Sansiri is poised to become Thailand’s largest real estate developer this year, overtaking Land & Houses (L&H) for the first time. In 2008, Sansiri recorded sales of Bt15.1 billion, just short of L&H´s Bt15.4 billion. L&H expects 2009 revenue to be flat from 2008 at Bt14.4 billion, but Sansiri is currently targeting Bt17 billion, said the company´s president Srettha Taveesin.
“The first quarter of 2009 was the second best quarter ever for us. After the first three months of this year, we were already at Bt12.5 billion,” said Srettha.
“This year we will overtake Land & Houses as the number one developer in Thailand.”
The high level of sales recorded since the beginning of the year is partly a reflection of pent up demand carried over from last year, according to Srettha.
“The end of last year was bad for everyone; buyers were reluctant to commit at that particular time because of the political crisis, but despite the bad conditions, people do still want to buy.”
The uptick in sales that was apparent in the first quarter has not, however, benefited all developers equally. Purchasers are becoming more cautious, and, wary of projects that may struggle to close sales and reach completion, they are increasingly favouring the big developers who can more easily obtain finance and maintain cash flow.
“The big players benefited the most, because the banks will still finance them. Brand is very important, and consumers are still confident in the major developers. So the market may have only shrunk a little, but the number of players to take a share of the cake has definitely become smaller,” explained Srettha.
“I am sure we will see some small and medium sized players disappear from the market, but at Sansiri, we are lucky in that we can still obtain finance with no problem at all.
“We announced 16 projects at the start of the year. For those we had already acquired the land, but we are now looking at launching three or four extra projects at the end of this year or the beginning of next year. At the moment we have about Bt2 billion in cash in the bank,” said Srettha.
While all the projects launched by Sansiri this year have been located in Bangkok, going beyond the capital will be an important factor in the company’s future growth, Srettha explained.
“We definitely plan to do more outside of Bangkok; we are already the biggest player in Hua Hin. We have done six or seven projects there in the past, and although we haven’t had any new launches there this year, we are certainly still looking. We will look at Phuket, Pattaya, Samui, probably the only place we won’t look at is Chiang Mai.”
Source: The Property Report 21 May 2009
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1 comment:
It doesn't surprise me as condominiums are becoming the most popular developments and Sansiri are more advanced in this area although many of their latest projects seem to be of a lower quality than the earlier ones.
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