Asian Property cashes in on demand for low-rise homes in first quarter

Vittakarn Chandavimol, chief strategic marketing officer, said 54 per cent of the company’s presales in the quarter were low-rise homes, and the rest condominiums. Demand for townhouses costing no more than Bt5 million has shown strong growth.
Given the market trend, the company plans to launch 13 townhouse projects in the final nine months of the year.
They include the Rhythm, Aspire and Plano brands.
This is part of its business plan to launch a total of 26 residential projects worth Bt30 billion this year.
Meanwhile, the company has continued to launch its new design of detached houses under the Soul brand to cater to demand for such homes near Bangkok’s central business districts and priced between Bt15 million and Bt25 million.
“Soul is our new brand that will focus on the mid-to-upper-income market, people with salaries of |
 at least Bt300,000 a month,” |he said.
The company plans to launch three Soul projects worth Bt2.91 billion in this year.
The first project, Soul Ekamai-Ladprao, worth Bt1.5 billion soft-launched this week, with the grand opening planned for May 18.
 Five of the project’s 82 units have already sold.
The next two projects will be in the Lat Phrao-Wang Hin and Ratchada 68 areas and will launch this quarter.
Asian Property aims to boost its presales to Bt9 billion in the first half of this year, towards the full-year target of Bt22 billion.
Vittakarn said demand to purchase homes had been strong in the first quarter although the Bank of Thailand had tried to restrict the property sector |out of concern about a market bubble.
He said the demand was real and not driven by speculators.