Boutique New City Plc, the fashion boutique operator under the Saha Group, may develop a shopping complex in the coming months.

“If nothing serious is happening in Thailand, we’ll re-enter the property development market in the next two months. We used to develop housing projects in Bangkok but stopped 10 years ago because of the country’s financial crisis,” said president Panithan Pawaroranwittaya.

He said the company was interested in building a small shopping complex to augment its fashion boutique business. At the same time, it will expand to distribute lifestyle products in a bid to widen its portfolio and customer base in the long term.

Under this scheme, the company will import food waste dehydration machines from South Korea to be sold locally via direct TV sales.

The machines will be available at its fashion boutique shops and the electrical product retail chain Power Buy in the future.

“We want to expand our product portfolio to reduce business risks from uncontrollable factors. Who would have guessed that one day colour would be a major factor in consumers’ decisions about buying clothes?” he said.

During the recent demonstrations, Boutique New City lost an estimated 30 million baht worth of sales, with 17 of its 40 branches closed at that time.

“It was the hardest time we faced since the 1997 financial crisis, but we still hope the situation will improve after this incident,” said Mr Panithan.

Still, the company has slightly adjusted its business strategy in the wake of the recent violence, postponing plans to promote fashion made with Thai fabrics and shifting more from oversized products to free-form ones.

“Fashion clothing using Thai fabrics can become popular if Thais love each other. Foreign tourists love Thai-fabric fashions and admire our country but the political uncertainty has caused opportunities for these products to disappear,” said Mr Panithan.

In a bid to maintain its base, Boutique New City has approached about 40,000 regular customers by phone and will soon import fashion products from Spain to sell in the Thai market.

The company achieved 520 million baht in sales last year and is targeting 600 million for this year, down from an earlier projection of 700 million.

Source : bangkokpost.com

If you own a high-rise condominium unit, you may be tired of driving all the way to the top of the parking building in search of an empty slot or to reach your reserved space. Some days you may be lucky enough to find one open on a lower floor, but who can guarantee that?

Areeya Property Plc understands this concern among buyers. It is thus installing an automatic parking system that will guarantee equal rights in obtaining a parking slot to residents of its 2-billion-baht A Attitude project to be launched in the next few months.

With this fully automatic system, a resident simply parks his car at a designated spot on the ground floor, then it vanishes into the system, whisked to an empty slot. The resident receives a ticket that allows retrieval.

“The distribution of parking spaces to condo residents has never been fair in conventional parking buildings. With this automatic system, each car is equally important. We believe it will transform urban residents’ lifestyle,” said Wisit Laohapoonrungsee, the managing director of Areeya.

He expressed confidence that the new parking system, costing about three times more than conventional ones, will be a prominent draw for A Attitude.

Located on Asok-Din Daeng Road close to the Rama IX intersection, A Attitude will house more than 400 fully furnished units priced at 90,000 baht per square metre on average.Areeya says it pioneered fully furnished condominium development with its A Space condominium, in which buyers receive furniture, electrical appliances and personal items that normally come only with serviced apartments.

But Mr Wisit said that offering fully furnished units alone could not distinguish its products in the market, so Areeya also plans to offer residents a private members’ club called The Idealy, to improve their lifestyle.

“We believe in our ready-to-live-in condominium concept, as it has received a great response from middle-income buyers. But it’s a challenge to provide units with functionality and facilities that match what luxury buyers want,” he said.

Mr Wisit said Areeya would debut at least six new projects worth a combined 8 billion baht in the second half of the year. About 6 billion baht will be from high-rise projects, including A Attitude, and new phases of A Space Asok-Ratchada. Another 2 billion baht will be used to develop four townhouse projects.

The company targets sales revenue of 4 billion baht this year, up by 15.6% from last year’s 3.46 billion baht.

Shares of Areeya (A) closed unchanged yesterday on the SET at 3.68 baht in trade worth 293,000 baht.

Source : thailandrealestateforum.com

The property developer Chewathai Co Ltd plans to launch a matchmaking campaign to attract investment buyers and tenants, aiming to close sales of its condominium on Surawong Road by the end of the year.

Executive director Boon Choon Kiat says many Asian and European expatriates want to rent condominium units at the company’s project The Surawong.

“There are tenants looking for available units while many investors are interested in buying them so we will match them,” he says. “Besides, it will be more attractive for the investors if we can offer a unit ready to make money.”

Mr Boon says the rental rate for an apartment or a condominium unit in the location is approximately 800 baht a square metre per month. Major demand for rooms for rent in the location is for at least 30,000 baht a month.

Of the total 52 units, 12 have yet to be taken up at The Surawong, which is now completed. Ten of them are sized from 70 sq m and priced around 7-8 million baht a unit.

He says the rental rate for the unit size will be around 60,000 to 70,000 baht a month, a return rate of up to 10% a year. Target tenants for the units will be high-level executives whose residential expenses are paid for by their companies.

“The investment sentiment of Thai buyers, as well as Singaporeans, has returned,” he says.

He adds the entry of the Singaporean investor Amara Group to develop a hotel on Surawong Road reflected its confidence in Thailand in the long term. An entry after a crisis is a good chance to get a good deal.

