AP aims high Japan tech in condos

 The innovation is aimed at reducing the incidence of defects that may arise during construction.
 The company’s chief of business group-condominium, Vittakarn Chandavimal, said, on a visit to MECG’s office in Japan yesterday, that the company had learned how to apply the Japanese partner’s construction technology in its upcoming condominiums projects with the goal of better serving customers’ demands.
Vittakarn said AP had been buoyed by the initial success from the launch of 11 condominiums with MECG worth Bt50.83 billion, spurring the company’s interest on the adoption of the new construction technologies.
The company has, since 2016, been using the fully built bathrooms at six condominium projects, including the Aspire Sathorn-Thapra, Rhythm Rangnum, Life Ladprao, Life One Wireless and Life Asoke-Rama 9. The company is also using the finished walls at these projects. Both technologies help to reduce the risk of defects during the construction process, Vittakarn said.
He said the collaboration with the Japanese partner also served to improve the design at the condominiums and make the projects more appealing for customers with space innovations.
Aided by the technology transfer and collaboration with the Japanese partner, Vittakarn said that the company had launched its business strategy, AP Innovation for Quality Living, with a focus on three areas. 
The first is space innovation and technology, with a focus on how to manage space and link with technology such as Wi-Fi, as well as setting up public areas where people can have Internet connections as well as make use of battery-charging units for phones.
The company is also focused on the durability of its homes, with the fully built bathrooms and walls serving to reduce the rate of building defects in the traditional construction process. 
The third focus is safety and convenience. The projects feature a real-time system to monitor security, and the company has developed an application to enable residents to monitor their homes.
It is also is using what it calls i-Lockers that enables residents to receive letter or packages 24 hours a day. The i-Lockers will be installed first at Rhythm Sukhumvit 42, before going into the other projects.
“In line with the concept to develop condominiums under the AP Innovation for Quality Living concept, we believe that will improve the quality of living for our customers and drive our sale growth to achieve the target,” Vittakarn said.
AP (Thailand) expects presales of Bt26 billion this year, up 16 per cent from the Bt22.36 billion last year. Of this amount, Bt13.6 billion of presales will come from single detached houses and townhouses, with the remaining Bt12.4 billion from condominiums.
In the first seven months of this year, the company reported total presales of Bt23.2 billion.
For the first half of this year, the company reported revenue of Bt9.08 billion and net profit of Bt1.16 billion.