A number of developers in Thailand launched special promotional campaigns recently in an attempt to increase sales during this quarter, according to local media reports. The latest round of special offers comes as little surprise with banks continuing to reject mortgage applications at near record rates.
“We have had to launch an aggressive marketing drive to boost our sales, as the banks are restricting the approval of mortgages to customers, with the rejection rate for applications now standing at more than 70 percent,” LPN Development’s managing director, Opas Sripayak, told The Nation. “All of our marketing campaigns are aimed at selling our inventory at a time of high competition coupled with the banks restricting mortgage approvals to customers.”
LPN Development is currently running two major promotional campaigns. The first involves offering a one-year, free-to-stay deal for those who purchase a unit at Lumpini Ville Na Klua-Wongamat project. The second campaign is a buy one unit, get a second unit 50 percent off that is good at ready-to-stay condominium units in 13 of the developer’s projects in Bangkok.
Pruska Real Estate is another developer pulling out all the stops to increase sales offering free mortgage and transfer fees, discounted prices and other special add-ons depending on the project. The campaign is currently available at all of Pruska’s 116 residential projects in Thailand.
“Our customers have been faced with a mortgage-application rejection that has risen from an average of 5 percent at the end of last year to 7 percent during the first half of this year. This has impacted on our sales this year,” co-chief executive officer at Pruska, Lersak Chuladesa, explained to the newspaper. “High household debt is the main problem for people wanting to buy at this time, as a result of which most residential developers have had to launch special campaigns.”
In a bid to improve the likelihood of a mortgage application being approved, the developer has begun to pre-approve its customers before they apply for a home loan. Pruska noted that nearly 25 percent of clients seeking pre-approval have been turned away for various reasons.
