InsightsAdvisory
Pricing a pre-launch: sequence before spread
The first ten contracts set the tone for the next forty. Which residences are released, and in what order, matters as much as the number on the sheet.
Developers tend to arrive at pricing conversations with a spreadsheet: a blended price per square foot, a premium for height, an adjustment for exposure. That framework is necessary. It is not sufficient.
The question we ask first is which residences should be released, and to whom, before anything is public. A pre-launch is a chance to place the homes that anchor the building's reputation with buyers who will speak about it accurately. It is also the moment to hold back the inventory whose value will be clearer once the building is understood.
Spread, the gap between the least and most expensive residences, should be set with the sellout curve in mind rather than the appraisal. A schedule that is too flat leaves money in the upper floors. One that is too steep stalls in the middle.
Sequence first. Then spread. Then the number.