Habitat taps lifestyle trend for high-end property in Pattaya

The beach paradise is among the cities with the highest density of population other than Bangkok and Phuket due to its unique landscape, surrounded by mountains and sea, equipped with infrastructure, department stores and amusement park, convenient location and not too far from Bangkok.

These factors have made Pattaya the most visited city by both Thais and international travellers for short and long-term stays before, during and post the Covid-19 pandemic!

Chanin Vanijwongse, chief executive officer, Habitat Group Company Limited, with more than 10 years of experience in real estate, offers his insights in an exclusive interview with The Nation:

1. What is the overall situation there right now and how attractive is Pattaya?
     It’s doing great! During the pandemic, in the past two years, people were trying to avoid travelling abroad, as a result people tried to travel a short distance – a travel time of 2-3 hours. So, Pattaya was doing okay even during the pandemic. Some places are performing quite well like boutique hotels with privacy. In terms of real estate, of course 50% of demand in Pattaya is domestic and the other half comes from international buyers and visitors.

     So, I think overall the situation is coming back to normal very quickly. Among real estate properties, pool villa projects are still performing well because many people want a second or vacation home. Branded residences, like beach fronts, are still good types of products and do quite well.

2. What are the types of tourists currently visiting Pattaya and what kind of properties are people looking for in terms of vacation, long stay and investment as well?

     As Pattaya is only a 90-minute drive from Bangkok, or 120km, it is very convenient to travel from Bangkok. Of the pre-Covid-19 figure of nearly 10 million visitors a year, I’d say half of them come from Bangkok.

     Pattaya is the only beach city that you can drive to and reach the destination very quickly. It can be a one-day trip or even spend a night there. It is so convenient, unlike going to Hua Hin which requires you to spend three and a half hours driving. If you want to go to the South, you need to get on an airplane and spend a few hours at the airport.

     More than 50% of tourists come from Bangkok. The other half, actually, I’d say, come from a nice mix of nationalities, not just Asians from China, Hong Kong, Korea. It also has some travellers from the Middle East, India, Europe and also from the USA. Another group coming to Pattaya is buyers and investors.

     Pattaya is the only city which is located in the heart of the EEC [Eastern Economic Corridor]. As you know, the EEC plays a major role in our economy. It involves a massive investment from the government, with a 5-7-year roadmap.

     One of the critical elements is infrastructure. There is so much infrastructure coming up in the future, one of them being the U-Tapao international airport. Once it is completed, you can accommodate up to 20 million passengers per year. Also, there will be the high-speed trains which connect three airports – Don Mueang, Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao.

     Now you drive in 90 minutes, but in the future you can take a high-speed train from Suvarnabhumi to Pattaya in 30 minutes. So, transportation-wise, it’s going to change a lot in the next 5-7 years.

     It’s not just through government investment but also a lot of private investment. Compared to Bangkok, the difference is that in Pattaya you are more relaxed, surrounded by a relaxing environment, close to nature on the beach, mountain and quality of life.

     You get city life, shopping malls, to the southern part you have Na Jomtien, you will find amusement park, water park, Sony Pictures park, Silverlake Vineyard, many golf courses. So, it has potential for capital gain and good quality of life. That’s why Pattaya itself really attracts buyers and investors there, for their leisure time, vacation home, kids, friends.

3. What are the attractive properties right now and what type will see more demand in the future?
     Properties with good qualities, design, functions and high privacy, these are the good selling points for the future, it won’t be the mass market. I’d say pool villas and vacation homes really capture the interest of high-end buyers from Bangkok. Because it is worth spending money to buy a nice pool villa in Pattaya, as you can just go there in an hour and a half and spend a night with the family over the weekend. So, this is going to be the hot product of the future.

     Among condominiums, those that are close to the beach or the beachfront are attractive, and also high-end products with good brands attached to international brands like hotel brands.

4. As Habitat Group, how do you define yourself?
     Our focus is on real-estate investors. We buy properties, we rent out, renovate, look for tenants and manage properties. We’d been doing that for 10 years before we founded Habitat Group 10 years ago. We gathered more than 20 years experience in real estate investments. Under the Habitat Group, our business model is different from others in the market.

     Most of the operators buy properties and sell them. Because of our experience being a long-term investor, in terms of renting out properties, we don’t just buy and sell, but we bring hotel chains to manage our properties. That is why our properties in Pattaya begin with the names of hotel brands for example, X2 Vibe Pattaya Seasphere, X2 Pattaya Oceansphere and Best Western Premier Baysphere Pattaya.

