Supalai Plc became the first developer to go on record about the deadly bomb blast in Bangkok. The company said it is less confident about achieving its presales target of THB23 billion and may have to rethink its estimates, The Bangkok Post reported.
The company has yet to change its presales target, but Supalai deputy managing director Tritecha Tangmatitham admitted it would be more difficult to reach its original target. Monday’s incident is likely to compound problems for the already struggling economy in Thailand.
“Hope in a market recovery in the second half is becoming more challenging, thinner, but it’s too soon to evaluate the situation. We’ll monitor it month to month,” he told the newspaper.
Supalai recorded THB10 billion in presales in the first half with THB5.5 billion from low-rise houses and the rest from condominiums. Despite the events, the company is not worried about revenue in the second half as its sales and presales numbers in the first half were on target.
“We’re confident condo buyers will have their units transferred, as projects to be completed in the second half hit a 100 percent sales rate,” Tritecha stated. “If customers refuse to have their units transferred, we can resell them at a price 20 percent higher from the launch date.”
According to Tritecha, Supalai could postpone could postpone two or three new launches if market sentiment was unfavourable. The company had planned to launch five new condo projects in the second half worth a combined THB10 billion baht.
“Condo speculators have faded away, which lowered the take-up rate at new projects we launched in the first half,” he added. Supalai is confident land prices will keep rising, driven by the planned new mass-transit lines that will start running over the next few years and has a THB6 billion budget to buy new land.
Low-rise projects from Supalai are still one of the company’s main focus points with eight new developments still in the works. This segment enjoyed real demand and a reduced number of competitors due to a slowdown among small developers, Tritecha concluded.
