Home Builder Association predicts 15% growth in 2012

Demand for homes priced between Bt2 million and Bt5 million showed strong growth at the recent Home Builder Focus 2012 event, indicating growth of the home-building market by at least 15 per cent this year, Home Builder Association president Dr Patchara Tanthayanyong said yesterday. 

The event, which ran from March 1-7, recorded new contracts worth Bt481 million, up 14.5 per cent from the Bt420 million seen at last year’s Home Builder Focus. This indicated that landowners have come back into the market after many delayed their decisions to build in the fourth quarter of last year because of the flood devastation. 

Patchara said customers at Home Builder Focus wanted to build homes costing Bt4.8 million on average, with the most expensive contract worth Bt19.95 million and the lowest-price contract Bt1.5 million. 

The most popular price was Bt4.6 million. 

Sixty per cent of the customers who signed contracts at the event plan to build this year. Some of who did not sign a contract at the event itself were interested in doing so later, and many of them also plan to build this year. 

As a result, the association believes that its members will see their overall business increase from Bt10 billion last year to Bt11.5 billion this year, up 15 per cent, she said. 

That is about 20 per cent of the total value of homes built by landowners, which averages Bt50 billion a year. 

 

Rising costs  

Patchara said half of the customers at Home Builder Focus had budgeted between Bt2.51 million and Bt5 million per unit, while 27.84 per cent budget between Bt5.1 million and Bt10 million to build their home. 

They had land ranging from 50 to 100 square wah (200-400 square metres).

“Given the demand, we believe that the home-building market this year will grow by at least 15 per cent even though construction costs are rising, because many landowners need to build their homes now after delaying from last year,” she said.