A number of Japanese conglomerates have made plays in Thailand’s property market and Panasonic Corporation, a Japanese multinational electronics group, is set to become the latest, according to local media reports. The company is expected to form a joint venture with a local developer that will build housing projects, shopping centers and hospitals with construction starting sometime in the next two years.
Panasonic hopes to stake a claim in Thailand’s THB350 billion property market that has seen its fair share of ups and downs. The new joint venture will see the Japanese firm holding a 49 percent stake while its Thai partner will control the rest.
Kazuhiko Tanaka, managing director of PanaHome Asia Pacific, told the Bangkok Post that the company is negotiating with a few developers in Thailand and will choose one as its business partner to assist in its efforts to enter that Thai property market.
The Japanese company is expected to make a decision on its business partner next year and is looking at 2018 to build its first housing project. The development will target middle- to high-income earners with unit prices starting at THB4 million.
Thailand will be the third country in Asia where the company has expanded its property business. Its first expansion came in Taiwan during 2008. It then entered Malaysia after that. Panasonic opted to form joint ventures for operations in both countries. The company has 10 property development in Taiwan at the moment with the bulk of these projects being condominiums. It has also built four housing projects in Malaysia.
“We’re interested in expanding into the property business in Thailand because the country is among the top markets in Asean,” Tanaka told the newspaper. “The real estate sector is a key industry here and Thai consumers are both familiar with and accept Japanese innovations and designs.”
