The property market in Bangkok is expected to decline further after deadly bombing that rocked the city. Demand in the property market was already soft before and residential developers will reconsider, postpone and even scale down plans for the next four months, according to The Bangkok Post.
Supalai, Property Perfect, Major Development and Noble Development are just a few of the developers that have postponed projects they had planned to launch this year. Thailand’s largest developer, Pruksa Real Estate, is also thinking about pushing back some of its launches, while AP (Thailand) is now focusing on safer single-house and townhouse projects.
“Developers should be more cautious of new investment, particularly in large projects that take a few years to develop,” Atip Bijanonda, president of the Housing Business Association, told the newspaper. “Maintaining financial liquidity with cash on hand enough for one year amid an uncertain situation is a must, as this year’s fourth quarter may not be a hot time for the sector to boost new residential sales,”
Developers are better off focusing on smaller projects that can have sales closed and construction completed in shorter timespans, he noted.
Suriya Poolvoralaks, managing director of Major, said the company has already converted a large condo project into a smaller one with eight storeys and only 200 units in order to generate sales and revenue faster.
Pruksa will push back its projects to next year because of the unfavourable market conditions, but the company isn’t sure how many will be moved to 2015. “It is hard to have new sales,” managing director Prasert Taedullayasatit said. “We will try to transfer our condo sales backlog to have revenue as targeted.”
Theeraphon Voranithiphong, executive vice-president of Noble, stated the company has decided to postpone all four of its projects scheduled to launch this year until 2015. The projects included condo developments in Thong Lor, Ari and a site to be determined.
Supalai will not launch any condo projects until it believes the demand has returned. “We will not launch condo projects when we are not sure of their locations because launches come with expenses,” Tritecha Tangmatitham, deputy managing director said.
Fragrant Property CEO James Duan said the developer postponed two new condo projects scheduled to launch in Q4 to next year including a project on Soi Sukhumvit 36.
