost per enquiry looks flattering; cost per viewing explodes.
Conversely, a campaign that sends people to a dedicated website for the development, with floor plans, indicative prices and a qualifying form, produces fewer, more expensive enquiries, but ones that view. Comparing two campaigns on cost per enquiry is like comparing two recruitment drives on the number of CVs received.
“You do not steer a sales campaign on cost per enquiry. You steer it on cost per viewing, and judge it on cost per reservation.”
What brings the acquisition cost down
- Qualify at the form. One or two questions (main residence or investment, financing already looked into, purchase timeline) filter out the curious without putting buyers off.
- Call back fast. A property enquiry goes cold within hours. An automatic follow-up in the evening and at weekends avoids losing those that arrive when nobody is in the office.
- Send people to a dedicated page. A development deserves its own site or page, with one message and one action, not the developer's home page.
- Link every reservation to its source. Without source tracking, you sometimes cut the campaign that was signing buyers and keep the one that only produced forms.
- Speak to both markets in a bilingual region. In a French- and German-speaking market, a campaign in one language ignores part of the buyers.
What to measure from day one
Three pieces of information per enquiry are enough: its source (campaign, ad, portal, referral), its date, and its status (to call back, viewing booked, viewing done, reserved, lost). Kept in a CRM, even a simple one, they give you both conversion rates and the cost per reservation every week, channel by channel.
It is this tracking that makes a result like Arboréa's readable, a high-end development in a bilingual market: more than 50 brochure requests and 5 units reserved in the first month of campaigns.
Key takeaways
- 01The acquisition cost of a condominium buyer is the total budget divided by signed reservations.
- 02The calculation starts from the pre-sale threshold and works up the funnel: reservations, viewings, enquiries.
- 03The enquiry-to-viewing rate often weighs more than the cost of advertising.
- 04A cheap enquiry that never views is the most expensive of all.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
There is no reliable published average: it depends on unit prices, location, competition and the quality of the system. The calculation is done development by development, from the pre-sale threshold and realistic conversion rates.
Yes. Portal subscriptions and featured listings are an acquisition expense like any other, and the enquiries they bring must be tracked through to reservation to be compared with other channels.
Before launch, as soon as the pre-sale threshold required by the bank is known. Working backwards gives an order of magnitude, which the first weeks of campaigning then correct with real rates.
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