CPN Retail Growth Leasehold Rpoperty Fund (CPNRF) has priced 544.83 million new unit trusts at Bt8.90 per unit as part of its plan to invest Bt5.68 billion of fresh funds in Central Plaza Pinklao.
"The offering price was based on the book-building process hile the investment in Central Plaza Pinklao seems to be appropriate with the asset quality," Jotika Savananada, president of SCB Asset Management, said yesterday.
The offering price is below the peoperty fund's market price of Bt9.15.
To raise Bt4.85 billion, at least a half of the new units will be sold to existing holders at the ratio of 0.2505 of a new unit to each existing unit, while the rest will be sold throuht private placement and public offering.
Subscriptions, starting at 5,000 uints, will be acceptedfrom
"The offering price was based on the book-building process while the investment in Central Plaza Pinklao seems to be apporopriate with the aset quality." October 16-27 at Siam Commercial Bank branches nationwide.
SCB last week extended a Bt1 billion credit facility to the property fund to finance the investment in Central Plaza Pinklao by partially letting the shopping plaza, two office buildings, and in-building parking spaces totalling 58,303 square metres, for a term of 15 years.
Following the fund-raising, CPNRF's assets will increase to as much as Bt17 billin from Bt10.92 billion, making it the largest property fund in the country.
The investment in Central Pinklao allows CPNRF, which currently is invested in Central Plaza Rama II and Central Plaza Rama III, to diversify its income risk, she said.
The property fund is expected to produce a return of 10.7-11.1 per cent next year.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Thanasiri prepares for MAI listing
The medium-sized property developer Thanasiri Group is preparing to float 50 million new shares through an initial public offering through the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI).
The company is monitoring the market situation and waiting for a good time to list after its filing was approved by the Securities Exchange Committee in the third quarter, said managing director Sutthirak Sateanraphapayut.
"We will be the first property developer listed on the MAI. We aim to grow at a steady pace and move to the Stock Exchange of Thailand in the future if our scale can reach the SET's requirements,"he said.
With Asia Plus Securities as its financial adviser, prior to the IPO the company will increase its registered capital from the current 200 million baht to 250 million.
Proceeds from the listing would go mainly to reduce debt and expand property projects, particularly in Phuket. The company's debt-to-equity ratio is currently relatively as high at four times.
According to Mr Sutthirak, the company has some good assets including a 100-rai plot near Kamala Beach and Phuket FantaSea, which it wants to develop into residential and hotel projects over the next three to five years.
The plots are currently held by its subsidiary Thanasiri Property Development which has registered capital of 50 million baht.
The group acquired the 100 rai 20 years ago for only 700,000 to 800,000 baht per rai. The land is now worth around 8 million baht per rai. The company would be open to partnerships with firms with high-rise development or construction expertise."We've already talked with several foreign investors but have yet to make any final decision, as we are in no hurry," he said.
Established 30 years ago under the former name Prasith Pin Klao, Thanasiri has developed shophouses and townhouses in the Rattanathibet and Bang Bua Thong areas of Nonthaburi.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, it plans to launch two new housing projects on a 10-rai site on Ratchapreuk Road where it will develop 112 townhouses with starting prices at 2.49 million baht per unit.
Another planned project will have 98 units of shophouses, townhouses, duplex and single houses on a 19-rai site in the Pa Klok area of Phuket, worth a combined 276 million baht.
According to Mr Sutthirak, the luxury housing market in Phuket has slumped on shrinking demand from foreigners but medium-priced or affordable units for Thais show strong demand.
The company also plans to develop a low-rise condominium with 79 units priced around 1.5 million baht each in the same area in Phuket next year.
In the first half of this year, Thanasiri had 300 million baht in revenue and it aims to record around 520-560 million baht by the end of the year, up 30-40%from 400 million in 2008.
The company is monitoring the market situation and waiting for a good time to list after its filing was approved by the Securities Exchange Committee in the third quarter, said managing director Sutthirak Sateanraphapayut.
"We will be the first property developer listed on the MAI. We aim to grow at a steady pace and move to the Stock Exchange of Thailand in the future if our scale can reach the SET's requirements,"he said.
With Asia Plus Securities as its financial adviser, prior to the IPO the company will increase its registered capital from the current 200 million baht to 250 million.
Proceeds from the listing would go mainly to reduce debt and expand property projects, particularly in Phuket. The company's debt-to-equity ratio is currently relatively as high at four times.
According to Mr Sutthirak, the company has some good assets including a 100-rai plot near Kamala Beach and Phuket FantaSea, which it wants to develop into residential and hotel projects over the next three to five years.
The plots are currently held by its subsidiary Thanasiri Property Development which has registered capital of 50 million baht.
The group acquired the 100 rai 20 years ago for only 700,000 to 800,000 baht per rai. The land is now worth around 8 million baht per rai. The company would be open to partnerships with firms with high-rise development or construction expertise."We've already talked with several foreign investors but have yet to make any final decision, as we are in no hurry," he said.
Established 30 years ago under the former name Prasith Pin Klao, Thanasiri has developed shophouses and townhouses in the Rattanathibet and Bang Bua Thong areas of Nonthaburi.
In the fourth quarter of 2009, it plans to launch two new housing projects on a 10-rai site on Ratchapreuk Road where it will develop 112 townhouses with starting prices at 2.49 million baht per unit.
Another planned project will have 98 units of shophouses, townhouses, duplex and single houses on a 19-rai site in the Pa Klok area of Phuket, worth a combined 276 million baht.
According to Mr Sutthirak, the luxury housing market in Phuket has slumped on shrinking demand from foreigners but medium-priced or affordable units for Thais show strong demand.
The company also plans to develop a low-rise condominium with 79 units priced around 1.5 million baht each in the same area in Phuket next year.
In the first half of this year, Thanasiri had 300 million baht in revenue and it aims to record around 520-560 million baht by the end of the year, up 30-40%from 400 million in 2008.
AUSTRALIAN HOUSE PRICES RISING "TOO QUICKLY"
Australian house prices may suge too rapidly, hurting low-income families seeking to buy or rent homes, says Anthony Richards, head of economic analysis at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
"Looking forward, the risk is that we might move toward undesirably strong growth in Australian housing prices," Richards told a housing conference here.
"This raises a number of concerns, which seem to be widely shared in the community."
Australian house prices rose 4.2 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months, the first increase in five quarters, helped by the lowest borrowing costs in half a century and government grants to firsttime buyers.
Richards said it was "increasingly clear" that Australia had avoided the large drops in property prices seen in other countries.
"This is a good thing, because of the macroeconomic difficulties that have accompanied those price falls in some countries," Richards said.
Still. "when the price of housing rises, higher-income households tend to benefit at the expense of lowerincome households," he said. "As a nation, we are not really any richer when the price of housing rises, but the move vulnerable tend to be hurt.
"We are in a situation where we would not want to see very strong growth in housing prices - that would be unhelpful from a social perspective."
Eighty-four per cent of investors are now expecting reserve bank governor Glenn Stevens to boost the overnight cash rate target in November by a quarter point to 3.25 per cent, according to interbank futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange.
While the affordability of housing has improved this year, it will deteriorate when the central bank begins raising the overnight cash rate target from its 49-year low of 3 per cent.
"As the bank has noted on a number of occasions, it is not reasonable to expect that interest rates will stay at the current low levels indefinitely," Richards said. "When they do rise toward more normal levels, discussions on housing affordability will again focus more on the level of housing prices relative to income."
"Looking forward, the risk is that we might move toward undesirably strong growth in Australian housing prices," Richards told a housing conference here.
"This raises a number of concerns, which seem to be widely shared in the community."
Australian house prices rose 4.2 per cent in the second quarter from the previous three months, the first increase in five quarters, helped by the lowest borrowing costs in half a century and government grants to firsttime buyers.
Richards said it was "increasingly clear" that Australia had avoided the large drops in property prices seen in other countries.
"This is a good thing, because of the macroeconomic difficulties that have accompanied those price falls in some countries," Richards said.
Still. "when the price of housing rises, higher-income households tend to benefit at the expense of lowerincome households," he said. "As a nation, we are not really any richer when the price of housing rises, but the move vulnerable tend to be hurt.
"We are in a situation where we would not want to see very strong growth in housing prices - that would be unhelpful from a social perspective."
Eighty-four per cent of investors are now expecting reserve bank governor Glenn Stevens to boost the overnight cash rate target in November by a quarter point to 3.25 per cent, according to interbank futures on the Sydney Futures Exchange.
While the affordability of housing has improved this year, it will deteriorate when the central bank begins raising the overnight cash rate target from its 49-year low of 3 per cent.
"As the bank has noted on a number of occasions, it is not reasonable to expect that interest rates will stay at the current low levels indefinitely," Richards said. "When they do rise toward more normal levels, discussions on housing affordability will again focus more on the level of housing prices relative to income."
On the Auspicious Occasion of His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Having graciously designated His royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn as His Majesty's representative to preside over the Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony and the lnauguration Ceremony of the Administrative Court
The President of the Supreme Administrative Court requests the honor of your attendance to be in Audience at the Ceremonial Site at the Administrative Court Building on Chaengwattana Road, Bangkok, on Thursday, 1st october 2009 at 14:00 hrs.
Prior to being "The Administrative Court", the judicial organ handling administrative justice towards Thai society during 9 years has in fact laid its foundation and evolution on the establishment of the Administrative Court since 8 May 1874, when the establishment and the Act of The Council of State were promulgated by King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V). His Majesty the King enacted on 14th June 1874, the Act on the Council of State as an advisory organ on public administration, law drafting and hearing of the grievances of people aggrieved by actions of government officials at that time. Though this organ was changed into Legislative Council nd revoked afterwards, its power and duties have marked the first step of the Administrative Court's mission and its organization similar to an institution called Conseil d'Etat in civil law countries.
Thus, King Chulalong korn was considered as the founder of the establishment of the Administrative Court in Thailand which developed continuously and its enactment was prescribed afterwards under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E.2540 (1997). When enacting the Act on Establishment of the administrative Court and Administrative Procedure B.E.2542 (1999), the Administrative Court was in operation under the reign of the present king on 9 March 2001 with a number of judges of the Administrative Court in charge of legal proceeding int he name of the king.
Owing to the origin of establishment of the Administrative Court, the court system of Thailand was turned immediately into "dual court system", - The Court of Justice has the duty to deal with civil and criminal justice procedure whereas the Administrative Court is responsible for administrative justice procedure.
Prof.Dr.Ackaratorn Chularat, President of the Supreme Administrative Court briefly stated that "As far back as 141 years ago, ascending to the throne on Thursday 1st October 1868, King Chula longkorn introduced the key concepts and the models of crucial organization to the nation in order to develop the State administration affairs, which made Thailand to be recognized by other civilized countries, especially in 1874, when His Majesty the King established a judicial organ being known amongst civil law countries as Conseil d'Etat or as Council of State and when "the Act on the Council of State - a Councilor of State" was enacted. Its mission was not only drafting laws and law advisor but also hearing grievance of people which is meant generally as administrative cases. After the Council of State was first established in Thailand, His Majesty the King played, 20 years later, an important role in the reforms of court affairs, the establishment of Ministry of Justice and the application of civil law system of European countries to Thai legal system until present days."
After the revolution of 1932, the government at that time decided by Mr. Pridi Banomyong (Luang Praditmanutham) embraced the policy to reestablish an organ responsible for administrative cases and advisory role of government resembling the Council of State by enacting the Act on Council of State B.E. 2476 (1933). Despite the fact that the mission concerning the adjudication of administrative cases could not yet materialized until the enactment prescribing details on the administrative court procedure, the persistent effort to develop the establishment of the Administrative Court in any forms was still continued. The "Petition Committee" was then set up by a Petition Act B.E.2492 (1949) in order to adjudicate administrative cases. Indeed, the progress came into fruition when the Act on Council of State B.E.2522 (1979) was amended by another "Petition Committee" amongst the Council of State distinct from Legislation Committee, later becoming the Administrative Court. This progressive development brought finally the establishment of the Administrative Court under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E.(2540) 1997 and the Act on Establishment of Administrative Court and Administrative Court Procedure B.E.2542(1999).
The first inauguration of the Administrative Court dated on 9 March 2001 - the Supreme Administrative Court, the Central Administrative Court with the Office of the administrative Courts, were located temporarity at the Empire Tower on South Sathorn Road, Bangkok whilst the permanent premises of the Administrative Court was under construction. During this period of time, Regional Administrative Courts in 7 provinces were also in operation, namely the Chiang Mai Administrative Court, the Songkhla Administrative Court, the Nakhon Rat chasima Administrative Court, the Khon Kaen Administrative Court, the Khon Kaen Administrative Court, the Phitsanulok Administrative Court, the Rayong Administrative Court as well as the Nakhon Si Thammarat Administrative Court. The Central Administrative Court including these 7 Regional Administrative Courts have their jurisdiction throughout the Kingdom. When the permanent premises of the Administrative Court were accomplished on 14th July 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court, the Central Administrative Court and the Office of the Administrative Courts were then relocated permanently at the new premises of the Administrative Court at No.120 Moo 3, Cheangwattana Road, Thungsonghong sub-district, Lak Si district, Bangkok 10210. Tel. 0 2141 1111 or Hotline: 1355.
On the auspicious occasion, His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej has graciously designated His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, along with Her Royal Highness Princess Srirasm, to represent Him at the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone and inauguration of the premises of the Administrative Court on 1st October 2009 at 14:00 hrs. which is the significant day to commemorate the accession to the throne of King Chulalongkorn, the King who initiated an organ which is known as the Council of State, the origin of the Administrative Court today.
Prof. Dr. Ackaratorn Chularat, the President of the Supreme Administrative court requests the honor of your attendance to be in audience at the premises of Administrative Court on Chaengwattana Road, Bangkok in order to express conjointly an eternal allegiance.
The President of the Supreme Administrative Court requests the honor of your attendance to be in Audience at the Ceremonial Site at the Administrative Court Building on Chaengwattana Road, Bangkok, on Thursday, 1st october 2009 at 14:00 hrs.
Prior to being "The Administrative Court", the judicial organ handling administrative justice towards Thai society during 9 years has in fact laid its foundation and evolution on the establishment of the Administrative Court since 8 May 1874, when the establishment and the Act of The Council of State were promulgated by King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V). His Majesty the King enacted on 14th June 1874, the Act on the Council of State as an advisory organ on public administration, law drafting and hearing of the grievances of people aggrieved by actions of government officials at that time. Though this organ was changed into Legislative Council nd revoked afterwards, its power and duties have marked the first step of the Administrative Court's mission and its organization similar to an institution called Conseil d'Etat in civil law countries.
Thus, King Chulalong korn was considered as the founder of the establishment of the Administrative Court in Thailand which developed continuously and its enactment was prescribed afterwards under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E.2540 (1997). When enacting the Act on Establishment of the administrative Court and Administrative Procedure B.E.2542 (1999), the Administrative Court was in operation under the reign of the present king on 9 March 2001 with a number of judges of the Administrative Court in charge of legal proceeding int he name of the king.
Owing to the origin of establishment of the Administrative Court, the court system of Thailand was turned immediately into "dual court system", - The Court of Justice has the duty to deal with civil and criminal justice procedure whereas the Administrative Court is responsible for administrative justice procedure.
Prof.Dr.Ackaratorn Chularat, President of the Supreme Administrative Court briefly stated that "As far back as 141 years ago, ascending to the throne on Thursday 1st October 1868, King Chula longkorn introduced the key concepts and the models of crucial organization to the nation in order to develop the State administration affairs, which made Thailand to be recognized by other civilized countries, especially in 1874, when His Majesty the King established a judicial organ being known amongst civil law countries as Conseil d'Etat or as Council of State and when "the Act on the Council of State - a Councilor of State" was enacted. Its mission was not only drafting laws and law advisor but also hearing grievance of people which is meant generally as administrative cases. After the Council of State was first established in Thailand, His Majesty the King played, 20 years later, an important role in the reforms of court affairs, the establishment of Ministry of Justice and the application of civil law system of European countries to Thai legal system until present days."
