AP budgets record Bt20 billion for 24 new projects

A total of Bt8 billion will be used to buy land, and the remaining Bt12 billion for construction of the projects’ infrastructure.

This investment budget will come from internal cash flow, bank loans and a debenture issue worth Bt3.5 billion. Most of this debenture will be used to replace an earlier one that will expire this year, worth Bt3 billion, with the remaining Bt500 million going towards the investment budget.

Chief executive officer Anuphong Assavabhokhin told a group interview yesterday that the value of new project launches this year would be the highest since the firm was established in 1991.

“We are confident that the market will recover, especially the demand for condominiums,” he said.

This year’s presales are targeted at Bt28.3 billion, up 24 per cent from 2014, and revenue is put at Bt25.3 billion, up 10 per cent.

Last year, AP recorded presales worth Bt22.67 billion, up 49.3 per cent from the 2013 presales value of Bt15.18 billion. In the first nine months of 2014, it reported revenue of Bt17.12 billion and net profit of Bt2 billion.

“We are confident that the economy will do better than it did last year, and normally that would boost the property market. We cannot estimate how much the overall market will grow, but we are confident that our own business will achieve the targets. We have a backlog worth Bt21 billion, Bt6.1 billion in detached houses and townhouses, and Bt15.3 billion in condominiums. Up to Bt11 billion of that total will be transferred [to customers] and booked as revenue this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, the demand to buy homes appeared to recover last month, as presales totalled Bt1.55 billion, up 162 per cent from January last year. People who put off their decisions to buy a home last year are starting to make those decisions now, Anuphong said.

Ten of APs 24 new projects this year will be condominiums, one of them to be developed by a joint-venture firm it set up with Japanese partner Mitsubishi Estate Group. Nine are townhouse projects, and five will be detached-housing projects. 

The 10 new condominium projects will be near Greater Bangkok’s mass-transit system. 

As of last year, the company had developed 50 condominium projects comprising 27,662 units since it went into the condo business in 1994.

Anuphong said the company was balancing its portfolio between low-rise and high-rise projects. It was also offering a product mix catering to the middle and upper markets.