Thailand’s residential market may be struggling at the moment but according to Golden Land’s president, Thanapol Sirithanachai, things could be looking up. He told media that the country’s market still has room to grow in the second half of 2016 despite the government’s stimulus property incentives expiring.
“Two months after the expiry of the tax incentives sales definitely froze, but I am confident the residential market will continue to grow in the second half, if only slowly,” Thanapol explained. “Sales at existing projects were sluggish after the incentives expired in April as future demand bought property in advance.”
The incentives were designed to ease the backlog of units that had built up in the property market with the low- to mid-income segments being badly overstocked. Thanapol noted that the market is in a sticky situation, with projects in the right location with the right target being the only ones currently making a profit.
Golden Land is estimating that it will earn THB5.5 billion in pre-sales during the first half of this year. The developer is on course to reach its full-year target of THB14 billion which is more than THB1 billion higher than last year’s total. Thanapol revealed that the outlook is promising but there is some concern regarding the banks’ record-high mortgage loan rejection levels. The rejection rate in Thailand is almost 30 percent.
Golden Land plans to launch 15 new projects this year worth a combined THB16 billion. It has already budgeted THB8.5 billion to develop a mixed-use project in San Yan on a land plot owned by Chulalongkorn University. Golden Land won a leasehold contract for this land and the development will include offices, condominiums, serviced apartments and retail space. The company has launched three projects in 2016.
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