After the revolution of 1932, the government at that time decided by Mr. Pridi Banomyong (Luang Praditmanutham) embraced the policy to reestablish an organ responsible for administrative cases and advisory role of government resembling the Council of State by enacting the Act on Council of State B.E. 2476 (1933). Despite the fact that the mission concerning the adjudication of administrative cases could not yet materialized until the enactment prescribing details on the administrative court procedure, the persistent effort to develop the establishment of the Administrative Court in any forms was still continued. The "Petition Committee" was then set up by a Petition Act B.E.2492 (1949) in order to adjudicate administrative cases. Indeed, the progress came into fruition when the Act on Council of State B.E.2522 (1979) was amended by another "Petition Committee" amongst the Council of State distinct from Legislation Committee, later becoming the Administrative Court. This progressive development brought finally the establishment of the Administrative Court under the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand B.E.(2540) 1997 and the Act on Establishment of Administrative Court and Administrative Court Procedure B.E.2542(1999).
The first inauguration of the Administrative Court dated on 9 March 2001 - the Supreme Administrative Court, the Central Administrative Court with the Office of the administrative Courts, were located temporarity at the Empire Tower on South Sathorn Road, Bangkok whilst the permanent premises of the Administrative Court was under construction. During this period of time, Regional Administrative Courts in 7 provinces were also in operation, namely the Chiang Mai Administrative Court, the Songkhla Administrative Court, the Nakhon Rat chasima Administrative Court, the Khon Kaen Administrative Court, the Khon Kaen Administrative Court, the Phitsanulok Administrative Court, the Rayong Administrative Court as well as the Nakhon Si Thammarat Administrative Court. The Central Administrative Court including these 7 Regional Administrative Courts have their jurisdiction throughout the Kingdom. When the permanent premises of the Administrative Court were accomplished on 14th July 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court, the Central Administrative Court and the Office of the Administrative Courts were then relocated permanently at the new premises of the Administrative Court at No.120 Moo 3, Cheangwattana Road, Thungsonghong sub-district, Lak Si district, Bangkok 10210. Tel. 0 2141 1111 or Hotline: 1355.
On the auspicious occasion, His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej has graciously designated His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, along with Her Royal Highness Princess Srirasm, to represent Him at the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone and inauguration of the premises of the Administrative Court on 1st October 2009 at 14:00 hrs. which is the significant day to commemorate the accession to the throne of King Chulalongkorn, the King who initiated an organ which is known as the Council of State, the origin of the Administrative Court today.
Prof. Dr. Ackaratorn Chularat, the President of the Supreme Administrative court requests the honor of your attendance to be in audience at the premises of Administrative Court on Chaengwattana Road, Bangkok in order to express conjointly an eternal allegiance.
HOME & CONDO SHOW LAUNCHES DISCOUNT SEASON
October is the month when many property developers will begin a final push to boost their 2009 sales.
The final three months of the year is traditionally a period of peak newhome sales, and a full range of marketing campaigns can be expected to begin with today's opening of the 21st Houwe & Condo Show at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.
The four-day show is organised by the Thai Real Estate Association, the Thai Condominium Association and the Housing Business Association.
Taking part will be property developers with more than 500 projects valued at more than Bt100 billion. The show is expected to generate sales worth between Bt2 billion and Bt3 billion.
Concurrently with the House & Condo Show, leading developer Sansiri will stage an event called "Sansiri Best Buy" in the Hall of Fame on the M floor of Siam Paragon.
Later, real-estate agency Knight Frank Charter(Thailand) will hold "Test of Living", an event that will introduce a range of resort-destination properties. The 10-day event will open on October 15 in the Hall of Fame on the M floor of Siam Paragon.
Most property developers taking part in the House&Condo Show plan to offer discount prices, free furniture, free home appliances, and other incentives to attract buyers.
For example, LPN Development is offering discounts of up to Bt500,000, depending on the price of the residence being purchased, for home-buyers who buy from its residential projects at the show.
It will also introduce two new residential projects at Bang Khae and Pinklao with special promotional campaigns.
Tararom Enterprises is offering a discount of Bt1 million on single detached houses at five locations for buyers visiting its booth at the House & Condo Show or those visiting its project sites before October 25. The promotional campaign is named Last Call 2009.
Those who buy from the company's five residential projects will also qualify for a lucky draw with also qualify for a lucky draw with prizes of gold totalling Bt1.82 million, managing director Wasan Kiengsiri said.
The five projects are The Parkway Chalet Ramkhamhaeng, priced at Bt3.65 million per unit; Promenade Home Thon Buri at Rama II, priced at Bt4 million per unit; Neighbourhme Watcharapong, costing Bt3.08 million per unit; Parkway Home Ramkhamhaeng, priced at Bt7.20 million per unit; and Garden Suite Indi Home, costing Bt2.15 million per unit.
Bangkok Commercial Asset Management (BAM) will launch a new campaign to sell condominium units at the House & Condo Show. Called Smart Condo, the campaign will give limited privileges to buyers in what it calls "the 2nd big BAM condominium grand sale 2009", running until the end of this month.
BAM will offer special clearance discounts on more than 800 condominium units around the country. The privileges, aimed at easing its clients' financial burden during the economic downturn, will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis, the company's senior executive vice presidents Sumet Maneewattana said.Buyers will be able to pay easily with low interest rates set at the miniumum lending rate minus 3 per cent over a term of 10 years.
Sumet said the buyers of the first 100 condominium units this month would also receive free Saijo Denki air-conditioning.
Property developer Tanayong is offering a special promotion on two projects, Thana Place King Kaew and Nouvelle Condominium, where the starting price is Bt648,000 for a one-bedroom unit. The company is offering booking fees of only Bt10,000 and no contract or transfer fees.
Commercial banks are also offering special interest deals for mortgages, many of them with no interest charges for the first year.
Thai Condominium Association president Atip Bichanond said homebuyers would be able to buy at original prices that would rise in the coming year.
"This is a good time to buy because buyers will get original prices and discount prices when they but at this event," he said.
At the Sansiri Best Buy event at Siam Paragon, developer Sansiri will be offering special promotional deals on 29 residential projects with a total of 428 units.
Offers will include discount prices for down payments up to 50 per cent, mortgages from Siam Commercial Bank with no interest charges for the first year, no transfer fees and discounts up to Bt300,000 depending on the price of the residence being bought.
Sansiri expects sales from the event to reach Bt1 billion, taking it closer to its presales target of Bt 20 million this year, executive board chairman Apichart Chutrakul said.
Knight Frank Charter (Thailand) will also launch its latest property event at Siam Paragon on October 15, called Taste of Living. Residences worth more than Bt10 billion will be on offer, in Bangkok as well as at holiday destinations such as Hua Hin, Pattaya, Cha-am and Rayong. The event was originally to be staged in April, but was delayed.
Managing director Phanom Kanjanathiemthao said the company expected sales at the event to reach between Bt1 billion and Bt2 billion.
"We see a significant likelihood of property market recovery in the last quarter of this year. As a result we are confident that this event will generate sales to achiever our target," he said.
The final three months of the year is traditionally a period of peak newhome sales, and a full range of marketing campaigns can be expected to begin with today's opening of the 21st Houwe & Condo Show at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.
The four-day show is organised by the Thai Real Estate Association, the Thai Condominium Association and the Housing Business Association.
Taking part will be property developers with more than 500 projects valued at more than Bt100 billion. The show is expected to generate sales worth between Bt2 billion and Bt3 billion.
Concurrently with the House & Condo Show, leading developer Sansiri will stage an event called "Sansiri Best Buy" in the Hall of Fame on the M floor of Siam Paragon.
Later, real-estate agency Knight Frank Charter(Thailand) will hold "Test of Living", an event that will introduce a range of resort-destination properties. The 10-day event will open on October 15 in the Hall of Fame on the M floor of Siam Paragon.
Most property developers taking part in the House&Condo Show plan to offer discount prices, free furniture, free home appliances, and other incentives to attract buyers.
For example, LPN Development is offering discounts of up to Bt500,000, depending on the price of the residence being purchased, for home-buyers who buy from its residential projects at the show.
It will also introduce two new residential projects at Bang Khae and Pinklao with special promotional campaigns.
Tararom Enterprises is offering a discount of Bt1 million on single detached houses at five locations for buyers visiting its booth at the House & Condo Show or those visiting its project sites before October 25. The promotional campaign is named Last Call 2009.
Those who buy from the company's five residential projects will also qualify for a lucky draw with also qualify for a lucky draw with prizes of gold totalling Bt1.82 million, managing director Wasan Kiengsiri said.
The five projects are The Parkway Chalet Ramkhamhaeng, priced at Bt3.65 million per unit; Promenade Home Thon Buri at Rama II, priced at Bt4 million per unit; Neighbourhme Watcharapong, costing Bt3.08 million per unit; Parkway Home Ramkhamhaeng, priced at Bt7.20 million per unit; and Garden Suite Indi Home, costing Bt2.15 million per unit.
Bangkok Commercial Asset Management (BAM) will launch a new campaign to sell condominium units at the House & Condo Show. Called Smart Condo, the campaign will give limited privileges to buyers in what it calls "the 2nd big BAM condominium grand sale 2009", running until the end of this month.
BAM will offer special clearance discounts on more than 800 condominium units around the country. The privileges, aimed at easing its clients' financial burden during the economic downturn, will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis, the company's senior executive vice presidents Sumet Maneewattana said.Buyers will be able to pay easily with low interest rates set at the miniumum lending rate minus 3 per cent over a term of 10 years.
Sumet said the buyers of the first 100 condominium units this month would also receive free Saijo Denki air-conditioning.
Property developer Tanayong is offering a special promotion on two projects, Thana Place King Kaew and Nouvelle Condominium, where the starting price is Bt648,000 for a one-bedroom unit. The company is offering booking fees of only Bt10,000 and no contract or transfer fees.
Commercial banks are also offering special interest deals for mortgages, many of them with no interest charges for the first year.
Thai Condominium Association president Atip Bichanond said homebuyers would be able to buy at original prices that would rise in the coming year.
"This is a good time to buy because buyers will get original prices and discount prices when they but at this event," he said.
At the Sansiri Best Buy event at Siam Paragon, developer Sansiri will be offering special promotional deals on 29 residential projects with a total of 428 units.
Offers will include discount prices for down payments up to 50 per cent, mortgages from Siam Commercial Bank with no interest charges for the first year, no transfer fees and discounts up to Bt300,000 depending on the price of the residence being bought.
Sansiri expects sales from the event to reach Bt1 billion, taking it closer to its presales target of Bt 20 million this year, executive board chairman Apichart Chutrakul said.
Knight Frank Charter (Thailand) will also launch its latest property event at Siam Paragon on October 15, called Taste of Living. Residences worth more than Bt10 billion will be on offer, in Bangkok as well as at holiday destinations such as Hua Hin, Pattaya, Cha-am and Rayong. The event was originally to be staged in April, but was delayed.
Managing director Phanom Kanjanathiemthao said the company expected sales at the event to reach between Bt1 billion and Bt2 billion.
"We see a significant likelihood of property market recovery in the last quarter of this year. As a result we are confident that this event will generate sales to achiever our target," he said.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
SANSIRI HUA HIN PROJECT NEAR CAPACITY
Since launching presales in 2007, Sansiri has sold 148 units of its Baan Nub Kluen condominium project in Hua Hin, representing 82 per cent of the project's value of Bt1.19 billion.
Executive vice president Uthai Uthaisangsuk said the company expected to close sales for the project in the first quarter of 2010.
To meet this target, the company has redesigned some units, including the penthouse, under the theme Nautica Blue Villa.
The blue design was selected to match the unit's natural raw materials, including wood and fabric.
Sansiri senior manager for product development, Jariya Janjersak, said the use of natural materials created a textured look and feel. The design of the project is intended to convey a feeling of being close to nature.
With floor space of 238 square metres, the penthouse has three bedrooms and three bathrooms - and a price tag of Bt25 million.
One of the unit types - Coastal Rustic Beach - makes prominent use of earth tones, Jariya said, in a design intended to relax the resident. These two-bedroom, two-bathroom units have floor space of 101 square metres and sell for Bt10 million.
There are six other types of units: Coral Green (89.47 square metres, Bt6.95 million), Modern Sand (144.01 square metres, Bt15 million), Sunny Sand (89.5 square metres, Bt6.04 million), Arctic Blue, (88.91 square metres, Bt6.16 million), Romantic Beach (91 square metres, Bt6.2 million) and Cozy Summer (88.98 square metres, Bt7 million).
Executive vice president Uthai Uthaisangsuk said the company expected to close sales for the project in the first quarter of 2010.
To meet this target, the company has redesigned some units, including the penthouse, under the theme Nautica Blue Villa.
The blue design was selected to match the unit's natural raw materials, including wood and fabric.
Sansiri senior manager for product development, Jariya Janjersak, said the use of natural materials created a textured look and feel. The design of the project is intended to convey a feeling of being close to nature.
With floor space of 238 square metres, the penthouse has three bedrooms and three bathrooms - and a price tag of Bt25 million.
One of the unit types - Coastal Rustic Beach - makes prominent use of earth tones, Jariya said, in a design intended to relax the resident. These two-bedroom, two-bathroom units have floor space of 101 square metres and sell for Bt10 million.
There are six other types of units: Coral Green (89.47 square metres, Bt6.95 million), Modern Sand (144.01 square metres, Bt15 million), Sunny Sand (89.5 square metres, Bt6.04 million), Arctic Blue, (88.91 square metres, Bt6.16 million), Romantic Beach (91 square metres, Bt6.2 million) and Cozy Summer (88.98 square metres, Bt7 million).
SANSIRI EYES MASS-TRANSIT AREAS
Property firm Sansiri plans to construct condominium projects in the corridors between Bangkok's inner-city and suburban areas to cater changes in the market brought about by the planned expansion of the city's mass-transit system over the coming year.
Executive vice president for business and project development (high rise) Uthai Uthaisangsuk said the company plans to launch 10 new condominium project worth nearly Bt11 billion next year.
Those located close to the planned new and extension routes for the Skytrain will be sold for between Bt50,000 and Bt80,000 per square metre.
"This is the customer group we are targeting no - thanks to the new mass-transit routes," he said.
According to Uthai, the government's policy to expand the Skytrain system has brought about a change in Bangkok's property market, with demand increasing in areas located between the inner city and the suburbs.
The company's plan to launch new projects in these areas is a direct result of this shift, he said.
Sansiri is in negotiations to buy undeveloped land along the extension routes from Sathron Station to Wongwian Yai Station and from On Nut Station to Baring Station. Residences along the routes will fetch between Bt700,000 and Bt80,000 per square metre, targeting the middle-income market. Sansiri plans to launch a new brand to market these projects, Uthai said.
The company has several brands of city condominiums, each targeting a different customer group.
The brands include Prive, about 76 percent of whose units have been sold; Preen (92 per cent); Hive Taksin (80 per cent); Hive Sukhumvit Soi 65 (80 per cent); Quattro by Sansiri (70 per cent); and Blocs 77 (61 per cent).
Uthai said demand for condominiums with convenient access to the mass-transit system has continued to grow, but is largely limited to locations between 100 metres and 200 metres from the transport network.
Sanrisi is limiting projects located more than one kilometre from the extended rail network to low-rise residential structures such as townhouses and detached houses.
Between 60 and 70 per cent of Sansiri's customers buy condominium units as a primay residence, with the remainder buying in order to rent the residence out, or for other investment purposes, Uthai said.
According to a survey conducted by the company, customers who buy units to live in see and average return on investment of 6 per cent. Those who rent out their units see an average return of 10 per cent.
Some customers who sell their units after two or three years have seen returns exceeding 100 per cent, Uthai said.
Sansiri is interested in launching new condominium projects in Pattaya, Phuket and Hua Hin next year, forecasting strong demand in these locations, he said.
The company already has two condominium projects in Hua Hin: Baan Bub Kluen (82 per cent of its 180 units have been sold) and Baan Sansuk (81 percent of 229 units sold).
Most customers buying residences in Hua Hin are Thai, Uthai said, so the projects are unlikely to be adversely affected by any sudden loss of interest in the Thai market on the part of foreigners.
Executive vice president for business and project development (high rise) Uthai Uthaisangsuk said the company plans to launch 10 new condominium project worth nearly Bt11 billion next year.
Those located close to the planned new and extension routes for the Skytrain will be sold for between Bt50,000 and Bt80,000 per square metre.
"This is the customer group we are targeting no - thanks to the new mass-transit routes," he said.
According to Uthai, the government's policy to expand the Skytrain system has brought about a change in Bangkok's property market, with demand increasing in areas located between the inner city and the suburbs.
The company's plan to launch new projects in these areas is a direct result of this shift, he said.
Sansiri is in negotiations to buy undeveloped land along the extension routes from Sathron Station to Wongwian Yai Station and from On Nut Station to Baring Station. Residences along the routes will fetch between Bt700,000 and Bt80,000 per square metre, targeting the middle-income market. Sansiri plans to launch a new brand to market these projects, Uthai said.
