Group Name: Team RenTiT

Marketing Plan on introducing House rental app in

Bangladesh

Course Title: Marketing Management (MBA_506)

Section: 01
Semester: Summer 2023
Submitted to: Dr S.M. Sohel Rana
Associate Professor
Submitted by:
Mohsin Uddin Chowdhury 2330768
Mithila Farjana 2330791
Mahadee Abrar Pial 2330792
Fahad Imtiaz 2320968
Anirban Mojumdar
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Letter of Transmittal:

To:
Dr S.M. Sohel Rana Faculty, MBA-506
Independent University, Bangladesh
Bashundhara R/A, Dhaka.
Date: 20 July 2023

Subject: Submission of Marketing Plan

Dear Sir,

With due respect, we have given our best effort thoroughly on the topic “RenTiT” regarding this
business. While preparing the business plan, we provided all relevant information regarding it
and we hope that our plan will provide a clear conception of our product/idea.

The business plan accumulates the information required for submission. We will be glad to
answer any inquiries and clarify it fully to your understanding.

Yours sincerely,
Mohsin Uddin Chowdhury

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Acknowledgement:
It is our pleasure and honor to be your students and have this opportunity to present the business
plan on “RenTiT”. While working on our assignment, we had to take guidance from our
respected faculty, who deserve our greatest praise. We would like to show our gratitude to Mr Dr
S.M. Sohel Rana, our honorable faculty of Independent University, Bangladesh, for giving us a
solid foundation. Thank you for all your help and support which helped us significantly in
preparing this business plan. We would like to thank every individual who has, directly and
indirectly, came to our aid in preparing this assignment.

It would not have been possible for us to successfully create this report without the help of our
team members. The resilience of each and every member of our team made it into what it is at
the moment.

Thank you.

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Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 6
Company overview................................................................................................................................... 7
‘SWOT’ Analysis: ....................................................................................................................................... 8
Service Description ................................................................................................................................. 9
Industry Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 10
Market Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 13
Market Research: ................................................................................................................................... 15
Marketing plan ...................................................................................................................................... 16
Operational plan ................................................................................................................................... 16
Financial plan ........................................................................................................................................ 16
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 16

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 Executive Summary

The real estate market in Bangladesh is on the rise, with growth in the industry going on an
upward trend every year. The same can be said about the technology industry in Bangladesh. We
are at a point in time where technology can make an immense difference if incorporated into any
business. RenTiT aims to incorporate the finest technology in the real estate market. There is an
exponential growth in the population of Bangladesh which is leading to an increase in demand
for the real estate market. What we are trying to achieve is an efficient and effective way of
renting apartments. We are going to achieve this by using an Android application of our own,
called RenTiT.

Our main objective is to make the lives of people easier by letting them have the latest
information on house rental. This application can be used by anyone and everyone at their
fingertip. All that is needed to be done is to develop the application and market the services
which will make it stand out. This application will let the end-users find information on
apartments that are open for rent. The application will consist of a quiz at the beginning of the
sign up which will create a personalized UI for the end-users who choose to be a tenant. The
premium account will let the users who choose to be the owners an apartment(s) post their
advertisement at the top of the homepage which will let other users see their advert first. All the
information about the apartment will be given in the application along with pictures and ratings
that will be given by a variety of users of the application. Furthermore, messaging and calling
option will make it flexible for the users to contact one another and get information regarding the
rent in an instant.

Our business will be based initially in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In the early stages, our service will be
located in some major areas of Dhaka - Uttara, Gulshan, Banani, Dhanmondi, Baridhara,
Bashundhara, Mirpur, Niketan and Khilgaon. RenTiT is created by a team of five members who
have a minimum of a graduate degree from the best universities in the world. They have robust
experience in the real estate having worked under highly experienced mentors who have
immense knowledge in this market. As a company, we are willing to invest in some of the finest
professionals (IT Manager, HR Manager, Financial Manager, Marketing Manager, and
Operations Manager). We have planned to acquire investors with the most potential to sustain
this business. We also have a unique payment system in our application by which the customers
can pay using their credit/debit cards or bKash (a local mobile banking company) account. Given

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that we follow this blueprint, our plan is to achieve break-even by 2020 and become a profitable
company by 2021.

