Several luxury residential projects launched in first quarter of year

Anant Asavabhokhin, chairman of Land & Houses’ executive board, said that if the government wanted to get the economy back on track, it needed to stimulate spending by those who can still afford to do so, and that is the upper-income segment.
He shrugged off any criticism that this would amount to subsidising the rich, as spending by this upper segment would indirectly create jobs for others, thereby boosting the overall economy.
Land & Houses’ latest luxury development is Ladawan Rama II, a detached-housing project with prices from Bt50 million to Bt160 million per unit.
Other property firms have also launched luxury projects, both condominiums and detached houses, to serve the strong demand in this market. This is also the way to boost their presales in the first half of this year while the commercial banks are still reluctant to provide mortgages for the lower- and middle-income markets.
Sansiri introduced a luxury condominium project called 98 Wireless, worth Bt8.5 billion, last week. The project has only 77 units priced at Bt550,000 per square metre. A total of Bt1.2 billion of the project value has already been sold before the official grand opening in the second half of this year when the project is complete.
Sansiri president Srettha Thavisin explained that although booking for the project will not officially open until the second half, the firm accepted cash offers totalling Bt1.2 billion for two penthouses.
He added that this showed that demand for luxury homes was still strong as long as they were in the right location.
SC Asset Corporation has introduced three luxury residential projects worth a combined Bt10 billion, one of them a condominium, Beatniq Sukhumvit 32, with prices starting at Bt12 million per unit. The other two are detached-housing projects worth Bt6 billion: Grand Bangkok Boulevard Sukhumvit and Grand Bangkok Boulevard Ratchapruek-Charan.
Grand Bangkok Boulevard Sukhumvit offers a starting price of Bt35 million per unit, while homes in Grand Bangkok Boulevard Ratchapruek-Charan can be had for Bt30 million and up.
“We focused our business strategy this year on the luxury market when we saw strong demand from both local and foreign investors,” said SC Asset chief executive officer Nuttaphong Kunakornwong. He noted that demand by foreigners was driven by the recent implementation of the Asean Economic Community.
Ananda Development also launched a luxury condominium during this first quarter, the Bt5.8-billion Ashton Silom, with prices starting at Bt7.9 million.
“This is the time to sell luxury homes,” Ananda CEO Chanond Ruangkritya said.
According to the Agency for Real Estate Affairs, last year 460 homes costing more than Bt15 million each were sold, for a total value of Bt12.09 billion. Their average price was Bt29.6 million.