Lower-price homes from Property Perfect
Property Perfect Plc has launched nine new low-price housing projects at a total cost of Bt3.5 billion, aimed at attracting more middle-income buyers looking for houses under Bt3 million, in order to meet its presales target of Bt8 billion for the year.
Executive director Teerachon Manomaiphibul said he hoped the new property projects, all of them being launched in the second half of this year, would boost sales, which are currently 5 per cent off target. Property Perfect reported total sales of Bt2.01 billion and a net loss of Bt28.26 million in the first half of this year, compared with total sales of Bt2.02 billion and a net profit of Bt316.73 million in the same period last year. Teerachon said the first-half net loss occurred because second-quarter sales were down 21 per cent on year, falling from Bt1.01 billion last year to Bt807.9 million this year. The company must also pay Bt29 million more in interest than in the same period last year, on the money it borrowed for the new projects. The new projects will feature town houses, semi-detached houses and detached homes, all priced from Bt1.6 million to Bt2.9 million. Two of the projects will be constructed on the company's existing sites on Rama V and Ramkhamhaeng roads. The other seven will be located in the Bang Yai, Rattanathibet, Rangsit, Romklao, Onnuj, Pattanakarn and Tiwanon areas. Teerachon said the projects would feature made-to-order homes using prefabricated models, reducing the construction period from an average of only four months, compared with eight months to one year previously. This will reduce construction and operating costs by about 25 per cent, allowing Property Perfect to undercut its competitors in the market. It is also part of an attempt to keep the company's gross margin at 33 per cent, about even with last year's level, before taxes and operating costs. He said property sales had fallen due to a drop in the public's purchasing power and fears for their future earnings as a result of increased interest rates and rising oil prices combined with the current economic slump. Teerachon said that as a result, demand for houses priced less than Bt3 million continued to grow, so the company was launching its new projects to meet that market demand. "We understood that if we did not launch our new projects in the second half of this year, our presales might end up lower than our estimated Bt7 billion to Bt8 billion. So we decided to launch them to ensure that our presales met that target," said Teerachon. Somluck Srimalee The Nation
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