The company has several brands of city condominiums, each targeting a different customer group.
The brands include Prive, about 76 percent of whose units have been sold; Preen (92 per cent); Hive Taksin (80 per cent); Hive Sukhumvit Soi 65 (80 per cent); Quattro by Sansiri (70 per cent); and Blocs 77 (61 per cent).
Uthai said demand for condominiums with convenient access to the mass-transit system has continued to grow, but is largely limited to locations between 100 metres and 200 metres from the transport network.
Sanrisi is limiting projects located more than one kilometre from the extended rail network to low-rise residential structures such as townhouses and detached houses.
Between 60 and 70 per cent of Sansiri's customers buy condominium units as a primay residence, with the remainder buying in order to rent the residence out, or for other investment purposes, Uthai said.
According to a survey conducted by the company, customers who buy units to live in see and average return on investment of 6 per cent. Those who rent out their units see an average return of 10 per cent.
Some customers who sell their units after two or three years have seen returns exceeding 100 per cent, Uthai said.
Sansiri is interested in launching new condominium projects in Pattaya, Phuket and Hua Hin next year, forecasting strong demand in these locations, he said.
The company already has two condominium projects in Hua Hin: Baan Bub Kluen (82 per cent of its 180 units have been sold) and Baan Sansuk (81 percent of 229 units sold).
Most customers buying residences in Hua Hin are Thai, Uthai said, so the projects are unlikely to be adversely affected by any sudden loss of interest in the Thai market on the part of foreigners.
OP GARDEN TARGETS THAI CUSTOM
OP Place shopping centre operator Bhandhamitri, a subsidiary of TCC Group, has opened a sister shopping centre, OP Garden.
The new centre was built at a cost of Bt300 milliion with the goal of expanding the firm's customer base to welcome more Thai shoppers.
Titapar Tepakhun, managing director of Bhandhamitri, said the company decided to open the new shopping centre after experiencing a more than 50-per-cent drop in foreign customer traffic in the wake of the political turmoil of the past two years, with last year's blockade of Suvarnabhumi Airport doing particular damage.
"OP Place has always relied heavily on foreign shoppers, whose numbers are ,pre semsotive to political troubles.This is a major reason we decided to open a new shopping mall - as a way to reduce such risks," Titapar said.
Despite the emergence of signs that the economy is recovering, the number of the centre's foreign customers has seen only a modest rebound, she said.
The company is confident that customer levels will be fully restored by the fourth quarter, which is high tourist season, however.
Despite the drop in traffic, shopowners at OP Place have staved on due to the strength of the OP brand, Titapar said. "Our owners recognise the value of the OP brand, which accompanies only exclusivge products. They want to move to OP Garden, but we want to create a distinct segment [at OP Garden] in terms of products and target customers. For that reason, the brands at OP Garden are unlike those at OP Place. The product grade at OP Garden is premium, but the prices are lower than those at OP Place."
OP Place's clientele generally comprises foreigners and consumers with extraordinarily high purchasing power, Titapar said, while the main target group at OP Garden is Thais. Half of the shop-owners at OP Garden will be Thais, while OP Place has only 30 Thai vendors.
Most shop-owners at OP Garden sell the bulk of their products through the International Gift Fair & Bangkok International Houseware Fair (BIG&BIH). Their premium products are attractive but have few selling venues, she said.
Bhandhamitri also plans for OP Garden to host events to generate revenue. Such activities cannot be held at OP Place, where shop-owners and customers prefer privacy.
OP Garden opened for business two months ago, but the grand opening will take place in November. The mall is located on Charoenkrung Road, near its sibling. OP Garden will have a more contemporary look than OP Place, which features an "Asian heritage" style.
Titapar said the high land price was the main reason for OP Garden's hefty cost. The Bt300-million investment covers the cost of the land, renovation of existing structures and the installation of facilities.
The substantial investment led the company to set the mall's rental fee at Bt1,500 per square metre per month, compared to Bt1,000 at OP Place. OP Garden is 75 per cent occupied and is expected to be full by April, Titapar said.
The new centre was built at a cost of Bt300 milliion with the goal of expanding the firm's customer base to welcome more Thai shoppers.
Titapar Tepakhun, managing director of Bhandhamitri, said the company decided to open the new shopping centre after experiencing a more than 50-per-cent drop in foreign customer traffic in the wake of the political turmoil of the past two years, with last year's blockade of Suvarnabhumi Airport doing particular damage.
"OP Place has always relied heavily on foreign shoppers, whose numbers are ,pre semsotive to political troubles.This is a major reason we decided to open a new shopping mall - as a way to reduce such risks," Titapar said.
Despite the emergence of signs that the economy is recovering, the number of the centre's foreign customers has seen only a modest rebound, she said.
The company is confident that customer levels will be fully restored by the fourth quarter, which is high tourist season, however.
Despite the drop in traffic, shopowners at OP Place have staved on due to the strength of the OP brand, Titapar said. "Our owners recognise the value of the OP brand, which accompanies only exclusivge products. They want to move to OP Garden, but we want to create a distinct segment [at OP Garden] in terms of products and target customers. For that reason, the brands at OP Garden are unlike those at OP Place. The product grade at OP Garden is premium, but the prices are lower than those at OP Place."
OP Place's clientele generally comprises foreigners and consumers with extraordinarily high purchasing power, Titapar said, while the main target group at OP Garden is Thais. Half of the shop-owners at OP Garden will be Thais, while OP Place has only 30 Thai vendors.
Most shop-owners at OP Garden sell the bulk of their products through the International Gift Fair & Bangkok International Houseware Fair (BIG&BIH). Their premium products are attractive but have few selling venues, she said.
Bhandhamitri also plans for OP Garden to host events to generate revenue. Such activities cannot be held at OP Place, where shop-owners and customers prefer privacy.
OP Garden opened for business two months ago, but the grand opening will take place in November. The mall is located on Charoenkrung Road, near its sibling. OP Garden will have a more contemporary look than OP Place, which features an "Asian heritage" style.
Titapar said the high land price was the main reason for OP Garden's hefty cost. The Bt300-million investment covers the cost of the land, renovation of existing structures and the installation of facilities.
The substantial investment led the company to set the mall's rental fee at Bt1,500 per square metre per month, compared to Bt1,000 at OP Place. OP Garden is 75 per cent occupied and is expected to be full by April, Titapar said.
SEA SAMUI REVIVING ISLAND'S PROPERTY MARKET
Lifting some of the gloom that has enveloped the Samui property market over the past year is a high-end villa and condominium project in the sought-after northern part of the island that a Thai developer has just completed.
The Sea Samui on Mae Nam beach has been developed by Sinthoranee Property Company and will be operated by Astudo Hotel and Resort Group under its vacation residence brand Le Bayaburi.
In a market dominated by foreign players,the local developer is following in the footsteps of another Thai developer, Bangkok-based Aquarius Estate Company, which earlier made its mark with the successful Casavela condominium, now operated as the luxury Shasa Hotel.
Wuttichai Phaoenchoke, Sinthoranee's managing director, said the total investment in The Sea was 550 million baht. His company self-financed the entire development without taking out any bank loans. The three-rai plot on Mae Nam beach which abuts the island's ring road was purchased two years ago, and construction was completed in only 10 months. The project has just six villas of three different styles and 15 one-, two- and three-bedroom duplex condominiums housed in a three-storey building. This structure is to the front of the development and has a lobby and both open-air and airconditioned restaurants on the ground floor.The villas follow on from this building, flanking a flight of stairs that leads to the large swimming pool by the beach.
From the pool area and the beach one can clearly see Koh Phangan, where the infamous full moon parties are held regularly. An attendant said one could reach the neighbouring island in 15 minutes by speedboat from this point, but usually people take the regular ferries across in a longer 45-minute trip.
The project's strong point is indeed its location, only 10 kilometres away from Samui's airport, privately owned by Bangkok Airways. Three kilometres farther down from the project is the Four Seasons Hotel, and the shopping and entertainment beach Chaweng - is also close by.
C9 Hotelworks managing director Bill Barnett said in a recent research paper that the availability of prime land in traditional areas continues to shrink, and this is pushing property development on Samui southward along the western coast.
Increasingly, limitations in sizeable parcels of land will restrict the number of large projects on the island in the coming years, with bids for the last remaining large coastal parcels going up in price, Mr Barnett added.
Mr Wuttichai said Sinthoranee had not as yet aggressively marketed the The Sea Samui,doing so only through its website and advertisements in inflight magazines. However,there are plans to participate in a property exhibition in Singapore soon.
"Right now we have sold 40%, and we would like to stress that we did not stall during the economic slowdown. Although there have been project delays in many places,we completed ours," he said.
The focus is on foreign buyers, although foreigners cannot hold more than 49% of the space in a condominium on freehold basis according to Thai laws. The prices for the villas range from 36 million to 55 million baht.
Condominiums are priced from 13.2 million to 31 million baht.
Realising that property buyers are determined to obtain good rental income right from the start in these economically challenging times, Mr Wuttichai is following other developers both in Bangkok and Hua Hin in offering guaranteed returns of 6% for the first two years.
To help ensure that buyers continue to get a return on their investment, Mr Wuttichai shrewdly brought in Astudo, a Bangkok-based company operated by a group of Thai and international development professionals, to manage the estate and handle the vacation rentals.
Anthony McDonald, Astudo's CEO, said rental income would be calculated the same as it is for hotels, with prices varying according to the season and the view from the unit or villa.
Returns will be divided 60-40%, with the owners getting the larger share, and Astudo's portion covering the cost of operating the project and handling the sales and marketing.
"We take care of everything, including the cleaning. The buyers don't have to think about anything at all and are able to relax worry-free.
"It is similar to managing our own hotels,with a small difference being that we share the profit."
Astudo is currently managing 10 hotels in Thailand, four of its own and six belonging to other parties.
It also has plans to manage one in the Philippines which is not yet open.
Aside from Le Bayaburi, Astudo's other three hotel brands are the five-star X2, fourstar Away and three- to four-star city business hotels known as The Base.
Mr Wuttichai has come up with a novel approach to resort villa and condominium rentals - renting out a large villa or condominium to two separate parties. He gave the villa in which he held a press briefing last week as an example. The villa is actually a cluster of three small buildings. One with two bedrooms can be rented out separately,as can another which has one bedroom and its own mini-bar.
"Some types of two-bedroom condominiums can be divided and rented out separately. Going in there is a door to the left and one to the right. This is so that the owners can make a profit, which is important right now."
Mr McDonald said that as Samui is mainly a foreign tourist market he expects as many as 80% of The Sea's visitors to be from overseas.
"Samui is trying to draw Thai visitors, as some months are low occupancy for foreigners but not Thais," he added.
The Sea Samui on Mae Nam beach has been developed by Sinthoranee Property Company and will be operated by Astudo Hotel and Resort Group under its vacation residence brand Le Bayaburi.
In a market dominated by foreign players,the local developer is following in the footsteps of another Thai developer, Bangkok-based Aquarius Estate Company, which earlier made its mark with the successful Casavela condominium, now operated as the luxury Shasa Hotel.
Wuttichai Phaoenchoke, Sinthoranee's managing director, said the total investment in The Sea was 550 million baht. His company self-financed the entire development without taking out any bank loans. The three-rai plot on Mae Nam beach which abuts the island's ring road was purchased two years ago, and construction was completed in only 10 months. The project has just six villas of three different styles and 15 one-, two- and three-bedroom duplex condominiums housed in a three-storey building. This structure is to the front of the development and has a lobby and both open-air and airconditioned restaurants on the ground floor.The villas follow on from this building, flanking a flight of stairs that leads to the large swimming pool by the beach.
From the pool area and the beach one can clearly see Koh Phangan, where the infamous full moon parties are held regularly. An attendant said one could reach the neighbouring island in 15 minutes by speedboat from this point, but usually people take the regular ferries across in a longer 45-minute trip.
The project's strong point is indeed its location, only 10 kilometres away from Samui's airport, privately owned by Bangkok Airways. Three kilometres farther down from the project is the Four Seasons Hotel, and the shopping and entertainment beach Chaweng - is also close by.
C9 Hotelworks managing director Bill Barnett said in a recent research paper that the availability of prime land in traditional areas continues to shrink, and this is pushing property development on Samui southward along the western coast.
Increasingly, limitations in sizeable parcels of land will restrict the number of large projects on the island in the coming years, with bids for the last remaining large coastal parcels going up in price, Mr Barnett added.
Mr Wuttichai said Sinthoranee had not as yet aggressively marketed the The Sea Samui,doing so only through its website and advertisements in inflight magazines. However,there are plans to participate in a property exhibition in Singapore soon.
"Right now we have sold 40%, and we would like to stress that we did not stall during the economic slowdown. Although there have been project delays in many places,we completed ours," he said.
The focus is on foreign buyers, although foreigners cannot hold more than 49% of the space in a condominium on freehold basis according to Thai laws. The prices for the villas range from 36 million to 55 million baht.
Condominiums are priced from 13.2 million to 31 million baht.
Realising that property buyers are determined to obtain good rental income right from the start in these economically challenging times, Mr Wuttichai is following other developers both in Bangkok and Hua Hin in offering guaranteed returns of 6% for the first two years.
To help ensure that buyers continue to get a return on their investment, Mr Wuttichai shrewdly brought in Astudo, a Bangkok-based company operated by a group of Thai and international development professionals, to manage the estate and handle the vacation rentals.
Anthony McDonald, Astudo's CEO, said rental income would be calculated the same as it is for hotels, with prices varying according to the season and the view from the unit or villa.
Returns will be divided 60-40%, with the owners getting the larger share, and Astudo's portion covering the cost of operating the project and handling the sales and marketing.
"We take care of everything, including the cleaning. The buyers don't have to think about anything at all and are able to relax worry-free.
"It is similar to managing our own hotels,with a small difference being that we share the profit."
Astudo is currently managing 10 hotels in Thailand, four of its own and six belonging to other parties.
It also has plans to manage one in the Philippines which is not yet open.
Aside from Le Bayaburi, Astudo's other three hotel brands are the five-star X2, fourstar Away and three- to four-star city business hotels known as The Base.
Mr Wuttichai has come up with a novel approach to resort villa and condominium rentals - renting out a large villa or condominium to two separate parties. He gave the villa in which he held a press briefing last week as an example. The villa is actually a cluster of three small buildings. One with two bedrooms can be rented out separately,as can another which has one bedroom and its own mini-bar.
"Some types of two-bedroom condominiums can be divided and rented out separately. Going in there is a door to the left and one to the right. This is so that the owners can make a profit, which is important right now."
Mr McDonald said that as Samui is mainly a foreign tourist market he expects as many as 80% of The Sea's visitors to be from overseas.
"Samui is trying to draw Thai visitors, as some months are low occupancy for foreigners but not Thais," he added.
GRANDMA HAI'S LONG BATTLE FOR JUSTICE
Hai Khanjanta's rice paddy may not yield a good harvest this year because the plants are being attacked by aphids. But this is not a big deal for the 80-yearold grandmother as long as she has land to grow rice again.
After a 30-year battle to reclaim her land after the construction of a dam,last week she was awarded 1.2 million baht in compensation.
But the story of "Grandma Hai", as she is popularly known, a resident of Na Tan village in Ubon Ratchathani province, would not be known if she had not dug a hole in the crest of Huay La Ha dam in 2004 to reclaim her submerged paddy.
Not only did she breach the dam wall, she also brought to public attention the plight of struggling farmers trying to protect their land from poor water-management planning.
Mrs Hai is a subsistence farmer,and the paddy is her livelihood. As far back as she can remember, her family relied on the paddy as its main source of income. Since she was a child, Mrs Hai helped her mother grow rice and as she was the favourite daughter she eventually inherited the best plot of the family paddy located near a stream.
But by the late 1970s a reservoir with a storage capacity of 240,000 cubic metres was built in her village by the now defunct Rural Development Department under the Interior Ministry.In 1977, water started to fill the reservoir,gradually submerging rice paddies in the area.
Even though it's a relatively small reservoir, the consent of local residents was needed in principle before the project started. But the planners failed to get the approval of Mrs Hai, her husband Fong and her brother-in-law.Both men died a few years ago, having never given their consent for the project.
"This paddy was my mother's land.My mother and my father left their footprints everywhere. How could I let it go?" said Mrs Hai, sitting next to her paddy which is now sprouting lush green shoots.
