Charn Issara may sell land near airport for floating market

Songkran Issara, managing director of the company, said yesterday that the Singaporean investor is interested in setting up a floating market in the area around Suvarnabhumi Airport. The deal is expected to be concluded in the first half of this year. 

“Foreign investors are now interested in developing the hospitality and service business in Thailand,” he said.

The company manages total land plot of 1,000 rai around Suvarnabhumi Airport, of which 100 rai – worth Bt200 million – was sold to a Thai investor last year to develop a football field and sports complex. 

The company does not have any business development plan on the remaining area around the airport. Instead, its new project will be developed on 27 rai at Pak Chong, Nakhon Ratchasima – a low-rise residential project worth Bt450 million. 

The plan comes after the company opened a joint-venture firm Issara United Co, which manages its condominium project Baan Thew Talay at a leading tourist destination, Cha-am in Phetchburi. This project has already sold about 35 per cent of total project value. It aims to achieve 70 per cent sales by the end of this year and expects it to be fully sold out in the first quarter of next year.

Issara United Co is a 50:50 joint venture between Charn Issara Development and ICC International – a subsidiary of Saha Group – that was set up last year with registered capital of Bt80 million. 

Issara United Co will develop a mixed-use project on a 90-rai land at Cha-am district at a cost of Bt10 billion from now until 2018. This project will have four phases. The first two phases will be two condominium projects worth about Bt3.4 billion. 

The first is Baan Thew Talay that offers a starting price of Bt72,000 per square metre to Bt160,000 per square metre, or between Bt2.9 million-Bt29 million per unit. 

The next building in this location will be a luxury hotel, and a community mall. 

Meanwhile, the company’s subsidiary Charn Issara Vibhapol Co, which developed the Baan Charn Talay at Cha-am-Hua Hin, also plans to develop a townhouse over 8 rai, worth Bt250 million this year.

The company is targeting Bt1.4 billion pre-sales this year or seven per cent of its pre-sales of Bt1.3 billion last year. This will come from its condominium project, The Issara Lad Prod, where transfers worth Bt1 billion are likely this year after transfers worth Bt400 million last year. The next Bt400 million will come from two new projects – a townhouse in Cha-am developed by Charn Issara Vibhapol Co and a single detached house project in Pak Chong district. 

The company recorded total revenue of Bt484 million and net loss of Bt67.70 million in the first nine months of last year.