kolkata us president donalds trumps approval rating is yet to touch 50 after 307 days in office but a realty project that bears his name in the city has clocked 50 sales in 40 days proving that the former real estate billionaire is still one of the most bankable brandsrepresentatives of real estate services firms say it is a new record for the city and bucks the market trend it usually takes a couple of years to clock 50 sales in a 100plus apartment premium and luxury project jll kolkata managing director surekha bihani saidthe pace at which over 65 apartments have been sold in the 135unit luxury project adjacent to science city on em bypass has taken even the projects promoters by surprise the india portfolio comprising projects in kolkata pune mumbai and gurgaon is trump properties largest outside north america donald trump jr is expected to visit the kolkata project early next yearpromoters of the 42 on chowringhee have kept sales figures a closely guarded secret but industry sources estimate it to be around 30 yashasvi shroff refused to disclose figures but acknowledged demonetisation and gst had been a challenge for the sectoratmosphere the project with a floating cloudshaped sky bridge right next to trump tower took nearly four years to cross the 50 mark at present around 70 of the project has been soldswarna mani a premium project on em bypass took over a year to sell half the apartments in the first phase bengal ambuja completed the firstphase sales of utalika in a yearthe trump brand may have played a big part in enticing customers but n k realtors director pawan agarwal says what has also worked for the project is its size and pricethe trump project in kolkata is priced nearly half of what a condo costs in any other trump property making it most affordable ever to bear the us presidents signature at rs 4 crore the starting price of apartment in the project is way below 120 million that other trump condos commandthe cost of a condominium in the 42 or the atmosphere is over twice that of one in trump tower the average apartment size in atmosphere is 6000 sq ft and in the 42 around 8000 sq ft in contrast the apartment size at trump tower is 25003500 sq ft with a ticket price of rs 455 crore that makes the latter more attractive he saidharsh patodia cmd of unimark group one of the partners at trump tower kolkata acknowledged he did not expect such a response the projections we had led us to expect that we could touch the halfway mark by januaryend around 100 days from launch we have achieved it in less than half the time he saidwe knew we were on to something when soon after the project announcement our sales gallery was overbooked for the first two weeks and we received over 10 cheques in the first few hours kalpesh mehta managing partner of tribeca another