She is a small, white-haired woman with the tough skin of someone who has spent their life working under the sun. But there is a flash of defiance in her eyes when she recalls her battle with authorities.
After construction of the reservoir started, Mrs Hai and the two men travelled many times to various government agencies, sometimes by train, more often by foot, to put their case. They even made the trek to Government House to be given different promises by different administrations, none of which offered a solution.
To finance their fight to reclaim the 14-rai plot of land, Mrs Hai and her husband sold other property including an orchard and buffalos. This plunged the family deeper into poverty to the point where they could not take care of all their 10 children, who were forced to find their own livelihoods. Their youngest child, Phetch, moved to Bangkok to work as a nanny at the age of 11."That reservoir has tortured me so much. But it's my land, it's my right,and I had to take it back," said Mrs Hai, her voice rising with emotion.
Mrs Hai joined regional rights groups, including the Assembly of the Poor, which helped her fight her case.
But in March 2004, after 27 years of frustration, Mrs Hai's patience ran out.
On the night of March 11 amidst thunder and rain she built a shack on an edge of the reservoir and offered up a song to the heavens seeking guidance.
"The sky rumbles humbly. I've wandered all these long years in my thoughts but can't find the way out. I have waited, waited, but still haven't seen the way out," she sang that night in her local dialect.
One month later, Mrs Hai, her husband and children, armed with a hammer and a spade, started to knock a hole in the dam wall to release the water. Five days later, a half-metre hole appeared and water streamed out.
"The neighbours came to us to ask us to stop being so stubborn. But I just couldn't stop by then. I no longer had a fear of anything - the neighbours,the village head and kamnan, or the police, because by then I was already old," said Mrs Hai.
She took her paddy back that year without being arrested. The then Thaksin government intervened and demanded the relevant agencies investigate her case. They examined documents and came to the conclusion that the three had never given approval for the dam and should be compensated.
But a government panel on poverty recommended the case be suspended as it would set a precedent for other claims.
It was not until last week that the Abhisit government agreed to pay com-pensation to Mrs Hai of 1.2 million baht. In that five-year waiting period Mrs Hai has not been idle. She began growing rice again with the help of her children, but admits that in the past few years she can no longer do the work.
"When I got my land back, I also got my life back," she said."Is it worth doing this and seeing myself losing almost everything? It may not have been, but I had to do it because it's my right, it's my land, my family's land."
Somparn Kuendee, an academic with the Assembly of the Poor, said Grandma Hai's case reflected how poorly the state thought about development projects. She said the reservoir was relatively small, but had caused enormous hardship to the people involved.
She said the Abhisit government's review of the case can be regarded as a positive sign for solving poverty problems as it was an admission the state had made a mistake and then corrected it.
She said Mrs Hai deserved the compensation as she had not only lost her livelihood, but other opportunities. This not only penalised her, but also her children, like Phetch, who should have had a better education and future.
BACK ON HER FARM: Grandma Hai takes a walk on the farm she fought so hard to keep, and inset, neighbours gather for a ceremony to bring her luck in her battle with authorities.
DAM BUSTER:Grandma Hai Khanjanta looks at the dam that drowned her family's rice fields.
After a 30-year battle to reclaim her land after the construction of a dam,last week she was awarded 1.2 million baht in compensation.
But the story of "Grandma Hai", as she is popularly known, a resident of Na Tan village in Ubon Ratchathani province, would not be known if she had not dug a hole in the crest of Huay La Ha dam in 2004 to reclaim her submerged paddy.
Not only did she breach the dam wall, she also brought to public attention the plight of struggling farmers trying to protect their land from poor water-management planning.
Mrs Hai is a subsistence farmer,and the paddy is her livelihood. As far back as she can remember, her family relied on the paddy as its main source of income. Since she was a child, Mrs Hai helped her mother grow rice and as she was the favourite daughter she eventually inherited the best plot of the family paddy located near a stream.
But by the late 1970s a reservoir with a storage capacity of 240,000 cubic metres was built in her village by the now defunct Rural Development Department under the Interior Ministry.In 1977, water started to fill the reservoir,gradually submerging rice paddies in the area.
Even though it's a relatively small reservoir, the consent of local residents was needed in principle before the project started. But the planners failed to get the approval of Mrs Hai, her husband Fong and her brother-in-law.Both men died a few years ago, having never given their consent for the project.
"This paddy was my mother's land.My mother and my father left their footprints everywhere. How could I let it go?" said Mrs Hai, sitting next to her paddy which is now sprouting lush green shoots.
She is a small, white-haired woman with the tough skin of someone who has spent their life working under the sun. But there is a flash of defiance in her eyes when she recalls her battle with authorities.
After construction of the reservoir started, Mrs Hai and the two men travelled many times to various government agencies, sometimes by train, more often by foot, to put their case. They even made the trek to Government House to be given different promises by different administrations, none of which offered a solution.
To finance their fight to reclaim the 14-rai plot of land, Mrs Hai and her husband sold other property including an orchard and buffalos. This plunged the family deeper into poverty to the point where they could not take care of all their 10 children, who were forced to find their own livelihoods. Their youngest child, Phetch, moved to Bangkok to work as a nanny at the age of 11."That reservoir has tortured me so much. But it's my land, it's my right,and I had to take it back," said Mrs Hai, her voice rising with emotion.
Mrs Hai joined regional rights groups, including the Assembly of the Poor, which helped her fight her case.
But in March 2004, after 27 years of frustration, Mrs Hai's patience ran out.
On the night of March 11 amidst thunder and rain she built a shack on an edge of the reservoir and offered up a song to the heavens seeking guidance.
"The sky rumbles humbly. I've wandered all these long years in my thoughts but can't find the way out. I have waited, waited, but still haven't seen the way out," she sang that night in her local dialect.
One month later, Mrs Hai, her husband and children, armed with a hammer and a spade, started to knock a hole in the dam wall to release the water. Five days later, a half-metre hole appeared and water streamed out.
"The neighbours came to us to ask us to stop being so stubborn. But I just couldn't stop by then. I no longer had a fear of anything - the neighbours,the village head and kamnan, or the police, because by then I was already old," said Mrs Hai.
She took her paddy back that year without being arrested. The then Thaksin government intervened and demanded the relevant agencies investigate her case. They examined documents and came to the conclusion that the three had never given approval for the dam and should be compensated.
But a government panel on poverty recommended the case be suspended as it would set a precedent for other claims.
It was not until last week that the Abhisit government agreed to pay com-pensation to Mrs Hai of 1.2 million baht. In that five-year waiting period Mrs Hai has not been idle. She began growing rice again with the help of her children, but admits that in the past few years she can no longer do the work.
"When I got my land back, I also got my life back," she said."Is it worth doing this and seeing myself losing almost everything? It may not have been, but I had to do it because it's my right, it's my land, my family's land."
Somparn Kuendee, an academic with the Assembly of the Poor, said Grandma Hai's case reflected how poorly the state thought about development projects. She said the reservoir was relatively small, but had caused enormous hardship to the people involved.
She said the Abhisit government's review of the case can be regarded as a positive sign for solving poverty problems as it was an admission the state had made a mistake and then corrected it.
She said Mrs Hai deserved the compensation as she had not only lost her livelihood, but other opportunities. This not only penalised her, but also her children, like Phetch, who should have had a better education and future.
BACK ON HER FARM: Grandma Hai takes a walk on the farm she fought so hard to keep, and inset, neighbours gather for a ceremony to bring her luck in her battle with authorities.
DAM BUSTER:Grandma Hai Khanjanta looks at the dam that drowned her family's rice fields.
HIGH-END RETAIL PROPERTIES FACE POOR DEMAND
The global downturn has sent retail rents plunging on some of the world's most famous shopping streets, a study by global real estate group Cushman and Wakefield released recently showed.
Prime rents on more than half of 274big-name streets have fallen in the past 12 montjhs, said the report, which surveyed such storied venuses as Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Hong Kong's Causeway Bay. The agency said the decline in rents was the largest ever recorded in the study's 24-year-old history.
"The last 12 months have been one of the most difficult periods ever for the retail sector, with consumer spending and retail sales down in many markets," said John Strachan, global head of retail at Cushman. "In the previous 12-monjths period global retail markets appeared to be fairly resilient, but more significants as the full impact of the downturn has been realised."
But he added that "the worst is almost certainly now behind us."
Fifth Avenue retained its number one rating as the world's most expensive street, where retailers pay US$1,700 (Bt57,000) per square foot a year, a decline of 8.1 [er cent from 2008. Causeway Bay was the second most expensive steet land the Champs Elysees the third.
Sao Paulo's Alameda Lorena saw the largest gain in retail rents, up 111 per cent from 2008. The sharpest fall was on Colaba Causeway in Mumbai, where retail rents declined 63.5 per cent.
The decline in rents was the largest ever recorded in the study's 24-year history.
Prime rents on more than half of 274big-name streets have fallen in the past 12 montjhs, said the report, which surveyed such storied venuses as Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Hong Kong's Causeway Bay. The agency said the decline in rents was the largest ever recorded in the study's 24-year-old history.
"The last 12 months have been one of the most difficult periods ever for the retail sector, with consumer spending and retail sales down in many markets," said John Strachan, global head of retail at Cushman. "In the previous 12-monjths period global retail markets appeared to be fairly resilient, but more significants as the full impact of the downturn has been realised."
But he added that "the worst is almost certainly now behind us."
Fifth Avenue retained its number one rating as the world's most expensive street, where retailers pay US$1,700 (Bt57,000) per square foot a year, a decline of 8.1 [er cent from 2008. Causeway Bay was the second most expensive steet land the Champs Elysees the third.
Sao Paulo's Alameda Lorena saw the largest gain in retail rents, up 111 per cent from 2008. The sharpest fall was on Colaba Causeway in Mumbai, where retail rents declined 63.5 per cent.
The decline in rents was the largest ever recorded in the study's 24-year history.
MANY LUXURY HOTELS FACE DEFAULT
Luxury hotel owners risk defaulting on their debt as the recession cuts occupanies and the credit crunch constrains refinancing.
Loans secured by more than 1,500 hotels with a total outstanding balance of US$24.5 billion (Bt822 billion) may be in danger of default, according to Realpoint, a credit rating compay that tracks commercial mortgage-backed securities.
Some of the biggest loans, put on the company's watch list because of late payments, decreasing occupancies or cash flow, were made to luxury properties where rooms can cost more than $850 a night.
"All segments are showing signs of distress but the luxury segments carried much higher loan balances and is more clearly affected," Frank Innaurato, managing director of CMBS analytical services at Horsham, Pennsylvania-based Realpoint, said in an interview.
Loging owners are struggling after adding rooms and properties at the peak of the CMBS market from 2004 to 2007, when $83.4 billion in hotel-backed securities was issued.
Occupancy among chains with the costliest rooms fell to 60 per cent in the first half from 70 per cent a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research. The decline was the industry's largest for that period.
"Luxury hotels have been agressively financed during the peak CMBS issuance years," David Loeb, an analyst at Robert W.Baird, said. "That's why luxury hotel loans crowd these watch lists."
A $90-million loan secured by the Four Seasons San Francisco, a 277-room, five-star property, is 90 days delinquent and foreclosure proceedings have begun, according to Realpoint. A notice of default has been filed.
The borrower was Millennium Partners, a real estate firm founded in 1990 by Christopher Jeffries. The company controls 1,860 residential units, more than 2,000 hotel rooms and 93,000 square metres of office space.
Nicola Blazier, a spokeswoman for Four Seasons San Francisco, did not respond to e-mails and phone calls for comment. Millennium principal Jeffries did not return a call.
The Dream Hotel, a 220-room hotel on West 55th Street in New York City that features 300-thread count Egyptian bed linens and iPods, is collateral for a $100-million loan taken by Surrey Hotel Associates that's at risk of default, Realpoint said.
The borrower is trying to restructure the debt and defer payments, said Riyaz Akhtar, vice president at Surrey.
"What's happening to us right now is happening, and will continue to happen, to many hotel properties given the current market," Akhtar said in a telephone interview. The US hotel loan-delinquency rate may climb to 8.2 per cent by year-end, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Andy Day said in a June-23 report. That would match the peak from the last recession in 2001.
Upscale hotels are suffering from "a heightened focus on prudent corporate travel expenditures", as well as the pullback in vacation travel, Day said.
Microsoft, coping with its first annual sales decline, said in July it would slash $3 billion in operating expenses, including travel.
The number of luxury-brand rooms in the US as of yhe end of July rose 9.1 per cent from a year earlier to 100,000, Loeb said.
A $190-million loan secured by the 640-room Arizona Grand Resort is 90 days delinquent, according to Realpoint.
If the loan is liquidated it may lead to a $111.9-million loss, the credit rating company said.
The property's occupancy rate fell to 64 per cent as of December 2008 from 70 per cent a year earlier, Realpoint said.
The borrowe was Points South Mountain Resort, a Grossman Company Properties affiliate, Pamela Kerner, a spokeswoman for Phoenix-based Grossman, declined to comment.
Realpoint also is monitoring a $1-billion loan taken by CNL Hotels $ Resorts, a company acquired by a Morgan Stanley real estate fund.
The loan is secured by five properties with 14 golf courses, including the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix and the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa in Maui, Hawaii.
Falling cash flow and weakening economic conditions put those properties on the watch list, Realpoint said. Revenue is sufficient to meet interest payments, and the assessed collateral value of $1.4 billion lowered the loan's risk, Realpoint said. Alyson Barnes, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, declined to comment on the analysis.
Properties whose loans have been sent to a special servicer include Belfonti Capital-owned Westin Aruba Resort&Spa, which is collateral for a $230-million loan, according to Realpoint. The property is managed by Starwood Hoetels & Resorts Worldwide.
The property's occupancy rate dropped to 41 per cent in May from an average of 63 per cent in 2008, the report said. Servicers are used when a loan is in or near default and needs to be reviewed or modified, according to Innaurato.
The Westin Aruba has been hurt by competition from a 450-room luxury resort built next door, Realpoint said. Belfonti Capital in New York did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Another property on Realpoint's watch list is the Four Seasons New York, where a standard room with a king-sized bed starts at $855 a night. The hotel is among four used as collateral for a $344.6 million loan, Realpont said.
The properties' occupancy rate fell to 57 per cent in the 12 months through June. At the end of 2007 and 2008 it was 73 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively, it said. Four Seasons New York's net cash flow " is well beloe historical trends", the credit rating company said, without being more specific.
While the property's revenue per available room and net cash flow have jumped since bottoming in 2003, the hotel "is more recently showing signs of New York's weakening economy", Realpoint said.
The property is owned by Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts.
"We consider this loan a moderate default risk based on declining performance along with the lower expectation on the lodging-resort industry given the current economic conditions," it said.
Occupancy among chains with the costliest rooms fell to 60% in the first half from 70% last year.
A $90-million loan secured by Four Seasons San Franciso is 90 days delinqyent and foreclosure proceedings have begun.
Loans secured by more than 1,500 hotels with a total outstanding balance of US$24.5 billion (Bt822 billion) may be in danger of default, according to Realpoint, a credit rating compay that tracks commercial mortgage-backed securities.
Some of the biggest loans, put on the company's watch list because of late payments, decreasing occupancies or cash flow, were made to luxury properties where rooms can cost more than $850 a night.
"All segments are showing signs of distress but the luxury segments carried much higher loan balances and is more clearly affected," Frank Innaurato, managing director of CMBS analytical services at Horsham, Pennsylvania-based Realpoint, said in an interview.
Loging owners are struggling after adding rooms and properties at the peak of the CMBS market from 2004 to 2007, when $83.4 billion in hotel-backed securities was issued.
Occupancy among chains with the costliest rooms fell to 60 per cent in the first half from 70 per cent a year earlier, according to Smith Travel Research. The decline was the industry's largest for that period.
"Luxury hotels have been agressively financed during the peak CMBS issuance years," David Loeb, an analyst at Robert W.Baird, said. "That's why luxury hotel loans crowd these watch lists."
A $90-million loan secured by the Four Seasons San Francisco, a 277-room, five-star property, is 90 days delinquent and foreclosure proceedings have begun, according to Realpoint. A notice of default has been filed.
The borrower was Millennium Partners, a real estate firm founded in 1990 by Christopher Jeffries. The company controls 1,860 residential units, more than 2,000 hotel rooms and 93,000 square metres of office space.
Nicola Blazier, a spokeswoman for Four Seasons San Francisco, did not respond to e-mails and phone calls for comment. Millennium principal Jeffries did not return a call.