RenTiT realizes that the key to success for any business is to be sustainable in the long run. By
weighing the probability of success and failure, we have created an ecosystem of high return on
investment. RenTiT will be a revolutionary business model which will pave the path for business
enthusiasts to incorporate new technology into their products or services. Through our project,
we hope to encourage innovation and transformation in the current industry.

Company overview
About Our Company:

We are a startup organization ready to enter the market with the intention to create a sustainable
business. We will be the mediator that can help people rent their apartments/offices efficiently to
general public, companies or organizations.

Business Type: B2B (Business to Business) & B2C (Business to Customers)

 We share responsibilities in our business

 We strive for innovations
 Be able to locate our weaknesses
 Resources are shared
 If the business incurs a loss, we the limited partners will only lose the portion of our own
investment in the business.

Mission and Vision Statement:

Be the mediator that can help people rent their apartments efficiently to general public,
companies or organizations and create an impact in consumers’ mind that separates us from our
competitors.

Identification of Operating Industry: Apartments and Offices

Legal Form of Our Business: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

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We will have five partners in our business. Each partner will bring in a unique set of skills to the
business and with a combined effort we can make our business reach the acme of success. All
five partners of the business will share the profits equally, keep our liabilities limited, and be
actively involved in decision making. Each partner will provide funding for the business which
means we will have more start-up capital and potential for growth. We will share the
responsibilities of running the business. Since we have five partners we will split the work
according to our skills instead of splitting the management and taking an equal share of each
business task.

‘SWOT’ Analysis:
Strengths:

We are the pioneer in Bangladesh to launch an application that is fully dedicated to the real
estate market. Furthermore, the application’s feedback option will give our consumers a feeling
that they are affiliated with our brand. These will enhance our services, rate of company
brainstorming and issue management.

Weaknesses:

At the moment, our company is still infant which means that it does not have a high brand value.
On top of that, it will take some time for us to reach the entire target customers but will grab
attention.

Opportunities:

We can reach customers on a global scale if we market our application and service effectively to
generate more revenue through affiliate marketing. At present, the model is expected to gain a
strong market foothold in the years to come in Bangladesh.

Threats:

We can face competition from the middlemen that deal with real estates and there is potential for
other companies to create similar features such as Bikroy, B-property.

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 Service Description

Our principal is to influence the lives of individuals simpler by letting them have the most recent
data on apartments for rent. This application can be utilized by everyone at their fingertip. All
that is to be done is to build up the application and market the administration which will
influence it to emerge. This application will bring a change for the end-users to discover
apartments that are open for rent. The users who select the ‘Tenant’ option will be provided with
a specific UI which will ask questions to tailor an interface according to their need. The system
will suggest the tenants those apartments that are perfect for their specific needs. The Premium
account will give the clients who select the ‘Owner’ option a chance to post their promotion at
the highest point of the home page which will give different clients a chance to see their
advertisement at the beginning. All the data about the apartment will be given in the application
alongside pictures and evaluations that will be given by a wide range of the application users.

Once the end-user downloads our application, they will be able to access it easily from the main
menu of their phone. Once they open the application, they will be asked whether they are the
owners or tenants. The UI will be based on the option that they select. If they select “Owner”,
they can watch a tutorial video to learn how to take good pictures which will help them get more
attention. Then they will post their advertisement through an easy 5 Step Method, which will
include; taking pictures from different angles, 360 degree view, providing information about the
flat (size, location, number of rooms, asking rent, etc) and lastly, information about themselves
(email, phone number, etc). If they choose ‘Tenant’, the UI will limit them from entering any
description about apartments and they will only be able to view the apartments for rent. A list of
options will be given to the end-users. For instance, there will be separate options for bedrooms,
kitchens, washrooms, floor, etc. On each of these options, a drop-down menu will be set which
will make it easy for the users to tap on the screen and select the desired number of rooms or
floor. Furthermore, they will be able to browse through a long list of apartment’s right at their
fingertips.

