Firms resort to long-term contracts, prefab

Some firms have had to delay delivery of homes to their customers because of labour shortages.

For example, Property Perfect had to delay delivery of a condominium project planned for the final quarter of last year. This means its 2012 revenue will be lower than target. 

Orin Development Co had to push back construction of its first condominium project, the Bt500-million Origins Rama II, by about six months last year when its contractor could not secure enough workers. The company had to find a supplier to support its contractor so that condos could be transferred to buyers starting in the fourth quarter of last year.

Naporn Soonthornjitcharoen, Land & Houses senior executive vice president, said the company used a prefab system to build an average of 2,500 detached houses a year. This helps the company manage its construction process and delivery homes to its customers on time. 

Thongma Vijitphongpun, managing director and chief executive officer of Pruksa Real Estate, said the company had created a system combining construction management and prefabrication. It also helps the company ensure that it can deliver an average of 10,000 residential units a year to its customers on schedule. 

Srettha Thavisin, president of Sansiri, said that up to 60 per cent of its housing units were constructed with a prefab system. 

“We also signed long-term contracts with our contractors to make sure that we can deliver our projects to our customers on time,” he said.

Asian Property Development CEO Anuphong Asawabhokhin said the company decided to use prefabrication for its two- and three-storey townhouse projects to hut the construction period by nearly a half from a convention system. 

“We revised our construction system because we believed that this problem would have an impact on our business if we did nothing about it,” he said.