The Dream Hotel, a 220-room hotel on West 55th Street in New York City that features 300-thread count Egyptian bed linens and iPods, is collateral for a $100-million loan taken by Surrey Hotel Associates that's at risk of default, Realpoint said.
The borrower is trying to restructure the debt and defer payments, said Riyaz Akhtar, vice president at Surrey.
"What's happening to us right now is happening, and will continue to happen, to many hotel properties given the current market," Akhtar said in a telephone interview. The US hotel loan-delinquency rate may climb to 8.2 per cent by year-end, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Andy Day said in a June-23 report. That would match the peak from the last recession in 2001.
Upscale hotels are suffering from "a heightened focus on prudent corporate travel expenditures", as well as the pullback in vacation travel, Day said.
Microsoft, coping with its first annual sales decline, said in July it would slash $3 billion in operating expenses, including travel.
The number of luxury-brand rooms in the US as of yhe end of July rose 9.1 per cent from a year earlier to 100,000, Loeb said.
A $190-million loan secured by the 640-room Arizona Grand Resort is 90 days delinquent, according to Realpoint.
If the loan is liquidated it may lead to a $111.9-million loss, the credit rating company said.
The property's occupancy rate fell to 64 per cent as of December 2008 from 70 per cent a year earlier, Realpoint said.
The borrowe was Points South Mountain Resort, a Grossman Company Properties affiliate, Pamela Kerner, a spokeswoman for Phoenix-based Grossman, declined to comment.
Realpoint also is monitoring a $1-billion loan taken by CNL Hotels $ Resorts, a company acquired by a Morgan Stanley real estate fund.
The loan is secured by five properties with 14 golf courses, including the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix and the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel and Spa in Maui, Hawaii.
Falling cash flow and weakening economic conditions put those properties on the watch list, Realpoint said. Revenue is sufficient to meet interest payments, and the assessed collateral value of $1.4 billion lowered the loan's risk, Realpoint said. Alyson Barnes, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, declined to comment on the analysis.
Properties whose loans have been sent to a special servicer include Belfonti Capital-owned Westin Aruba Resort&Spa, which is collateral for a $230-million loan, according to Realpoint. The property is managed by Starwood Hoetels & Resorts Worldwide.
The property's occupancy rate dropped to 41 per cent in May from an average of 63 per cent in 2008, the report said. Servicers are used when a loan is in or near default and needs to be reviewed or modified, according to Innaurato.
The Westin Aruba has been hurt by competition from a 450-room luxury resort built next door, Realpoint said. Belfonti Capital in New York did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Another property on Realpoint's watch list is the Four Seasons New York, where a standard room with a king-sized bed starts at $855 a night. The hotel is among four used as collateral for a $344.6 million loan, Realpont said.
The properties' occupancy rate fell to 57 per cent in the 12 months through June. At the end of 2007 and 2008 it was 73 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively, it said. Four Seasons New York's net cash flow " is well beloe historical trends", the credit rating company said, without being more specific.
While the property's revenue per available room and net cash flow have jumped since bottoming in 2003, the hotel "is more recently showing signs of New York's weakening economy", Realpoint said.
The property is owned by Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts.
"We consider this loan a moderate default risk based on declining performance along with the lower expectation on the lodging-resort industry given the current economic conditions," it said.
Occupancy among chains with the costliest rooms fell to 60% in the first half from 70% last year.
A $90-million loan secured by Four Seasons San Franciso is 90 days delinqyent and foreclosure proceedings have begun.
ENCROACHERS STAND FIRM
The Phangnga naval base has asked provincial authorities to survey communities which encroach on its land and pose a danger to the navy's security.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn Khachitsuwan, the base commander, said the survey was needed as communities which have settled illegally on the navy's land have refused to move.
The areas which communities have taken over overlook the port. Residents could see howmany warships had docked.
Attempts at eviction have been met with resistance.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn said people have occupied parts of the base covering the districts of Thai Muang, Takua Pa and Thap Put in Phangnga.
He said the areas around the base are security buffer zones which should be unoccupied.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn said the base had not been able to keep the residents out.
They had rallied against the navy's attempt to lay down the rules. The communities had now turned hostile toward the navy.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn said the least the base could do now was to impose controls on the communities which have encroached on its land.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn Khachitsuwan, the base commander, said the survey was needed as communities which have settled illegally on the navy's land have refused to move.
The areas which communities have taken over overlook the port. Residents could see howmany warships had docked.
Attempts at eviction have been met with resistance.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn said people have occupied parts of the base covering the districts of Thai Muang, Takua Pa and Thap Put in Phangnga.
He said the areas around the base are security buffer zones which should be unoccupied.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn said the base had not been able to keep the residents out.
They had rallied against the navy's attempt to lay down the rules. The communities had now turned hostile toward the navy.
Rear Admiral Tharathorn said the least the base could do now was to impose controls on the communities which have encroached on its land.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
A measure of justice at last
After almost three decades of lonely struggle and much to the chagrin of her hostile neighbours, Grandma Hai Khanjanta has finally won compensation from the state for the damage rendered to her farmland in Ubon Ratchathani from a poorly thought out irrigation dam project.
The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to award the 80-yearold woman - who in 2004 was named "the great fighter mum" by Mahidol University -1.2 million baht in compensation. Two other villagers affected by the project were also compensated.
The promised 1.2 million baht is a very modest amount and cannot be regarded as fair, given the hardships from deprivation of a normal livelihood which Mrs Hai's family has had to endure throughout the past several years since her farmland was flooded.Even though the land was reclaimed following the dam's demolition on the orders of the Thaksin administration, it remains useless for cultivation. Still, Mrs Hai had the grace and decency to offer her heartfelt thanks to the Democrat-led government for paying attention to the plight of poor people like herself. She said she would not press for further demands.
However, this "happy ending" story of Mrs Hai and her two neighbours represents just a fraction of many other similar cases of rural people being deprived of a livelihood, robbed of their traditional farmland or forced into hardship by so-called development projects which often were decided from the top down and implemented without prior consultation with the local communities.These include the villagers affected by the construction of the Rasi Salai dam in Si Sa Ket and the Pak Moon fishermen whose livelihood has been completely wrecked by the Pak Moon dam.
Negligence on the part of state agencies and their disregard for the public's right to participate in the decision-making process in the management of natural resources by the state, have been blamed for many of the top-down development projects which were later proven to have been badly thought-out, falling short of their objectives or simply not worthy of the cost. For example, the Rasi Salai dam which was supposed to irrigate the dry northeastern farmland, has instead caused widespread salination of the soil, on top of some 30,000 rai of wetlands being wiped out during construction, not to mention the human suffering of hundreds who are still demanding justice.
The case of Ms Usa Rotpongkasem, a victim of the Klong Toey chemical fire in 1991, is another glaring example of the lack of compassion from state agencies,in this particular case the Port Authority of Thailand,for the victims of its gross negligence and its lack of accountability. The former Ramkhamhaeng University student who is steadily losing her eyesight and is suffering from cancer as a result of her exposure to chemical posioning, had to take her case to the Civil Court to seek compensation from the PAT. It was through sheer tenacity and determination that she endured the lengthy legal hurdles and won the case, with the court faulting the PAT for gross negligence and ordering it to pay her about 4 million baht in compensation. The PAT wanted to appeal the verdict but dropped the idea only because of the personal intervention of then deputy transport minister Pracha Maleenont.
The plight of Grandma Hai, Ms Usa and many other poor villagers could have been avoided or considerably mitigated, if only the state agencies involved had been more receptive to their views before deciding on projects which seriously disrupted their livelihoods.
The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to award the 80-yearold woman - who in 2004 was named "the great fighter mum" by Mahidol University -1.2 million baht in compensation. Two other villagers affected by the project were also compensated.
The promised 1.2 million baht is a very modest amount and cannot be regarded as fair, given the hardships from deprivation of a normal livelihood which Mrs Hai's family has had to endure throughout the past several years since her farmland was flooded.Even though the land was reclaimed following the dam's demolition on the orders of the Thaksin administration, it remains useless for cultivation. Still, Mrs Hai had the grace and decency to offer her heartfelt thanks to the Democrat-led government for paying attention to the plight of poor people like herself. She said she would not press for further demands.
However, this "happy ending" story of Mrs Hai and her two neighbours represents just a fraction of many other similar cases of rural people being deprived of a livelihood, robbed of their traditional farmland or forced into hardship by so-called development projects which often were decided from the top down and implemented without prior consultation with the local communities.These include the villagers affected by the construction of the Rasi Salai dam in Si Sa Ket and the Pak Moon fishermen whose livelihood has been completely wrecked by the Pak Moon dam.
Negligence on the part of state agencies and their disregard for the public's right to participate in the decision-making process in the management of natural resources by the state, have been blamed for many of the top-down development projects which were later proven to have been badly thought-out, falling short of their objectives or simply not worthy of the cost. For example, the Rasi Salai dam which was supposed to irrigate the dry northeastern farmland, has instead caused widespread salination of the soil, on top of some 30,000 rai of wetlands being wiped out during construction, not to mention the human suffering of hundreds who are still demanding justice.
The case of Ms Usa Rotpongkasem, a victim of the Klong Toey chemical fire in 1991, is another glaring example of the lack of compassion from state agencies,in this particular case the Port Authority of Thailand,for the victims of its gross negligence and its lack of accountability. The former Ramkhamhaeng University student who is steadily losing her eyesight and is suffering from cancer as a result of her exposure to chemical posioning, had to take her case to the Civil Court to seek compensation from the PAT. It was through sheer tenacity and determination that she endured the lengthy legal hurdles and won the case, with the court faulting the PAT for gross negligence and ordering it to pay her about 4 million baht in compensation. The PAT wanted to appeal the verdict but dropped the idea only because of the personal intervention of then deputy transport minister Pracha Maleenont.
The plight of Grandma Hai, Ms Usa and many other poor villagers could have been avoided or considerably mitigated, if only the state agencies involved had been more receptive to their views before deciding on projects which seriously disrupted their livelihoods.
STOCKS "CLOSE TO SERIOUS OVERVALUATION"
Stocks will be seriously overvalued if the SET Index reaches 760 points, the Securities Analysts Association warned yesterday, while the market got a downฌgrade from overweight to neutral by MFC Asset Management.
The SET Index has rallied about 90 per cent from the year's trough at about 380 points and it would have doubled at 760, SAA secretarygenฌeral Sombat Narawuttichai said.
At that point, it would risk a steep correction from profittaking, he said.
Even at 700 the SET exceeds its fundamental value based on pricetoearnings (P/E) and discounted cashflow analyses.
The economy can support the SET at only 630-650, some analysts have said.
About 40 per cent of all market securities are overvalued, 50 per cent are undervalued and 10 per cent are in line with their fundamentals.
Thai shares have jumped 61 per cent so far this year, underperforming the Asian region.
Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Stock Index has gained 84 per cent, Jakarta Composite Index 81 per cent and India's Sensex 74 per cent.
Even though the SAA and MFC Asset Management said the SET Index over 700 points is overvalued, Asia Plus Securities CEO Kongkiat Opaswongkarn and ING Funds (Thailand) managing director Maris Tarab recently estimated that shares would reach 800 within this year.
Sombat said 91 per cent of analysts responding to the SAA's survey were moderately confident in the government's Strong Thailand economic stimulus package, and 9 per cent were highly confident.
Altogether 23 securities analysts answered the questionnaire after the SAA and analysts met Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanich on September 11.
About threefourths of the respondents have medium confidence and the others have high confidence.
Four per cent of the respondents are not confident that the government's investment scheme can go on until 2012 as planned regardless of political changes, 43 per cent have low confidence, 48 per cent have medium confidence and the rest have high confidence.
The analysts agreed unanimously that construction and building material companies would benefit from the scheme but some stocks were overvalued.
After meeting with Korn, some analysts started preparing to upgrade the country's 2010 gross domestic product forecast by about 1 percentage point from the SAA's current consensus of 3 per cent.
Supakorn Soontornkit, senior executive vice president of MFC, told reporters that his company downgraded the stock market as it exceeds his company's base and bestcase scenario for 2009 at 675 and 720 points, respectively.
"I expect that funds flow will continue and shortterm investors can still pile up on stocks but they must be prudent. The SET Index will not reach the 800 level. However, it will not fall below 700 points," he said.
MFC forecasts the SET at 680 in the worstcase, 750 in the basecase and 820 in the bestcase scenarios for next year.
His company recommends investing in three to four-year debt instruments offering coupon rates of 3.54 per cent but avoiding putting money in shorter debt instruฌments as yields are going up.
It is also slightly overweight on commodities and real estate investment trusts.
Pichit Akrathit, president of MFC Asset Management, said his company is marketing the I-Emerging 10 Fund until Monday.
The fund's policy is to invest in equities, debt instruments and deposits in emerging countries worldwide, depending on market conditions.
MFC plans to launch a property fund investing in an office building in Bangkok as well as the Thailand Creativity Fund, investing in innoฌvative businesses.
The SET Index has rallied about 90 per cent from the year's trough at about 380 points and it would have doubled at 760, SAA secretarygenฌeral Sombat Narawuttichai said.
At that point, it would risk a steep correction from profittaking, he said.
Even at 700 the SET exceeds its fundamental value based on pricetoearnings (P/E) and discounted cashflow analyses.
The economy can support the SET at only 630-650, some analysts have said.
About 40 per cent of all market securities are overvalued, 50 per cent are undervalued and 10 per cent are in line with their fundamentals.
Thai shares have jumped 61 per cent so far this year, underperforming the Asian region.
Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh Stock Index has gained 84 per cent, Jakarta Composite Index 81 per cent and India's Sensex 74 per cent.
Even though the SAA and MFC Asset Management said the SET Index over 700 points is overvalued, Asia Plus Securities CEO Kongkiat Opaswongkarn and ING Funds (Thailand) managing director Maris Tarab recently estimated that shares would reach 800 within this year.
Sombat said 91 per cent of analysts responding to the SAA's survey were moderately confident in the government's Strong Thailand economic stimulus package, and 9 per cent were highly confident.
Altogether 23 securities analysts answered the questionnaire after the SAA and analysts met Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanich on September 11.
About threefourths of the respondents have medium confidence and the others have high confidence.
Four per cent of the respondents are not confident that the government's investment scheme can go on until 2012 as planned regardless of political changes, 43 per cent have low confidence, 48 per cent have medium confidence and the rest have high confidence.
The analysts agreed unanimously that construction and building material companies would benefit from the scheme but some stocks were overvalued.
After meeting with Korn, some analysts started preparing to upgrade the country's 2010 gross domestic product forecast by about 1 percentage point from the SAA's current consensus of 3 per cent.
Supakorn Soontornkit, senior executive vice president of MFC, told reporters that his company downgraded the stock market as it exceeds his company's base and bestcase scenario for 2009 at 675 and 720 points, respectively.
"I expect that funds flow will continue and shortterm investors can still pile up on stocks but they must be prudent. The SET Index will not reach the 800 level. However, it will not fall below 700 points," he said.
MFC forecasts the SET at 680 in the worstcase, 750 in the basecase and 820 in the bestcase scenarios for next year.
His company recommends investing in three to four-year debt instruments offering coupon rates of 3.54 per cent but avoiding putting money in shorter debt instruฌments as yields are going up.
It is also slightly overweight on commodities and real estate investment trusts.
Pichit Akrathit, president of MFC Asset Management, said his company is marketing the I-Emerging 10 Fund until Monday.
The fund's policy is to invest in equities, debt instruments and deposits in emerging countries worldwide, depending on market conditions.
MFC plans to launch a property fund investing in an office building in Bangkok as well as the Thailand Creativity Fund, investing in innoฌvative businesses.
ENDURING SYMBOL OF ARCHITECTURE
The main feature of the mixed-use MahaNakhon projecty will be a 77-storey tower that will be one of the tallest structures in Bangkok's central business district (CBD).
It is the creation of internationally acclaimed architect Ole Scheeren, one of the principal architects in the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture and widely recognised for his work on the pioneering CCTV Building in Beijing.
With its distinctive sculptural appearance, MahaNakhon will have a three-dimensional ribbon of architectural "pixels" circling the tower's full height, as if excavating portions of the elegant glass curtain wall to reveal the inner life of the building, said Pace Development CEO Sorapoj Techakraisri.
MahaNakhon's profile will generating a set of special features - projecting glass skyboxes with sweeping views and generous indorrr/outdoor spaces well suited to Bangkok's tropical climate. Residences without pixels will exjoy innovations never seen before: double-height living spaces and duplexes with full-height folding balcony windows that fold inwards to open up homes and allow living areas to become indoor/outdoor environments.
