Land and Houses (LH) plans to expand its Terminal 21 brand with new shopping centers in Pattaya and Phuket. The company will spend THB14 billion, THB7 billion on each mall. The company is also planning on building a Terminal 21 mall in Korat as well. That project will begin development in 2016.
The first Terminal 21, located in Bangkok, only cost THB 3 billion, LH chairman Anant Asavabhokin told the newspaper. He did not give an exact time frame for development to begin on the two projects but noted the malls are part of the company’s THB20 billion expansion plan. LH hopes to launch a real estate investment trust (REIT) with shopping malls and hotel projects as the underlying assets in an attempt to raise new funds for its business expansion plans.
Anant added that the retail sector in Thailand was showing great potential with upcountry locations looking particularly strong but said LH would cautious in 2016 as the country’s economic situation still remains cloudy.
“We will maintain business expansion next year to be equivalent to this year’s,” he noted. “It is our conservative investment plan in the current economic situation. We need to wait and see if there will be clarity both internally and externally, though local economic momentum is showing better signs.”
The Bangkok Post reported that the company will focus on hotels and property investments in Great Britain as well as putting money into rental property projects in the US. The company wants to invest THB15 billion over the next few years in addition to the THB5 billion it has already spent.
The property market in Thailand has already bottomed and is on track to rebound, according to Anant who believes the sector in the country avoided big problems but struggled due to weak domestic consumption as well as the difficulty potential buyers faced in accessing bank loans.
