Raimon still confident on property
Raimon Land says it still has confidence in the long-term health of the property market despite the recent heavy flooding in Bangkok and its suburbs.
Meanwhile, the company is going ahead with a condominium project under a new brand, Unixx, in Pattaya worth Bt2.95 billion. This is the group’s first project offering prices lower than Bt1 million per unit.
Chief executive Hubert Viriot said the flooding in metropolitan Bangkok was a one-off event and would have no impact on the company’s business expansion.
"We believe that the property market will recover next year," he said.
He added that most of its Bangkok properties had not been flooded, although some projects close to the Chao Phraya River were affected.
In the first nine months of the year, the demand for homes continued, driving Raimon’s presales to Bt3.43 billion, up 23 per cent from its presales of Bt2.78 billion in the same period last year.
Even so, the company recorded only Bt876 million in revenue and a net loss of Bt114 million in the first nine months, compared with revenue of Bt2.09 billion and net profit Bt54 million in the same period of 2010.
This followed a change in the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s accounting policy to book presales as revenue only when the home is transferred to the customer. However, the company has a backlog worth Bt16.2 billion and inventory for sale worth Bt28.6 billion, which will generate revenue for the next two years.
Currently, the company has four condominium projects under construction. They are The River Bankok, which has sold 75 per cent of the total project value of Bt15 billion; 185 Rajadamri, worth Bt9.6 billion, which has sold 44 per cent; Zire Wongamat in Pattaya, worth Bt2.8 billion, which has sold 50 per cent; and Northpoint Pattaya, worth Bt4.9 billion, which has sold 80 per cent.