MahaNakhon's stacked surfaces, terraces and protrusions have been' conceived to convey the energy, intensity and inclusiveness of Thai society and celebrate Bangkok's emergence as a true global capital, fitting the Thai meaning of the name MahaNakhon (great metropolis).
The complex will stand in the CBD on more than 9 rai directly adjacent to Chong Nonsi Skytrain Station on Narathiwat Road, between Silom and Sathorn roads.
Its components will include MahaNakhon Square, a landscaped outdoor public plaza intended as a new public destination within the city; MahaNakhon Terraces, 10,000 square metres of lifestyle retail space with gardens and terraces on multiple levels for restaurants, cafes and a 24-hour marketplace; The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Bangkok, with 200 highly-customised single-level and duplex homes, managed by The Ritz-Carlton with five-star amenities for all residents and interior-designed by David Collins Studio; and The Bangkok Edition, a boutique hotel with 150 rooms that will be a collaboration between Marriott International and renowned hotelier Ian Schrager. The complex will be topped by a multilevel rooftop Sky Bar and Restaurant, 310 metres above the street.
Sorapoj said the project was the result of strongly held wish to do something for Thailand that would be both an enduring architectural symbol and proof of the company's commitment and confidence in Thailand's long term economic prosperity and cultural diversity.
Architect Ole Scheeren said MahaNakhon would not be an inert isolated skyscraper, but rather a building that would actively engage the city and connect to its urban fabric.
The three-dimensional pixels that spiral up the tower will offer differentiated indoor and outdoor spaces of an energetically public and exclusively private nature. The building will absorb Bangkok's intensely vibrant energy and simultaneously give it back to the city.
The project has passed an environment-impact assessment, and application has been made for a construction licence, so building can start around the end of this year, for completion in 2012, Sorapoj said.
It is the creation of internationally acclaimed architect Ole Scheeren, one of the principal architects in the Dutch firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture and widely recognised for his work on the pioneering CCTV Building in Beijing.
With its distinctive sculptural appearance, MahaNakhon will have a three-dimensional ribbon of architectural "pixels" circling the tower's full height, as if excavating portions of the elegant glass curtain wall to reveal the inner life of the building, said Pace Development CEO Sorapoj Techakraisri.
MahaNakhon's profile will generating a set of special features - projecting glass skyboxes with sweeping views and generous indorrr/outdoor spaces well suited to Bangkok's tropical climate. Residences without pixels will exjoy innovations never seen before: double-height living spaces and duplexes with full-height folding balcony windows that fold inwards to open up homes and allow living areas to become indoor/outdoor environments.
MahaNakhon's stacked surfaces, terraces and protrusions have been' conceived to convey the energy, intensity and inclusiveness of Thai society and celebrate Bangkok's emergence as a true global capital, fitting the Thai meaning of the name MahaNakhon (great metropolis).
The complex will stand in the CBD on more than 9 rai directly adjacent to Chong Nonsi Skytrain Station on Narathiwat Road, between Silom and Sathorn roads.
Its components will include MahaNakhon Square, a landscaped outdoor public plaza intended as a new public destination within the city; MahaNakhon Terraces, 10,000 square metres of lifestyle retail space with gardens and terraces on multiple levels for restaurants, cafes and a 24-hour marketplace; The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Bangkok, with 200 highly-customised single-level and duplex homes, managed by The Ritz-Carlton with five-star amenities for all residents and interior-designed by David Collins Studio; and The Bangkok Edition, a boutique hotel with 150 rooms that will be a collaboration between Marriott International and renowned hotelier Ian Schrager. The complex will be topped by a multilevel rooftop Sky Bar and Restaurant, 310 metres above the street.
Sorapoj said the project was the result of strongly held wish to do something for Thailand that would be both an enduring architectural symbol and proof of the company's commitment and confidence in Thailand's long term economic prosperity and cultural diversity.
Architect Ole Scheeren said MahaNakhon would not be an inert isolated skyscraper, but rather a building that would actively engage the city and connect to its urban fabric.
The three-dimensional pixels that spiral up the tower will offer differentiated indoor and outdoor spaces of an energetically public and exclusively private nature. The building will absorb Bangkok's intensely vibrant energy and simultaneously give it back to the city.
The project has passed an environment-impact assessment, and application has been made for a construction licence, so building can start around the end of this year, for completion in 2012, Sorapoj said.
US commercial property to tumble
Commercial-property prices in the US will fall in the next 18 months as distressed mortgages are sole and banks rework problem loans, says New York real-estate-investment adviser Howard Michaels.
More than US$1.3 billion (Bt43.62 billion) of real-estate debt on offices, malls and apartments comes due in the next four years, "and most of that is overleverage", said Michels, who is chairman of New Services.
Mortgages investors are preparing to buy, he said.
"The general feeling s things are a little more positive, whereas before the market was paralysed," Michaels said.
The Moody's/Real Commercial Property Property Price index fell 5.1 per cent month on month in July, Moody's Investors Service said this week. It is down almost 39 per cent from its peak in October 2007. Commercial-property sales this year may fall to an 18-year low, the ratings company said.
Property buyers will need to put down about two-thirds of the purchase price in equity to borrow at interest rates of 8-10 per cent, up from 4-6 per cent during the realestate boom, Michaels said.
Carlton Advisory Services is starting an online exchange that will list loans and seized property on a website called the Carlton Exchange.
The firm assisted developer Harry Macklowe in the 2004 refinancing of the General Motors Building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and arranged the financing for property investor Haim Revah's purchase of the Lipstick Building in Manhattan in 2007. It has also worked on financing for Chicago, lllinois's Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, and the Bank of America Tower in San Francisco, California.
More than US$1.3 billion (Bt43.62 billion) of real-estate debt on offices, malls and apartments comes due in the next four years, "and most of that is overleverage", said Michels, who is chairman of New Services.
Mortgages investors are preparing to buy, he said.
"The general feeling s things are a little more positive, whereas before the market was paralysed," Michaels said.
The Moody's/Real Commercial Property Property Price index fell 5.1 per cent month on month in July, Moody's Investors Service said this week. It is down almost 39 per cent from its peak in October 2007. Commercial-property sales this year may fall to an 18-year low, the ratings company said.
Property buyers will need to put down about two-thirds of the purchase price in equity to borrow at interest rates of 8-10 per cent, up from 4-6 per cent during the realestate boom, Michaels said.
Carlton Advisory Services is starting an online exchange that will list loans and seized property on a website called the Carlton Exchange.
The firm assisted developer Harry Macklowe in the 2004 refinancing of the General Motors Building on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and arranged the financing for property investor Haim Revah's purchase of the Lipstick Building in Manhattan in 2007. It has also worked on financing for Chicago, lllinois's Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, and the Bank of America Tower in San Francisco, California.
PACE TURNS FROM INNER CITY TO HUA HIN
Property firm Pace Development is planning to launch a new residential project in Hua Hin worth between Bt3 billion and Bt4 billion next year-if its present large project, MahaNkhon, on Narathiwat Road, comes close to beingg 50-per-cent presold before the middle of next year.
CEO Sorapoj Techakraisri said his company received positive market feedback after unveiling plans for the giant Bt18-billion MahaNakhon project earlier this year. It involves a boutique hotel, luxury residences and retail space.
Rather than developing the project in phases, presaler for the entire project. The companyis building a Bt200-million showroom to provide finished sample rooms, so that customrs cna have a precise feel for what they can expect from the project.
Sorapoj said the company expected to book 15 per cent of the project after opening presales and believed presales would reach 50 per cent of the project's value by the middle of next year.
When this target is reached, the company will launch a new project's in Hua Hin.
Sorapoj said the company's business policy was investing project by project. It launched Saladaeng Residences, with a market value of Bt2.4 billion, last year. This project succeeded in attracting presales amounting to half of its value, so Pace Development decided to go ahead with MahaNakhon.
It has set up a joint venture with Israel's largest real-estate developer, Industrial Buildings, to develop the Bt18-billion MahaNakhon project on a longlease land plot on Narathiwat Road, next to Chong Nonsi Skytrain Station.
The project is separated into three parts, with a different firm managing each part. They are Pace Project I, involving the construction of a high-end boutique hotel called The Edition Bangkok. It will have 150 rooms.
Pace Project II will cover a 200-unit luxury residential development, while Pace Projects III will develop retail space covering 10,000 square metres.
When half of the MahaNakhon project is prsold, that will be a green light for the company's next project, in Hua Hin. It is now collecting undeveloped land for next year's rsidential project, with a budget between Bt500 million and Bt1 billion.
Sorapoj said the next project would focus on the luxury market, offering residences priced above Bt10 million.
In its planning for both Saladaeng Residences and MahaNakhon, Pace Development targeted local buyers rather than foreigners, because it believed the lifestyle behaviour of local home-buyers had changed to condominium living.
"We were wrong," Sorapoj said. "When home-buyers have more than Bt10 million to buy a rsidence, they look for a detached house at a location somewhere between the innercity and the suburbs," he said.
For example, local customers targeted to buy units at MahaNakhon for Bt34 million were more likely to buy a single detached house on Ratchapruek Road. As a result, most of its customers would be foreign buyers, he said.
The MahaNakhon project's website has been visited by 700 Internet users interested in buying a residence, about 60 per cent of them local buyers and most of those asking about homes costing less than Bt30 million. the remaining 40 per cent are foreign buyers who want residences costing more than Bt30 million.
Foreign buyers who now have purchasing power come from Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia and the United Kingdom.
"If the global economyy recovers, we believe sales from our residential projects will achieve our targets next year,' Sorapoj said.
CEO Sorapoj Techakraisri said his company received positive market feedback after unveiling plans for the giant Bt18-billion MahaNakhon project earlier this year. It involves a boutique hotel, luxury residences and retail space.
Rather than developing the project in phases, presaler for the entire project. The companyis building a Bt200-million showroom to provide finished sample rooms, so that customrs cna have a precise feel for what they can expect from the project.
Sorapoj said the company expected to book 15 per cent of the project after opening presales and believed presales would reach 50 per cent of the project's value by the middle of next year.
When this target is reached, the company will launch a new project's in Hua Hin.
Sorapoj said the company's business policy was investing project by project. It launched Saladaeng Residences, with a market value of Bt2.4 billion, last year. This project succeeded in attracting presales amounting to half of its value, so Pace Development decided to go ahead with MahaNakhon.
It has set up a joint venture with Israel's largest real-estate developer, Industrial Buildings, to develop the Bt18-billion MahaNakhon project on a longlease land plot on Narathiwat Road, next to Chong Nonsi Skytrain Station.
The project is separated into three parts, with a different firm managing each part. They are Pace Project I, involving the construction of a high-end boutique hotel called The Edition Bangkok. It will have 150 rooms.
Pace Project II will cover a 200-unit luxury residential development, while Pace Projects III will develop retail space covering 10,000 square metres.
When half of the MahaNakhon project is prsold, that will be a green light for the company's next project, in Hua Hin. It is now collecting undeveloped land for next year's rsidential project, with a budget between Bt500 million and Bt1 billion.
Sorapoj said the next project would focus on the luxury market, offering residences priced above Bt10 million.
In its planning for both Saladaeng Residences and MahaNakhon, Pace Development targeted local buyers rather than foreigners, because it believed the lifestyle behaviour of local home-buyers had changed to condominium living.
"We were wrong," Sorapoj said. "When home-buyers have more than Bt10 million to buy a rsidence, they look for a detached house at a location somewhere between the innercity and the suburbs," he said.
For example, local customers targeted to buy units at MahaNakhon for Bt34 million were more likely to buy a single detached house on Ratchapruek Road. As a result, most of its customers would be foreign buyers, he said.
The MahaNakhon project's website has been visited by 700 Internet users interested in buying a residence, about 60 per cent of them local buyers and most of those asking about homes costing less than Bt30 million. the remaining 40 per cent are foreign buyers who want residences costing more than Bt30 million.
Foreign buyers who now have purchasing power come from Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia and the United Kingdom.
"If the global economyy recovers, we believe sales from our residential projects will achieve our targets next year,' Sorapoj said.
Big firms gain from improved sentiment
Property markets in Bangkok and some holiday destinations have shown signs of recovery and will see better prospects in the remaining months of the year due to improved economic sentiment,says real estate agency Knight Frank Chartered (Thailand).
A number of new projects were launched by large developers such as Asian Property Development, Noble Development and CMC Group. But small developers have delayed launches and held on to their land plots as banks were reluctant to lend to small firms, said managing director Phanom Kanjanathiemthao.
"Without the upward trend in the economy, big firms wouldn't dare to push out their projects," he said."Midpriced condos in Bangkok are still in demand although the sales might not be that extravagant."
Sentiment in holiday markets such as Hua Hin, Cha-am and Rayong has also picked up as those markets mainly rely on local buyers who are less sensitive about domestic political uncertainties.
Mr Phanom said foreign buyers seeking second homes in Thailand were still delaying their decisions as the global economy has just started to pick up.They also remain concerned about Thai politics, but sentiment would continue to improve if politics remains stable.
Despite better prospects for Phuket with site visits increasing by two to three times from the beginning of the year,Mr Phanom said many projects there would achieve no sales this year. In normal times, each project can sell around 12 units a year but managing just one or two sales this year is hard enough.
However, the villa market is still doing well in Phuket as buyers must pay according to the construction process rather than making the usual down payments.
Pattaya remains a hard market to sell condominiums to foreigners due to foreign ownership restrictions, while local people prefer to buy houses.
Knight Frank has one Bangkok project under its management that is awaiting a possible launch. The 2-billion-baht mixed development will feature a hotel and a condo worth one billion baht each. Another project worth 5-6 billion baht is expected to be introduced late next year.
The company will stage its Taste of Living property fair, featuring nine projects from Oct 15-25 at Siam Paragon,aiming to generate sales of 300-400 million baht.
Discounts ranging from 5% to 18%will be offered to buyers at the fair.
Besides new developments, Bangkok Commercial Asset Management Co is offering discounts until the end of October for some 800 second-hand condominiums on its books.
The Thai Condominium Association,meanwhile, is joining the brokerage Century 21 Realty Affiliates (Thailand) Co to stage a Thailand Condo Expo 2009 from Oct 23-25 at Suntec Centre in Singapore,featuring units from about 30 projects in Bangkok and tourist destinations.
Century 21 plans to join with a partner to open an office in Singapore to provide consultation and sales management to Thailand-based developers who want to tap the city-state's market.
A number of new projects were launched by large developers such as Asian Property Development, Noble Development and CMC Group. But small developers have delayed launches and held on to their land plots as banks were reluctant to lend to small firms, said managing director Phanom Kanjanathiemthao.
"Without the upward trend in the economy, big firms wouldn't dare to push out their projects," he said."Midpriced condos in Bangkok are still in demand although the sales might not be that extravagant."
Sentiment in holiday markets such as Hua Hin, Cha-am and Rayong has also picked up as those markets mainly rely on local buyers who are less sensitive about domestic political uncertainties.
Mr Phanom said foreign buyers seeking second homes in Thailand were still delaying their decisions as the global economy has just started to pick up.They also remain concerned about Thai politics, but sentiment would continue to improve if politics remains stable.
Despite better prospects for Phuket with site visits increasing by two to three times from the beginning of the year,Mr Phanom said many projects there would achieve no sales this year. In normal times, each project can sell around 12 units a year but managing just one or two sales this year is hard enough.
However, the villa market is still doing well in Phuket as buyers must pay according to the construction process rather than making the usual down payments.
Pattaya remains a hard market to sell condominiums to foreigners due to foreign ownership restrictions, while local people prefer to buy houses.
Knight Frank has one Bangkok project under its management that is awaiting a possible launch. The 2-billion-baht mixed development will feature a hotel and a condo worth one billion baht each. Another project worth 5-6 billion baht is expected to be introduced late next year.
The company will stage its Taste of Living property fair, featuring nine projects from Oct 15-25 at Siam Paragon,aiming to generate sales of 300-400 million baht.
Discounts ranging from 5% to 18%will be offered to buyers at the fair.
Besides new developments, Bangkok Commercial Asset Management Co is offering discounts until the end of October for some 800 second-hand condominiums on its books.
The Thai Condominium Association,meanwhile, is joining the brokerage Century 21 Realty Affiliates (Thailand) Co to stage a Thailand Condo Expo 2009 from Oct 23-25 at Suntec Centre in Singapore,featuring units from about 30 projects in Bangkok and tourist destinations.