“Sathon, Silom and Sukhumvit are well-known among Singaporeans. They also know Surawong, as the road is linked to Silom by Soi Patpong,” says the Singaporean executive.

Chewathai is a joint venture founded in 2008 between Thai investors the Panichewa family and the Singaporean firm TEE International.

The Surawong is a joint-venture project between Chewathai and United Motor Works (Siam), a subsidiary of Singapore’s Hup Soon Global Corp Ltd.

Source : bangkokpost.com

City condominiums generating returns of 5 to 10 per cent

Residential property, especially city condominiums, is emerging as a popular choice for investors, with returns for those buying condos for the purpose of renting them out currently averaging between 5 and 10 per cent a year, property experts said.

Those buying condos for resale purposes are seeing returns on investment of between 10 per cent and 50 per cent, reflecting a typical lapse of from one-and-a-half to two years between pre-sales and completion, the experts said.

According to a survey by Major Development, return on investment for condominium projects on Sathorn and Silom roads was 5 to 6 per cent in the first quarter of this year, depending on unit size and location. Condo resale prices on Sathorn and Silom returned an average of 5 to 10 per cent for those units resold before construction was complete. For completed units, resale is generating return on investment of between 20 and nearly 50 per cent, depending on the location.

On Phya Thai Road, landlords are seeing returns on investment of 5 to 5.5 per cent after charging rents of between Bt435 Bt625 per square meter.

Re-sales on Phya Thai Road transacted in the period up till project completion are generating returns of between 5 and 19 per cent, according to the experts.

Major Development managing director Dr Suriya Poolvoralaks said investors looking to buy residential property for the purposes of renting the units out or reselling them comprise about 30 per cent of total homebuyers. Most of these investors are less concerned about price than they are about location, floor-level, and view. In this, they differ from people buying residences to live in. This group is concerned about price, raw materials used and amenities.

Meanwhile, CB Richard Ellis (Thailand) managing director Aliwassa Pathnadabutr said the resale market for residential property in Bangkok’s central business district is generating average return on investment of 10 per cent, some units doubling this, depending on location and facilities.

Typical condominium prices range between Bt3 million and Bt5 million, with one-bedroom units the most popular right now, she said.

Prices on Sathorn Road are high right now, she said, averaging Bt200,000 per square metre.

Source : nationmultimedia.com

Demand for office space in Bangkok is likely to pick up as the economic outlook improves and political turbulence affects the market less than expected, according to the latest research by Jones Lang LaSalle.

Managing director Suphin Mechuchep said last week that the political demonstrations in April-May had caused business interruptions in central Bangkok and a short halt in leasing activity in the office market.

“Nevertheless, conditions have returned to normal more quickly than expected and we saw leasing activity in the office market resuming.”

Despite the political turbulence in the second quarter, there remains some good news for Thailand, as the government last month raised its forecast for gross domestic product growth this year to as much as 6 per cent, while a recent forecast by the International Monetary Fund was more positive, saying the economy may expand 7-8 per cent this year, she said.

This is also good news for the Bangkok office market, as economic growth would allow companies to expand business and consequently require more office space.

The average gross rent for Grade A office space in the central business district (CBD) dropped only slightly by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter to Bt635 per square meter per month from Bt638 in the first quarter.

While no new Grade A office supply entered the market in the second quarter, the average vacancy rate in the CBD rose slightly from 18.5 per cent in April to 19.5 per cent in July. This was due largely to the relocations of some corporate occupiers to areas outside the CBD.

For instance, SCB Securities and SCB Asset Management relocated to SCB Park on Phaholyothin Road, while Citigroup transferred to Interchange 21 on Asoke Road.

Leasing activity is picking up but pressure on rents continues due to slow demand and growing supply in the second half.

Yupa Sathienpabayut, head of commercial leasing, said leasing activity in the Bangkok office market saw a marked slowdown during the anti-government protests from April-May. Over the period, there was no demand for office space from newly established businesses while existing occupiers planning expansions shelved their plans. However, after the protests came to an end, leasing activity started to come back, showing that the impact of the recent political turbulence was limited.

Office vacancies are expected to rise further in the remainder of the year and will put more pressure on rents. This is because a considerable amount of new office space will enter the market in the second half, while demand is in its early stage of recovery and so its pace of growth remains slow.

About 77,600 square meters of additional space from two buildings will enter the CBD office market in the second half and will raise the total CBD Grade A supply to 1.33 million sqm by year-end.

The market is likely to recover next year in response to the brighter economic outlook.

Since 2007, economic growth and demand for office space have slowed. GDP grew 4.8 per cent in 2007 and 2.5 per cent in 2008, and saw a contraction by 2.2 per cent in 2009.

Demand for office space over the same period was on the same track, with the net take-up levels from 2007-2009 averaging slightly over 55,000 sqm per year. This is in contrast to the average annual take-up rate of over 250,000 sqm from 2000-2006 when the country witnessed annual economic growth of above 6 per cent.

“Provided that the Thai economic growth in 2011 continues at the same pace as in 2010 or faster, we expect leasing activity in the Bangkok office market to surge significantly next year. This is because there has been a huge backlog of demand in the office market as companies have put their expansion plan on hold over the past five years due to the political and economic uncertainties,” Yupa said.

Source : nationmultimedia.com