Interesting....I've never seen this before. Times must be really tough.

 

https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3148446/after-rebates-and-freebies-thai-developers-auction-flats-online-bid-shake

 

 

You've never seen a sales gimmick before?  

Various developers in Seattle did something similar after the US housing bubble popped.  Their original asking prices were so high that the discounts weren’t necessarily good deals when the Price/Rent ratio was taken into account.  Similar to what I see in your linked article is that there are undisclosed reserve prices and you can bet that at the reserve price, they’re still making a profit.  Furthermore, when I saw it happen in the past, it was usually carefully selected units with some sort of drawback such as a low floor, blocked view or wonky floor plan.