Century 21 plans to join with a partner to open an office in Singapore to provide consultation and sales management to Thailand-based developers who want to tap the city-state's market.
Police charged dead man, minister reveals
An investigation into a massive illegal land-grabbing scheme in Chiang Rai has hit another hurdle with the discovery that local police have filed charges against a suspected land encroacher six years after he died, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said yesterday. Suwit cited a ministry report on progress in the case, saying Khamron Khammool was charged by Mae Chan police for encroaching on Mae Salong forest in 2004, when the scheme was first investigated, but he had died years before.
Suwit did not explain whether Mae Chan police deliberately took action against a "non-existent wrongdoer" in order to undermine or derail their investigation. But the case was dismissed in a documentation process, based on the reason "the suspect had died".
Suwit said three relevant agencies still did not know exactly how much forest had been encroached on. Despite a number of joint surveys, "the three agencies - the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, the Royal Forest Department, and the Forest Industry Organisation - still cannot tell in detail the condition of forest in the forests under their supervision," he said.
Suwit said he would query the Royal Thai Police to seek clarification about Mae Chan police charging a dead person as a suspected encroacher on state forest.
A high-ranking source at a provincial authority said all relevant agencies, including the provincial land offices, acted to avoid a legal process that would lead to revocation of illegally-issued land title deeds - the most practical solution to end the problem and trace wrongdoers.
That was because "a large number of state officials involved in the overall process would be identified" if title deeds were revoked.
Meanwhile, deputy permanent secretary Damrong Phidej revealed that title deeds he said he signed in 1997-1998 to grant land ownership to seven farmers, covering a total area of 200 rai, on the forestation, were later leased to a company.
Damrong said he signed the documents legally, and if the deeds were issued illegally, all officials involved in the entire documentation process would be held responsible.
Asked if he was aware title deeds could have been illegally approved, Damrong said that, as a forestry official, he was not aware. "The responsibility to verify the legality of documents and transfer process belongs to land officials, not a forestry official."
Damrong said he was part of a National Anti-Corruption Commission panel that recently endorsed revocation of ownership documents issued on illegally-obtained areas in the Mae Salong forest and in mountainous areas. "But in practice, I have not seen any land plots whose ownership was revoked and repossessed by the state," he said.
Suwit did not explain whether Mae Chan police deliberately took action against a "non-existent wrongdoer" in order to undermine or derail their investigation. But the case was dismissed in a documentation process, based on the reason "the suspect had died".
Suwit said three relevant agencies still did not know exactly how much forest had been encroached on. Despite a number of joint surveys, "the three agencies - the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, the Royal Forest Department, and the Forest Industry Organisation - still cannot tell in detail the condition of forest in the forests under their supervision," he said.
Suwit said he would query the Royal Thai Police to seek clarification about Mae Chan police charging a dead person as a suspected encroacher on state forest.
A high-ranking source at a provincial authority said all relevant agencies, including the provincial land offices, acted to avoid a legal process that would lead to revocation of illegally-issued land title deeds - the most practical solution to end the problem and trace wrongdoers.
That was because "a large number of state officials involved in the overall process would be identified" if title deeds were revoked.
Meanwhile, deputy permanent secretary Damrong Phidej revealed that title deeds he said he signed in 1997-1998 to grant land ownership to seven farmers, covering a total area of 200 rai, on the forestation, were later leased to a company.
Damrong said he signed the documents legally, and if the deeds were issued illegally, all officials involved in the entire documentation process would be held responsible.
Asked if he was aware title deeds could have been illegally approved, Damrong said that, as a forestry official, he was not aware. "The responsibility to verify the legality of documents and transfer process belongs to land officials, not a forestry official."
Damrong said he was part of a National Anti-Corruption Commission panel that recently endorsed revocation of ownership documents issued on illegally-obtained areas in the Mae Salong forest and in mountainous areas. "But in practice, I have not seen any land plots whose ownership was revoked and repossessed by the state," he said.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Sound familiar?
Your TOT crossed its heart and hoped to die if it fails to have actual third-generation mobile phone service in a little corner of Bangkok before New Year's Eve; Vichien Narkseenuan, the firm's senior executive president for vice, said he expects to sign a deal Real Soon Now with a socalled mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that will carry the TOT service,although no names, please; Mr Vichien promised "about" 500,000 numbers would be available; real yuppiephone networks scoffed at the TOT offer to let them in on the deal, because they fear that if they rent a network now, the National Telecommunications Commission won't let them bid for a licence to run their own 3G services.
Vichien Narkseenuan, the senior executive president of vice for your TOT ,said that the state monopoly plans to open a third-generation (3G) phone service with 100,000 numbers, and serving the entire country; TOT has no intention of building its own base stations,though, and will rent them from real phone companies; Mr Vichien forgot to mention when this nationwide 3G service might start for the lucky 100,000.
The National Telecommunications Commission announced it will open public hearings on third generation phones next Monday; Prasert Aphipunya, secretary in charge of vice for the NTC, said you should bring along a large truck load of money if you want to start the bidding for licences, say,oh, somewhere around 10 billion-witha-"b" baht; after next weeks' hearing,there will be a notice in the Royal Gazette ,and actual bidding for four (and only four) available licences may open as early as December; rules on all of this should be up on the NTC's website by now at www.ntc.co.th.
For the third time in a row, the strug-gling TT&T company won a multibillion-baht lawsuit against your TOT and for the third time in a row your TOT told them to pound sand; this time,an agree-upon arbitrator decided that TOT owed the up-country phone provider 2.3 billion baht in misguided revenue sharing for long distance calls;but TOT president Varut Suvakorn rejected the arbitration and told TT&T,"See ya in court, boys"; in case the Administrative Court rules against TOT yet again, Mr Varut said he was pretty sure the state firm didn't have that kind of money to pay off anyhow; TT&T explained that lawsuit number four is about to be filed.
No 2 yuppiephone firm DTAC of Norway opened its new headquarters in new Chamchuri Square , bragging that it spent one billion baht on the 19-floor (!) digs; all 3,200 DTAC employees relocated from the Chai Building to the new location at the Sam Yan intersection,overlooking Chulalongkorn University;CEO Tore Johnsen signed a 10-year lease for the 61,160-square-metre office,which includes the firm's main call centre; Mr Johnsen said new staff will work harder to pay the extra rent money; the kicker is that DTAC is asking the following price for the Chai Building one billion baht; Mr Johnsen said that DTAC was pressing ahead aggressively on its 3G trials and so on and etc and zzzzzzz.
Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul, apparently unaware that you can't spell "Thaksin" without "hub", said that Asean should become the energy exporting hub of the world; no, really,his reasoning is that Southeast Asia has so much food that it can make biofuels galore and sell it to the world at Arabesque profits; not only does Southeast Asia (sic) have a lot of extra food to feed the world's cars, it's, well, better "higher yields and more commercially viable for biofuel than corn and beetroot" from the US and Europe; to coin a phrase, in the klongs there are fish and in the fields there are biofuels.
Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul called in state firms and phuyai of the private sector for a heart-to-heart joint statement that everyone would cooperate on saving energy; this year's spin is that the programme will "save"100 billion baht, and Mr Wannarat got away unchallenged with a claim that a similar project last year saved 30 billion baht; the deal is that the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) and so on - 30,000 firms altogether - will work on conservation, purchase green technology and so on, and in return they will get some tax breaks and subsidies on loans taken through the energy services company fund (Esco); the minister is looking for one billion baht to fund Esco this year.
Vichien Narkseenuan, the senior executive president of vice for your TOT ,said that the state monopoly plans to open a third-generation (3G) phone service with 100,000 numbers, and serving the entire country; TOT has no intention of building its own base stations,though, and will rent them from real phone companies; Mr Vichien forgot to mention when this nationwide 3G service might start for the lucky 100,000.
The National Telecommunications Commission announced it will open public hearings on third generation phones next Monday; Prasert Aphipunya, secretary in charge of vice for the NTC, said you should bring along a large truck load of money if you want to start the bidding for licences, say,oh, somewhere around 10 billion-witha-"b" baht; after next weeks' hearing,there will be a notice in the Royal Gazette ,and actual bidding for four (and only four) available licences may open as early as December; rules on all of this should be up on the NTC's website by now at www.ntc.co.th.
For the third time in a row, the strug-gling TT&T company won a multibillion-baht lawsuit against your TOT and for the third time in a row your TOT told them to pound sand; this time,an agree-upon arbitrator decided that TOT owed the up-country phone provider 2.3 billion baht in misguided revenue sharing for long distance calls;but TOT president Varut Suvakorn rejected the arbitration and told TT&T,"See ya in court, boys"; in case the Administrative Court rules against TOT yet again, Mr Varut said he was pretty sure the state firm didn't have that kind of money to pay off anyhow; TT&T explained that lawsuit number four is about to be filed.
No 2 yuppiephone firm DTAC of Norway opened its new headquarters in new Chamchuri Square , bragging that it spent one billion baht on the 19-floor (!) digs; all 3,200 DTAC employees relocated from the Chai Building to the new location at the Sam Yan intersection,overlooking Chulalongkorn University;CEO Tore Johnsen signed a 10-year lease for the 61,160-square-metre office,which includes the firm's main call centre; Mr Johnsen said new staff will work harder to pay the extra rent money; the kicker is that DTAC is asking the following price for the Chai Building one billion baht; Mr Johnsen said that DTAC was pressing ahead aggressively on its 3G trials and so on and etc and zzzzzzz.
Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul, apparently unaware that you can't spell "Thaksin" without "hub", said that Asean should become the energy exporting hub of the world; no, really,his reasoning is that Southeast Asia has so much food that it can make biofuels galore and sell it to the world at Arabesque profits; not only does Southeast Asia (sic) have a lot of extra food to feed the world's cars, it's, well, better "higher yields and more commercially viable for biofuel than corn and beetroot" from the US and Europe; to coin a phrase, in the klongs there are fish and in the fields there are biofuels.
Energy Minister Wannarat Channukul called in state firms and phuyai of the private sector for a heart-to-heart joint statement that everyone would cooperate on saving energy; this year's spin is that the programme will "save"100 billion baht, and Mr Wannarat got away unchallenged with a claim that a similar project last year saved 30 billion baht; the deal is that the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) and the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) and so on - 30,000 firms altogether - will work on conservation, purchase green technology and so on, and in return they will get some tax breaks and subsidies on loans taken through the energy services company fund (Esco); the minister is looking for one billion baht to fund Esco this year.
Sansiri teams up with SCB to introduce credit card
Sansiri Plc (SIRI) has joined Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) in launching a credit card as a customer relationship management (CRM) activity and a channel to build brand awareness of its propertymanagement subsidiary Touch Property.
Samatcha Promsiri, assistant vicepresident for marketing, said the developer aimed to increase the number of residents at its housing projects who use Touch services to 2,600 from 500-600 now, or to 20% from 4% of the total of 13,000 housing units it has sold since its establishment.
"Revenue for our subsidiary may not be that much but we aim to attract our existing customers to try services from the subsidiary as most of our customers do not know about Touch and its services," he said.
SCB Sansiri Platinum, the first housing credit card, allows cardholders to use reward points plus additional cash to redeem for services including laundry,cleaning and gardening services provided by Touch. The card aims to draw not only existing Sansiri customers but also new ones, with a target of 50,000 cards in the first year.
"This is one of our CRM activities in which we have joined with SCB. The bank also plans to offer more products to customers, for example, insurance,"said Mr Samatcha."The spending behaviour of credit cardholders will also tell us which new products should be offered to them."
The minimummonthly salary for applicants will be 35,000 baht, the rate which Sansiri is confident all its cus-tomers are eligible, even buyers of its lower-priced housing brands such as My Condo. New card applicants who also buy Sansiri units will get a 5% discount on down payments paid through the card.
Currently, SCB has more than one million credit-card holders, with each carrying 1.8 cards on average.
Sansiri also plans to hold a housing fair from Oct 1-4, offering 428 units from 29 projects worth a combined 2 billion baht. The fair will offer a 50% discount on down payment. It targets sales of one billion baht at the fair and 4.8 billion baht in the fourth quarter of the year.
To date, it has a sales backlog of 16.55 billion baht to be realised in the next three years, with 8.38 billion baht to be booked in 2010 and 5.3 billion baht in 2011. About 74% of the sales are condominiums,14% single houses and 12%townhouses. Total revenue this year was estimated at 17 billion baht.
SIRI shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 4.50 baht,down two satang, in trade worth 120.17 million baht.
Samatcha Promsiri, assistant vicepresident for marketing, said the developer aimed to increase the number of residents at its housing projects who use Touch services to 2,600 from 500-600 now, or to 20% from 4% of the total of 13,000 housing units it has sold since its establishment.
"Revenue for our subsidiary may not be that much but we aim to attract our existing customers to try services from the subsidiary as most of our customers do not know about Touch and its services," he said.
SCB Sansiri Platinum, the first housing credit card, allows cardholders to use reward points plus additional cash to redeem for services including laundry,cleaning and gardening services provided by Touch. The card aims to draw not only existing Sansiri customers but also new ones, with a target of 50,000 cards in the first year.
"This is one of our CRM activities in which we have joined with SCB. The bank also plans to offer more products to customers, for example, insurance,"said Mr Samatcha."The spending behaviour of credit cardholders will also tell us which new products should be offered to them."
The minimummonthly salary for applicants will be 35,000 baht, the rate which Sansiri is confident all its cus-tomers are eligible, even buyers of its lower-priced housing brands such as My Condo. New card applicants who also buy Sansiri units will get a 5% discount on down payments paid through the card.
Currently, SCB has more than one million credit-card holders, with each carrying 1.8 cards on average.
Sansiri also plans to hold a housing fair from Oct 1-4, offering 428 units from 29 projects worth a combined 2 billion baht. The fair will offer a 50% discount on down payment. It targets sales of one billion baht at the fair and 4.8 billion baht in the fourth quarter of the year.
To date, it has a sales backlog of 16.55 billion baht to be realised in the next three years, with 8.38 billion baht to be booked in 2010 and 5.3 billion baht in 2011. About 74% of the sales are condominiums,14% single houses and 12%townhouses. Total revenue this year was estimated at 17 billion baht.
SIRI shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 4.50 baht,down two satang, in trade worth 120.17 million baht.
BASF BUILDS CENTRE TO HELP KARENS
BASF, a global chemical company, will provide Bt3.7 million to the Karen Kids Society to construct a youth centre for young adults in Ban Pa Deng, Petchaburi province.
The contribution, provided via the BASF Social Foundation, is aimed at improving the standard of living of local residents.
The Karen Kids Youth Centre will provide educational opportunities for young adults from the ethnic minority along with Thai residents, focusing on income generating activities such as handicraft skills.
The centre will also provide separate living and sanitation facilities. The construction of the 390-square-metre centre began last month and should be completed by the middle of next year.
Karen Kids Society president and founder Juergen Strafe said: "When we first discovered the children, they were living in a rat- and insect-infested hovel with a leaking roof.
"The dirt and smell were unimaginable. Today, they enjoy clean, healthy accommodation, with proper sanitation, freshly laundered bedding and a hygienic kitchen.
"The next step is to build a youth centre where older kids can learn a trade. Within a few years, they will be able to leave the camp and make a life for themselves using these new skills."
To Pracha Chivaporntip, chairman and managing director of the BASF Group in Thailand, the project in Ban Pa Deng is one of many the company has sponsored over the years as part of its sustainable development efforts.
With its existing education centre, Karen Kids provides shelter, education, clothing and food to more than 80 children aged 10 months to 14 years now living as displaced persons.
With a three-pronged plan focusing on education, health and self-reliance, the centre provides a place to meet, play, and study.
It also provides "child safe" Internet access. Each Saturday, the camp offers Thai-and English-language classes for children and adults.
A vaccination schedule is maintained, and children will be taught ways to improve their immune system.
A weaving programme, vegetable garden and a fishpond.
The first phase of the construction, together with a sleeping area for volunteers and camp managers, was completed last year.
Its second phase, with a two storey centre, will include training facilities for sewing, weaving and carpentry.
The contribution, provided via the BASF Social Foundation, is aimed at improving the standard of living of local residents.
The Karen Kids Youth Centre will provide educational opportunities for young adults from the ethnic minority along with Thai residents, focusing on income generating activities such as handicraft skills.
The centre will also provide separate living and sanitation facilities. The construction of the 390-square-metre centre began last month and should be completed by the middle of next year.
Karen Kids Society president and founder Juergen Strafe said: "When we first discovered the children, they were living in a rat- and insect-infested hovel with a leaking roof.
