A unit hold policy sets who may reserve a flat, for how long, and what happens when the time runs out. For a launch, the policy that keeps inventory honest has three parts: short holds with a named owner and an expiry time, a limit on how many units each person can hold, and a manager’s approval for anything longer or larger.
Without it, the best floors disappear into “holds” nobody remembers placing, buyers are told a flat is gone when it is not, and the price list stops matching what is actually available.
Hold, block and booking: three different states
| State | What it means | Typical time limit | Needs payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hold | Reserved for a named buyer while they decide | 24–48 hours | No |
| Block | Reserved against a token while paperwork is done | 7–15 days | Token amount |
| Booking | Sold: cost sheet accepted and booking form signed | Until agreement or cancel | Booking amount |
The names vary between builders. What matters is that each state has one meaning, a time limit and an owner, and that a unit can be in only one state at a time.
Before you set a token or booking amount, check the limit your state’s RERA rules and the Act put on money taken before an agreement for sale is registered, and agree the amounts with your legal team.
Who may hold units, and how many
Set limits per role so that no one person can sit on the inventory:
| Role | Units at a time | Hold time | Extension |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales executive | 3 | 24 hours | Once, by the sales manager |
| Sales manager | 8 | 48 hours | By the head of sales |
| Channel partner | 2 | 24 hours | Not on launch day |
| Management (reserved) | As agreed | Open | Reviewed weekly, in writing |
These are starting points, not rules. A 40-unit boutique launch needs tighter limits than a 600-unit township phase.
Launch-day rules that prevent most arguments
- Freeze the price list and the inventory the evening before. Any unit not on the released list is not for sale on the day.
- First confirmed hold wins. If two people try to hold the same flat, the one recorded first gets it. No one can override a live hold except the head of sales, and the override is logged.
- Holds expire on their own clock. When the time is up, the unit goes back on sale. Release expired holds at fixed times, for example every hour on launch day.
- No hold without a buyer’s name and number. Holds “for a client” are how inventory goes missing.
- Management holds are listed. Units kept back for landowners, investors or a later price rise are recorded as such, so sales knows they are not available.
- Discounts need the cost sheet. A hold reserves the unit at the released price; any discount goes through the normal approval on the cost sheet.
Reviewing holds after launch
Each morning for the first two weeks, review:
- holds older than their limit that were not released,
- units held three or more times without a booking (often a price or plan problem),
- each person’s hold-to-booking rate.
A low hold-to-booking rate for one salesperson or partner usually means holds are being used to park inventory rather than to close a sale.
How LoftRay handles holds
LoftRay keeps the unit inventory, holds and releases in one place, so sales, management and channel partners see the same availability. Partners see live availability through share links you can revoke at any time. Cost sheets carry discount approval, bookings follow from accepted cost sheets, and price lists themselves go through approval before release. Every change to a unit is in the audit log.