Bangkok Land plans four projects after surviving flood

“We see strong demand for residential projects, while our location proved it could survive flood impacts,” managing director Peter Kanjanapas told a news conference yesterday. The eight-storey condominium called Double Lake, worth Bt1 billion, planned for next year is the first residential project for the company since the financial crisis of 1997.

Two commercial buildings worth Bt2 billion will offer 30-year leases with the right to renew for 30 years. One called B-Hive worth Bt1 billion will be located close to Sukhothai Thammathirath University in Muang Thong Thani, in Nonthaburi province. The other one called Easy Promenade worth Bt650 million will be near Impact Muang Thong Thani.

A third commercial building called Festival Walk worth Bt350 million will be located close to a popular condominium and a Siam Commercial Bank branch. 

“We have confidence to develop property projects next year because we believe that home-buyers have confidence in our flood-management system,” he said.

The company expects the four new projects to contribute to its targeted revenue of Bt3 billion next year.

Bangkok Land earned profit of Bt816 million on revenue of Bt2.4 billion in the first six months of its fiscal year ending March. Half of its revenue came from rental income from Impact Muang Thong Thani and half from sales of residential and commercial buildings.

The company has designed landscapes and its new low-rise condominium to guard against flooding. 

For example, the project road has been built 40 centimetres higher than the main road, while the ground floor will be 20cm higher than the project road. 

The main road of Muang Thong Thani is 2.20 metres above mean sea level. 

The company also installed an underground flood system at the project and located the machine room, which controls the whole electricity system of the building, on the second floor. 

A Bt200-million budget has been set aside to raise 4 kilometres of Muang Thong Thani’s main road by about 50cm and to build a floodway around the project.

“We survived the flood hit this year because my father, Anand, spent Bt1.5 billion 20 years ago to dig two lakes that serve as a dual drainage system. That protected the project from the flood that struck this year,” he said.

However, the company continues to be concerned about this problem and will boost investment and design protection against floods for all of its new property projects next year, he added.