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 Industry Analysis

The report attempts to highlight the prospects and opportunities of real estate sector in
Bangladesh. Like other economic sectors in the country, real estate is one of the major sectors
which contribute to the national economy. The report tries to furnish the overview of the
performances of real estate sector in Bangladesh. It also shows the overall picture of the real
estate market and opportunity in Bangladesh.

A residence is one of the basic needs of human beings. The right to live in one’s own house is a
fundamental right of people and it is internationally recognized. The demand for housing in
urban areas in developing countries like Bangladesh is dramatically increasing due to population
increase and its fast growth rate.

Real estate sector is one of the most attractive sectors of investment now in Bangladesh. Rapid
urbanization has become an acute problem for the country. The rate of urbanization is estimated
to be 5-6% annually for Bangladesh (REHAB, 2004). About 25% of the people of Bangladesh is
now living in urban areas and 34% will be living by 2015 (REHAB, 2004) and 50% by 2025
(Singha D., 2001). There is an acute shortage of housing supply in all urban areas and it’s
increasing with the current demand of 600,000 to 800,000 units all over the country. Particularly
in Dhaka, this demand is estimated to be 60,000 units of real estate apartments combined with
200,000 units of replacement plus backlogs (REHAB, 2004). Dhaka is currently growing very
fast compared to other cities in Bangladesh.

Economic Environment:
The economic environment consists of external factors in a business market and the broader
economy that can influence our business.

Microeconomic factors influence how your business will make decisions. Microeconomic factors
influencing a business include:

Market size: The domestic market size for real estate in Bangladesh is approximately 60,000
units.

Demand: Renting apartments is a need and there is substantial demand for a service which
makes it easy in Bangladesh.

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Supply: Most of the supply is met by contacting with middlemen who connect the tenants and
the owners.

Competitors: There are only two major competitors in Bangladesh – Lamudi and Bikroy, since
the market is not yet properly introduced to this industry.

Demographic Environment:

Bangladesh is one of the most thickly populated countries in the world. Having a population of
about140.6 million and growing, within a total surface area of 147,570 sq. km. The density of
population is 97.9 per sq. km, which is one of the highest in the world. Thus having a vast
demand in general, plus apartments themselves are considered to be normal goods, as the
demand for this service are likely to increase as the income of the people is increasing.

Technological Environment:

The technological environment of Bangladesh is advancing every day as the government itself is
playing a vital role in digitizing Bangladesh. Our service is of the present and more of the future.
As people are more comfortable getting their job done using mobile phone applications these
days, we can conclude that the demand for our service is expected to rise even more in the future.

Geographic Environment:

Although Bangladesh is a very small country, it has enough potential to keep our business in its
geography. Rural people are migrating not only to find jobs but many wealthy people are moving
to urban areas like Dhaka city for the fulfillment of their expectations of better of their future
generation, and for enjoying the modern facilities of the city life. This has resulted in a serious
crisis all over the country especially in the major cities of Bangladesh. In recent time, the private
real estate firms have taken initiatives by ensuring maximum uses of land in a planned way. In
this system, it is possible to accommodate more people in a comparatively small place.

Legal and Political Environment:

To start a company in this industry in Bangladesh, companies need to fulfill some of the criteria
allotted to them by the government. Some of them include:

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 • A Trade license: Companies obtain a trade license from the City Corporation. Recently,
the City Corporation (Dhaka) was divided into 2 zones: the North Zone and the South
Zone. The proposed company will have to file its application at the nearest City
Corporation.
• A Bank account: In order to register for VAT, the company must first open a bank
account.
• A Project profile: A project profile is needed for a company to apply for bank loans.
• A TIN Number: In order to start business operations, every company must register for
taxes at the appropriate taxation authority (Deputy Commission of Taxes of Company
Circle, Zonal Taxation Department) under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and
obtain a tax identification number. Obtaining TIN number can now be done online in less
than one day.