"The dirt and smell were unimaginable. Today, they enjoy clean, healthy accommodation, with proper sanitation, freshly laundered bedding and a hygienic kitchen.
"The next step is to build a youth centre where older kids can learn a trade. Within a few years, they will be able to leave the camp and make a life for themselves using these new skills."
To Pracha Chivaporntip, chairman and managing director of the BASF Group in Thailand, the project in Ban Pa Deng is one of many the company has sponsored over the years as part of its sustainable development efforts.
With its existing education centre, Karen Kids provides shelter, education, clothing and food to more than 80 children aged 10 months to 14 years now living as displaced persons.
With a three-pronged plan focusing on education, health and self-reliance, the centre provides a place to meet, play, and study.
It also provides "child safe" Internet access. Each Saturday, the camp offers Thai-and English-language classes for children and adults.
A vaccination schedule is maintained, and children will be taught ways to improve their immune system.
A weaving programme, vegetable garden and a fishpond.
The first phase of the construction, together with a sleeping area for volunteers and camp managers, was completed last year.
Its second phase, with a two storey centre, will include training facilities for sewing, weaving and carpentry.
Grandma Hai wins B1.2m in damages
Eighty-year-old grandmother Hai Khanjanta is being awarded 1.2 million baht in compensation after having fought for 30 years to reclaim her land after the construction of a dam.
The cabinet has agreed to pay Mrs Hai, Sua Khamphan and Fong Khanjanta a combined 4.9 million baht for their opportunities lost during the dam construction.
Mr Sua will receive 2.4 million baht and Mr Fong 1.3 million baht.
Mrs Hai opposed the building of Huay Ra Ha dyke from the very start of the project in 1977. The dam, built to provide drinking water to Na Tan district of Ubon Ratchathani, flooded her farm at Ban Non Tan.
She and other villagers had their land returned after former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the demolition of the dam in 2004. However, no compensation was paid to affected residents to rehabilitate their paddy fields.
Yesterday's cabinet approval for the financial compensation did not come easily.
PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey said some state agencies argued that the payments would set a precedent for other groups to claim compensation.
"Some state agencies said this case would set a precedent for other affected groups [to claim compensation from the state]," Mr Sathit said."But we don't think so because there will be no other dams that will be ordered demolished by the state."
Mrs Hai praised the Democrat-led government for paying attention to the plight of the poor.
She was glad the government had addressed the problems raised by the Assembly of the Poor.
The woman, who joined the assembly to fight for her land, said past governments had ignored the problems of rural poor.
Asked whether the amount was enough for her family, she said it was not huge as she had fought for 32 years to receive justice.
But she insisted she would not make further demands.
She said she would give the money to her children.
The cabinet has agreed to pay Mrs Hai, Sua Khamphan and Fong Khanjanta a combined 4.9 million baht for their opportunities lost during the dam construction.
Mr Sua will receive 2.4 million baht and Mr Fong 1.3 million baht.
Mrs Hai opposed the building of Huay Ra Ha dyke from the very start of the project in 1977. The dam, built to provide drinking water to Na Tan district of Ubon Ratchathani, flooded her farm at Ban Non Tan.
She and other villagers had their land returned after former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra ordered the demolition of the dam in 2004. However, no compensation was paid to affected residents to rehabilitate their paddy fields.
Yesterday's cabinet approval for the financial compensation did not come easily.
PM's Office Minister Sathit Wongnongtoey said some state agencies argued that the payments would set a precedent for other groups to claim compensation.
"Some state agencies said this case would set a precedent for other affected groups [to claim compensation from the state]," Mr Sathit said."But we don't think so because there will be no other dams that will be ordered demolished by the state."
Mrs Hai praised the Democrat-led government for paying attention to the plight of the poor.
She was glad the government had addressed the problems raised by the Assembly of the Poor.
The woman, who joined the assembly to fight for her land, said past governments had ignored the problems of rural poor.
Asked whether the amount was enough for her family, she said it was not huge as she had fought for 32 years to receive justice.
But she insisted she would not make further demands.
She said she would give the money to her children.
RANGSIT PLAZA FREEZES COMMUNITY MALL PROJECT
Rangsit Plaza, operator of Future Park shopping complex in Rangsit, yesterday announced a freeze on new development projects, including a community mall to be built on a nearby 700-rai plot of undeveloped land.
The company will instead seek potential investors able to develop their own projects, including sports and entertainment complexes, to occupy the land based on a long lease or joint investment contract.
"Developing a community mall requires a huge budget of more than Bt1 billion, but it is not a good time amid the economic recession to pursue such an investment," said Jittinan Wanglee, vice president - sales of Rangsit Plaza.
She said the development of a community mall required major tenants able to fill the retail space and act as magnets to build up consumer traffic.
"We also cannot find appropriate tenants for our new community mall project at this moment," said Jittinan, adding that the company would not make any decision on developing such a mall until it could find the right tenants and anchors for the complex.
She said the company was not confident about the success of community malls during this time of economic difficulty.
"Though the community mall is now a popular model developed in the market, there are investors who have been successful and others that have been failures," she said.
Owned by Pipatanasin, the land-owning company founded by the Wanglee family, the entire land plot - the so-called Future City - occupies 800 rai. About 108 rai have already been developed as the Future Park shopping mall and 150 rai have been occupied by other retail anchors, including Index Living Mall, HomePro and Major Cineplex.
The remaining land surrounding the Future Park complex is still to be developed.
Jittinan said Future Park had completed its major Bt1-billion renovation in the first half of this year. The process took almost three years.
"We will next year focus on pushing our efforts to build up convenience for our shoppers. The company will next year invest Bt300 million as a marketing budget to attract a higher number of people to our shopping mall," she said.
She added that Future Park planned to spend Bt20 million on its "Future Park 14th Anniversary Grand Splendour" campaign. The campaign, including "Super Shows Super Stars" concerts and special discounts of between 10 and 30 per cent offered by Central and Robinson department stores, will be held from Friday to October 4.
The company expects the campaign will increase the number of visitors to its shopping complex by 10 per cent, as well as lift sales at tenant stores by an average of 20 per cent.
The company will instead seek potential investors able to develop their own projects, including sports and entertainment complexes, to occupy the land based on a long lease or joint investment contract.
"Developing a community mall requires a huge budget of more than Bt1 billion, but it is not a good time amid the economic recession to pursue such an investment," said Jittinan Wanglee, vice president - sales of Rangsit Plaza.
She said the development of a community mall required major tenants able to fill the retail space and act as magnets to build up consumer traffic.
"We also cannot find appropriate tenants for our new community mall project at this moment," said Jittinan, adding that the company would not make any decision on developing such a mall until it could find the right tenants and anchors for the complex.
She said the company was not confident about the success of community malls during this time of economic difficulty.
"Though the community mall is now a popular model developed in the market, there are investors who have been successful and others that have been failures," she said.
Owned by Pipatanasin, the land-owning company founded by the Wanglee family, the entire land plot - the so-called Future City - occupies 800 rai. About 108 rai have already been developed as the Future Park shopping mall and 150 rai have been occupied by other retail anchors, including Index Living Mall, HomePro and Major Cineplex.
The remaining land surrounding the Future Park complex is still to be developed.
Jittinan said Future Park had completed its major Bt1-billion renovation in the first half of this year. The process took almost three years.
"We will next year focus on pushing our efforts to build up convenience for our shoppers. The company will next year invest Bt300 million as a marketing budget to attract a higher number of people to our shopping mall," she said.
She added that Future Park planned to spend Bt20 million on its "Future Park 14th Anniversary Grand Splendour" campaign. The campaign, including "Super Shows Super Stars" concerts and special discounts of between 10 and 30 per cent offered by Central and Robinson department stores, will be held from Friday to October 4.
The company expects the campaign will increase the number of visitors to its shopping complex by 10 per cent, as well as lift sales at tenant stores by an average of 20 per cent.
JUSTICE AT LAST FOR GRANDMA HAI OVER DAM
After three decades of calling for a fair deal, grandma Hai Khanjanthra has been compensated for land expropriated for a dam project in Ubon Ratchathani.
The Cabinet yesterday decided to pay Bt1,208,153 to the 79-year-old resident of Na Tal district, along with Bt2,389,142 to Sua Phankham and Bt1,350,922 to Fong Khanjanthra, who were also affected by the construction of the Huay Laha Dam project.
The money came from an emergency budget, paid at the request of the Interior Ministry.
Hai said she was thankful for the government's payment, although the amount was not enough compared to the damage done - the loss of 61 rai of farmland, both to water inundation and lack of fertilisers to grow rice since 1977. Hai also expressed thanks to members of the Forum of the Poor who urged previous governments to resolve her case.
"The money is not enough ... but I am not going to demand more. I am glad that this government listens to poor people's grievances, the past governments did not care about poor people," she said.
Hai said she would give some money to her children and grandchildren for their career projects,"so that their careers and their ways of life are better," she said.
Phet, Hai's daughter, said the payment was a good sign for all poor people, and urged the government to compensate the many people affected by dam projects, including those living near Pak Mool and Rasi Salai districts, in Ubon Ratchathani and Si Sa Ket provinces.
The Cabinet yesterday decided to pay Bt1,208,153 to the 79-year-old resident of Na Tal district, along with Bt2,389,142 to Sua Phankham and Bt1,350,922 to Fong Khanjanthra, who were also affected by the construction of the Huay Laha Dam project.
The money came from an emergency budget, paid at the request of the Interior Ministry.
Hai said she was thankful for the government's payment, although the amount was not enough compared to the damage done - the loss of 61 rai of farmland, both to water inundation and lack of fertilisers to grow rice since 1977. Hai also expressed thanks to members of the Forum of the Poor who urged previous governments to resolve her case.
"The money is not enough ... but I am not going to demand more. I am glad that this government listens to poor people's grievances, the past governments did not care about poor people," she said.
Hai said she would give some money to her children and grandchildren for their career projects,"so that their careers and their ways of life are better," she said.
Phet, Hai's daughter, said the payment was a good sign for all poor people, and urged the government to compensate the many people affected by dam projects, including those living near Pak Mool and Rasi Salai districts, in Ubon Ratchathani and Si Sa Ket provinces.
BKK GROUP TO SPREAD ITS WINGS
The BKK Group, parent company of the Benz BKK Group, will branch out into high-rise real-estate development by constructing a Bt1-billion apartment complex at the Bang Na intersection in Bangkok.
"We see very positive growth in the Thai market in the years to come. We'll launch our real-estate project by the end of this year. It will be our first high-rise building, and the company will be called BKK Grand Estate," said Anupon Likitpurkpaisan, BKK's executive director.
The company has previously been involved in real estate but has only constructed low-rise buildings outside of Bangkok. The new building will be 34 storeys high and most likely be accessible from the upcoming Bang Na Skytrain Station.
The company has rebranded itself using the slogan "For Today's Better Living". The rebranding was undertaken to bring the real-estate and automotive sectors under one corporate umbrella.
"With more than 17 years of experience in the luxury-car retail business, we've consistently developed products and services to ensure customer satisfaction. We'll ensure everything we do is focused on total quality-management strategies," said Anupon.
The automotive division of the company saw growth of 5 per cent in the first seven months of the year. The company expects to achieve revenues of Bt3 billion this year, up 7.14 per cent from last year's Bt2.8 billion.
More than 80 per cent of revenue is generated through sales of Mercedes-Benz and Nissan vehicles, while the rest is created through services.
The company's rebranding activities have seen investment of Bt30 |million, which included changes to hardware, showroom design and software.
The BKK Group previously focused mainly in the automotive sector by being the authorised dealer for Mercedes-Benz and Nissan. The company has two Mercedes-Benz showrooms: one in Bang Na district and the other on Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road, along with one Nissan dealership in Bang Na. The company also has one ID1 centre, an authorised Mercedes-Benz used-car dealership.
In the past, the company sold the Chrysler and Jeep brands, which it now services.
Anupon added that the company would most likely expand with a new Bt100-million Mercedes-Benz showroom.
"We see very positive growth in the Thai market in the years to come. We'll launch our real-estate project by the end of this year. It will be our first high-rise building, and the company will be called BKK Grand Estate," said Anupon Likitpurkpaisan, BKK's executive director.
The company has previously been involved in real estate but has only constructed low-rise buildings outside of Bangkok. The new building will be 34 storeys high and most likely be accessible from the upcoming Bang Na Skytrain Station.
The company has rebranded itself using the slogan "For Today's Better Living". The rebranding was undertaken to bring the real-estate and automotive sectors under one corporate umbrella.
"With more than 17 years of experience in the luxury-car retail business, we've consistently developed products and services to ensure customer satisfaction. We'll ensure everything we do is focused on total quality-management strategies," said Anupon.
The automotive division of the company saw growth of 5 per cent in the first seven months of the year. The company expects to achieve revenues of Bt3 billion this year, up 7.14 per cent from last year's Bt2.8 billion.
More than 80 per cent of revenue is generated through sales of Mercedes-Benz and Nissan vehicles, while the rest is created through services.
The company's rebranding activities have seen investment of Bt30 |million, which included changes to hardware, showroom design and software.
The BKK Group previously focused mainly in the automotive sector by being the authorised dealer for Mercedes-Benz and Nissan. The company has two Mercedes-Benz showrooms: one in Bang Na district and the other on Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road, along with one Nissan dealership in Bang Na. The company also has one ID1 centre, an authorised Mercedes-Benz used-car dealership.
In the past, the company sold the Chrysler and Jeep brands, which it now services.
Anupon added that the company would most likely expand with a new Bt100-million Mercedes-Benz showroom.
Grim outlook for Dubai housing market
House jprices in Dubai, which fell the most during the global economic crisis, will suffer another "meaningful" slump in about three months because of increased supply and restrictions on mortgages,says an analyst at Zurich, Switzerland-based bank UBS.
Prices wil drop an additioal 33 per cent to 6,458 dirhams (Bt59,400) per square metre, said UBS's analyst in Dubai, Saud Masud. Prices sank 47 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, real-estate firm Knight Frank said earlier this month.
Dubai landlords have created "a temporary respite" int eh market by keeping apartments empty rather than adding to a glut of homes available for rent, Landmark Advisory said last month. Starting in the second half of 2008, the sheikhdm went from being the best performer out of 46 markets monitored in the Knight Frank global house-price index to the worst. A construction boom had creted thousands of homes just as demand began to evaporate.
"[People]feel the market is coming back and they are trying to hold off for a bit," Masud said. "But that is not going to last because when more inventory hits the market and some one's apartment sits vacant for six to nine months, they are going to cave in, and that's when we'll see the repricing of assets."
Global real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle last month said there were "signs of stabilisation" in Dubai's property market, with the decline in home prices slowing in the second quarter from the previous three months. However, the number of transactions fell 58 per cent during the quarter from a year earlier, it said.
The market is currently in a "numbphase," and optimism is based on "few transactions," Masud said.
Prices wil rech a bottom in 12-18 months. "[Next year] is going to be tough, and I would be shocked if we started talking about a recovery in 2010," Masud said. "Issuesof excess inventory,litigation, financing and payment delays are still unrfesolved and clogging up the pipeline."
Prices wil drop an additioal 33 per cent to 6,458 dirhams (Bt59,400) per square metre, said UBS's analyst in Dubai, Saud Masud. Prices sank 47 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, real-estate firm Knight Frank said earlier this month.
Dubai landlords have created "a temporary respite" int eh market by keeping apartments empty rather than adding to a glut of homes available for rent, Landmark Advisory said last month. Starting in the second half of 2008, the sheikhdm went from being the best performer out of 46 markets monitored in the Knight Frank global house-price index to the worst. A construction boom had creted thousands of homes just as demand began to evaporate.
"[People]feel the market is coming back and they are trying to hold off for a bit," Masud said. "But that is not going to last because when more inventory hits the market and some one's apartment sits vacant for six to nine months, they are going to cave in, and that's when we'll see the repricing of assets."
Global real-estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle last month said there were "signs of stabilisation" in Dubai's property market, with the decline in home prices slowing in the second quarter from the previous three months. However, the number of transactions fell 58 per cent during the quarter from a year earlier, it said.
The market is currently in a "numbphase," and optimism is based on "few transactions," Masud said.
Prices wil rech a bottom in 12-18 months. "[Next year] is going to be tough, and I would be shocked if we started talking about a recovery in 2010," Masud said. "Issuesof excess inventory,litigation, financing and payment delays are still unrfesolved and clogging up the pipeline."
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