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Published on October 15, 2007

"Our sales in the third quarter will show better performance than the first half and the fourth quarter also shows better signs than the third quarter, so we should achieve our sales target of Bt20 billion this year," he said.

The Government Housing Bank reported that the property market in the first half had contracted 12 per cent year on year, with only 19,161 house registrations.

Townhouses and commercial buildings drop-ped 16 per cent in the first half to 4,560 registered units from 5,410 units in the first six months of last year. Condominiums fell 14 per cent to 5,805 units from 6,731 last year while single-family homes slid 10 per cent to 8,175 units from 9,123.

Home-buyers' confidence has picked up since the government set the election date for Decem-ber 23, Naporn said.

Land and Houses scored a net profit of Bt1.2 billion on revenues of Bt8.9 billion in the first half.

Visanu Suchatlum-pong, senior executive vice president of Asian Pro-perty Development, said spending on homes had signalled a recovery in the third quarter and a strong recovery in the last quarter after mortgage rates settled down, and may even go down.

"Home-buyers delayed their decision to buy a house in the first half because of their concerns about political problems and the potential impact on the economy from the mortgage meltdown in the US. But now the government sent a clear message that it will hold a new election at the end of this year and the economy appears to be heading for a recovery in the last quarter, so home-buyers are primed to buy a house in the last quarter," he said.

Asian Property Development expects its sales to reach the target of Bt7 billion for the year after posting revenues of Bt2.8 billion and net profit of Bt256.42 million in the first half.

"This year, we believe that the property market in terms of registered housing units will nearly repeat last year's market. That's better than what was estimated early this year, which was a drop of 10 per cent, although the first half saw a decline of 12 per cent, " he added.

Last year, 49,167 housings units were registered in Bangkok and its suburbs.

Somluck Srimalee

The Nation