Competitive Environment:

In Bangladesh, we do not have any direct competitors but we consider Bikroy and Lamudi as our
indirect competitors. They already included the privilege of selling and renting apartments using
their mobile application which has been introduced in both App Store and Google Play Store.
However, we have a competitive edge over them because we will break the clutter by designing
a UI that will ask questions to the end users who choose to be a tenant in our application. Based
on his or her preference, RenTiT will tailor recommendations of apartments and offices. On the
other hand, those users who choose to be the apartment owners will have the opportunity of
placing their advertisement at the top of our homepage only at a fraction of a price. Secondly, we
will tackle our competitors using effective marketing. Thirdly, we are minimizing the middleman
by becoming the mediator that will connect the owners and the tenants directly. Fourthly, we are
letting everyone be a part of the application and not just agents.

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 Market Analysis

Market Segmentation:

Our customer base will be segmented according to the age and type of people. We will heavily
utilize our marketing strategies to capture the bulk user such as families, students, office
employees, companies and many other kinds.

Our Target Market includes:

• Families
• Students
• Office employees
• Companies

Total Market Size and Our Market Size:

The domestic market size for real estate is huge and is expected to rise in the following years in
Bangladesh. Some of the factors which will help us gain a huge demand are:

1. An exponential growth of population.

2. The only application in Bangladesh to provide a tailored suggestion of available
apartments for the rent seekers.
3. Good quality customer service through instant feedback option.
4. Apartment owners are able to post their advertisement at the top of the page by paying a
reasonable price.
5. The application is user-friendly.

Market Share Analysis:

In Bangladesh, there are approximately 17 websites providing real estate service. Most of their
services deal with posting advertisements from users who sign up on their website. The number
of websites that deal with real estate is increasing day by day. Most of them provide their
services in Dhaka city. Our main target is to capture the online real estate market in Dhaka. With
technology flourishing more than ever, it is evident that consumers want things to be as
convenient as possible. Working adults, students, families and office employees are the most
interested in online services. Although there are about 17 websites providing real estate service,
only 2 of those websites -- Bikroy and Lamudi are holding a considerable amount of share in the

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market. Since our service is based in Dhaka, it will be very cost effective for us to cater to our
customer and maintain a significant share in the market. Once RenTiT picks up in Dhaka, we
plan on expanding our market share in Bangladesh by capturing the market of the whole country.

Major, Current and Future Trend Identification:

According to current trends and situation, we can safely say there is high demand for our
business and it will become even more popular in the future. The standard of living in
Bangladesh is on the rise. As a result, it is encouraging people to spend less time and more
money on renting apartments. Technology is setting a major trend in Bangladesh, especially in
Dhaka. Once upon a time, people used to order food by calling the hotline of the restaurants.
Now, advancement in technology has created the opportunity for the people to order food by
using applications such as FoodPanda and HungryNaki in their smartphones. We are striving to
provide the same value to our customers by helping them rent apartments through the tip of their
fingers.

Positioning:
Products are made in factories or industries, brands are made on the mind of the customers. We
can safely say that there is a huge demand for our business because we are unique, there is no
perfect competitor of ours. We have the best customer service for renting apartments and our
service is appreciated. Our premium (Topper) price is reasonable and the outcome will be very
good. We will use different kinds of unique questions designed for the users in our application
and that is why people will like it more than other but similar applications. We have a very user-
friendly application which people can use easily and without any restrictions or problems. The
application will provide good quality pictures of the apartments from proper angles and 360
panorama view of the rooms so that we can maintain our standard in future. We will also provide
the best customer service and people will appreciate it and become our loyal users for that.

Major Competitors Identification:

We do not have any direct competitors in Bangladesh right now but we have websites and
applications from Lamudi and Bikroy as indirect competitors. They have the feature of renting
apartments as well.

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Market Research:
Our team, RenTiT, has conducted a market research through an online survey where we asked
two questions - ‘Would you rather sit at home and be able to rent apartments or search them in
person?’ and ‘Would you trust an online method for selecting tenants or would you rather wait
for tenants to visit you in person?’ Each of the questions were given two options to choose from
followed by a requirement for a short explanation for each answer that they choose.

