Flat growth for Greater Bangkok property market

Lersuk Chuladesa, co-chief executive officer of Pruksa Real Estate, told a news conference yesterday that its presales in the first nine months totalled Bt34.66 billion, up slightly from Bt34.45 billion in the same period of last year. 
He said demand to buy homes grew only slightly in the third quarter of this year, but the company was confident of reaching its full-year presale target of Bt51 billion. 
It will launch 20 new residential projects worth more than Bt20 billion during the rest of this year, fewer than in its earlier business plan of 25 new projects worth Bt25 billion in the remaining period.
In the first three quarters of 2016, Pruksa generated Bt32.97 billion in revenue and Bt4.06 billion in net profit, down 13 per cent from its net profit of Bt4.69 billion in the first nine months of last year.
Lersuk said the overall property market in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region in the first nine months of this year was valued at Bt265.77 billion, up 4 per cent from the same period of 2015. 
However, in the absence of any positive factors that could improve the stagnant economy in the fourth quarter, it is expected that the property market in the Bangkok region will end up similar to that of 2015, which was Bt350 billion in total, he said. Meanwhile, other listed property firms also reported lower financial results in the first nine months than in the same period of last year.
AP (Thailand) announced net profit of Bt1.43 billion for the period, down 26.28 per cent from the Bt1.94 billion it earned a year earlier.
LPN Development announced net profit of Bt1.89 billion, down 10.8 per cent year on year from Bt2.12 billion.
LPN Development managing director Opas Sripayak said the lower net was due to potential buyers facing mortgage-approval restrictions by the commercial banks, while the company also faced high marketing costs in the third quarter.
Other companies reported higher net profit. Quality Houses announced net profit of Bt2.4 billion in the first nine months, up 33 per cent from Bt1.8 billion in the same period last year.
Golden Land Property Development reported net profit of Bt937.48 million in the period, up 152 per cent year on year from Bt371.04 million.
Ananda Development reported net profit of Bt607.97 million, a surge of 98.33 per cent. It attributed this to the successful transfer of a number of condominiums to buyers in the third quarter.
Prinsiri senior managing director Chaiwat Kovitchindachai said his company posted high revenue and profit growth in the first nine months after successfully controlling its management costs and transferring completed homes to customers on time.