     So we sell properties and we manage the rental on behalf of the owners. The owners can enjoy the benefit of staying and also rental yield of 6-7%. So that’s what we do, which makes our business model different in the market.

     We actually call our business model a lifestyle investment, we’re not just a property developer. I’d say we are boutique developers with lifestyle investment business models.

5. How many properties do you have in Pattaya so far?
     Right now, we have more than 10 projects in Pattaya. We actually completed nearly 7-8 projects and we are launching three more projects next year, including a pool villa project under Highland Park brand. We are looking for branded residences for next year and so another project as a lifestyle investment. I think all together we have more than 10 projects so far.

6. What about the projects in the future?
     We are looking for pool villa projects under the Highland Park brand, which will have the official launch by early next year. It will be a pool villa for your own stay, or you can actually buy the properties and rent out for the short term or long term. You can expect 6-7% yield, so that's one of them. Another project would be branded residences where you can buy a condo on the beach and you can have hotel services.

7. The fact that you talk about future projects shows that you must be confident about the city itself in terms of its attractiveness, but the thing is Thailand and the whole world have been through the Covid-19 pandemic. How did you cope with the situation and how do you foresee future trends?
      For the past three years, I think the trend of consumer behaviour has changed a bit while we were being hit by Covid-19. In the past, I think, the condominium market was selling quite well, but after the pandemic, the trend of consumer behaviour has changed. People are trying to stay in bigger residential units, which means housing projects or vacation homes would be the kind of products that’s going to fit in with the future.

        In order to cope with these market trends, our business model has been changed a bit to not just focus on large-sized investment products, not the mass product but we are looking to diversify to many market segments. One of them would be high-end luxury pool villa projects, where you can spend good time with families and friends. Branded residences where you can buy nice projects on the beach, with a big size, good size, good functions could be another product trend that is coming.

8. Why do you think luxury or high-end products will match the demand of the new customers and new trends? We are seeing right now that we have an economic downturn as well. Don’t you think this will go against the trend?
     Well, I’d say the high-end to luxury market segments still are performing quite okay, compared with the low end or low entry level because we had the pandemic and people may have lost their jobs. They don’t have enough savings. But, you know, when we focus on a vacation home or a second home and if we look at branded residences, I think this kind of product will not only elevate your own lifestyle but also turn your asset into investment.

     This target group, as high-end and luxury buyers, may have their own savings, passive incomes, from bonds or from cryptocurrencies, and they might want to diversify their asset into something more stable. You may be looking at 10% yield in total, which may not be as high as cryptocurrencies, stocks or bonds, but it has the lowest risk.

9. You have won a lot of awards as well, such as best for hospitality, best design, but Pattaya, we know, served other purposes like entertainment nightlife. What is your idea about this?
    Well, I think Pattaya people might see this as a city or entertainment place but actually I'd say in the past 5-10 years, if you go to the southern part of Pattaya, we call it more like a family destination. Pattaya has many golf courses, Silverlake Vineyard. The mountain areas may not be similar to Khao Yai, but I think it’s not bad as you can go to the beach side. You have a nice cartoon network park, water park, Sony pictures Aquaverse, many 5- or 6-star hotel brands are coming to the southern part

     The most important thing is to focus on design and privacy because right now you don’t want to go to a project which has 500-1,000 keys – so much crowd. You want to go to a small project where you can spend good time with your family, like a pool villa project or small boutique brand.

10.When we talk about hospitality in Pattaya, people tend to think about nightlife hospitality. Could you elaborate on this?
     I think when we design the project, we have to think about the right location. The city would entice foreign travellers, but if you’re looking for Thai travellers, I think the trend tends to move to the southern part, it is more relaxing, closer to the beach. Also, the service has got to be world class. Even though the brands may be small, our brands are equivalent to 5-star brand hotels.

11. The whole world now is heading towards clean energy. Thailand also is focusing on the bio-circular-green model. How are your properties oriented towards this idea?
     BCG is one of the key success factors when we design a project. We don’t build good properties without having concern for the environment. When we use things and look at the product designs, we also want to make sure that those we are using are environmentally friendly. BCG is one of the future models and we had already incorporated some part of it 4-5 years ago into our project.