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 Marketing plan

Marketing Strategies:
Place:
Since our business is going to be run with the help of our Android application - RenTiT, we will
make it available in the Google Play Store. The application will help customers by letting them
locate a long list of apartments for rent just by tapping on their smartphones. Consumers who are
looking for new apartments will have the privilege of locating them without having to run around
Dhaka city. The same can be said for those customers who are looking for tenants for their
apartment(s). At the initial stage, we will make the service available to Uttara, Mohammadpur,
Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Baridhara, Bashundhara, Mirpur, Niketan and Khilgaon.
Price:
Our pricing policy is extremely competitive. We will only charge our customers if they decide to
put their advertisement at the top of the list.
Promotion:
Our marketing strategy is heavily based on social networking sites, radio, billboards and
television.

People using our application will not have to pay any fee compared to other owners who have to
pay to the middleman for the first whole month.

To improve our service consistently, we will employ few but highly experienced programmers
who will work on improving the user experience which will, in turn, attract more customers.

We will be providing sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram where we will ask people to
tag as many people as possible and share our posts so that a huge number of people can know
about us.

It is also more important to maintain a regular flow of customers. Since we are still a small
business, we have the capability and enthusiasm to form friendly relationships through constant
contact with our end-users. This will be possible if we create a feedback option in our application
where we will answer the questions of our app users. All of this combined with our easy
interface for the customers will most likely result in high levels of exposure in the market.

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 Operational plan
We plan to rent an office in Bashundhara, where our servers will be kept and maintained. After
that, we will buy high-end server-grade computers to create our own servers for the business. We
will then hire a few but experienced software developers who will create the android application
for us and make sure it works and stays online 24/7 without any problems. Once the application
is ready, we will start to promote it on Social Media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Our
business will rely on heavy marketing. Once we get noticed by our potential customers, we will
reach out to more influential corporations who will be ready to do affiliate marketing with us.
The application will be ready for download in the Google Play Store. Details of each apartment
will be mentioned in the application. If the owners of an apartment want to rent their house, they
will contact us for promoting it.

Below is a short list of the machineries that we need and their approximate cost:

Machines Price

Computers 5,30,000

Servers 7,50,000

Routers 60,000

UPS 40,000

IPS 90,000

Other Accessories 30,000

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Our main source of income will be from advertisements that the app users will post. Users will
get options for premium ads. The premium advertisements will be shown in most of the pages
which mean these ads will have more views. As a result, the premium user will be benefited the
most.

Then comes the daily and weekly boost. It will cost less than premium adds and users will have
the leverage to boost them daily, weekly or monthly, whenever they want.

Another option is the membership option. Users will be able to be a member of our app. In this
way, they will get special service from us, such as getting all the updates, inform them about the
market price regarding rent of particular areas etc. In the long run, once we achieve breakeven
we will go for affiliate marketing. Overall we are trying to make life easier for people.

Our company will be providing a yearly bonus to all the workers associated with the company.
There will be festive bonuses as well. They will get 2 days leave at max each month (excluding
government holidays). And at the end of each year, there will be an award giving function to
encourage them to work harder and innovate more.

Now comes to the financial part. As a newcomer in this industry, we need to be very careful with
record keeping and be efficient with our expenditures. Therefore financial statements will be
made every month to keep a record and check whether there is any error. Also, it will help us to
be on the right track.

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 Financial plan

We have decided that our initial investment required for starting our business will be BDT 10
million (approximate). As our business is run by 5 partners, each of us will contribute BDT
1,400,000/- which will get our total to BDT 7 million. For the rest of our investment, 30 percent
will be taken as loan from a commercial bank.

Yearly money usage plan (allocation of total investment)

 Purchase: Tk 150,000
 Application creation: Tk 4,000,000
 Rent: Tk 200,000
 Machineries (Computers, servers, etc): Tk 1,500,000
 Marketing expenses: Tk 1,500,000
 Office expenses (Furniture and fittings): Tk 200,000
 Staffs (Research and development): Tk 200,000
 Utilities: Tk 100,000
 Salaries: Tk 300,000
 Freight: Tk 50,000
 Insurance: Tk 500,000
 Other expenses: Tk 45,000
 Cash in hand: Tk 500,000
 Cash in the bank: Tk 1,000,000

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 The projected income statement for the ending of 30th June 2024

Details Taka Taka Taka

Revenue: Net Sales 3,430,000

Less: Cost of Goods Sold

Opening Inventory -

Purchase 150,000

Freight 50,000 200,000

(-) Closing inventory (50,000) (150,000)

Gross Profit 3,280,000

Less: Expenses

Marketing expenses 1,500,000

Salaries 300,000

Office expenses (Furniture and fittings) 200,000

Staffs (Research and development) 200,000

Other expenses 45,000

Insurance 500,000

Utilities 100,000

Rent 200,000 (3,045,000)

Net income before taxes 235,000

(-) Tax 5% (235000*5%) 28,750 (11,750)

Net profit after taxes 223,250

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 Break-Even Analysis
Fixed Costs Variable Costs

Taka Taka
 Rent = 200,000  Marketing expenses = 1,500,000
 Salaries = 300,000  Office expenses = 200,000
 Insurance = 500,000  Other expenses = 45,000
 Staffs = 200,000  Utilities = 100,000
Total = 1,200,000  Tax = 11,750
Total = 1,856,750

Sales
Taka
 Membership fee (3100X500) = 1,550,000

 Premium ads (2200X500) = 1,100,000

 Ad Boost (2600X300) = 450,000
Total = 3,430,000

Break-Even:
Fixed Cost X Sales / Sales – Variable Cost
Therefore,
1,200,000 X 3,430,000 / 3,430,000 – 1,856,750
= 2,616,240/=

BEP will be BDT 2,616,240/=

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 Conclusion

New business startups are trying to fulfill Maslow’s hierarchy of need - Physiological needs,
safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Video platforms such as
YouTube are helping millions of people achieve their self-actualization through motivational and
self-help videos; social media applications like Instagram and Facebook are helping people to
provide needs for esteem; the famous matchmaking application - Tinder has become a famous
source for people to find their love interests. Technology is acting as a catalyst for people to
achieve all of these needs. RenTiT is an application that focuses on trying to fulfill the safety
need of human beings. We are expecting RenTiT to be very much popular for catering to the
needs of the consumers (both tenants and apartment owners). Office employees, students, young
people, families and all the people that are in need of renting apartments are our target
customers. We created a new product plan for increasing market share. Bangladesh is a really
good place to introduce such a business because demand for such services has been rising rapidly
in recent years. The factors of production are cheap and readily available.

RenTiT’s main goal is to achieve a better and reasonable market share and profitability in the
real estate market. Most importantly, we will be looking forward to expanding RenTiT beyond
the borders of Bangladesh and make it one of the most used applications that can give the highest
value in the world.

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 References

How Much to Make an App. (2018). How much does it cost to make an app? - App Cost
Calculator. [online] Available at: http://howmuchtomakeanapp.com/.

Ahamed, M. (2014). A Report on Real Estate Sector of Bangladesh. [online] Jbbc.co.jp.

Available at: http://jbbc.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/A-Report-on-Real-Estate-Sector-of-
Bangladesh.pdf.

Taxmatebd. (2022). Rate of Income tax 2021-2022 | Taxmatebd. [online] Available at:
http://www.taxmatebd.com/resources/rate-of-incometax-2021-2022/.

Correspondent, S. (2016). Bangladesh records lowest inflation rate in a decade -bdnews24.com.

[online] Bdnews24.com. Available at: http://bdnews24.com/economy/2016/06/13/bangladesh-
records-lowest-inflation-rate-in-a-decade.

Tradingeconomics.com. (2018). Bangladesh Unemployment Rate | 1991-2018 | Data | Chart |

Calendar. [online] Available at: https://tradingeconomics.com/bangladesh/unemployment-rate.

Ceicdata.com. (2018). Bangladesh Unemployment Rate | Economic Indicators. [online]

Available at: https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/bangladesh/unemployment-rate.

En.wikipedia.org. (2021). Demographics of Bangladesh. [online] Available at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bangladesh.

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 Appendix

Gross Profit, Total Expenses and Net Profit over the first few years
14000000

12000000

10000000

8000000

6000000

4000000

2000000

0
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4

Gross Profit Total Expenses Net Profit

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