Royal House expects homebuilding to dominate

       The property market in downtown Bangkok over the next 10 years will be dominated by homebuilders while low-rise housing developers will be pushed to the outskirts, said Sakda Kovisuth, managing director of homebuilder Royal House Co Ltd.
       Land costs in Bangkok's central areas rule out developing low-rise units in the heart of the city, he said.
       During the first half of the year, most of Royal House's customers were in downtown Bangkok, with Ratchadaphisek Road being a leading location,he said.
       "Many homeowners don't want to live far from where they work, due to traffic jams," he said."On Ratchadaphisek Road, they can live near mass transit and their houses only need a makeover."
       While homeowners on Ratchadaphisek Road want to stay in the area to be near the MRT, homeowners on Sukhumvit Road want to sell their plots at attractive prices to condominium developers.
       "But building a house in Bangkok downtown is not easy. Some plots are small and many roads and sois are very narrow," he said.
       To tap rising demand, the company launched three-storey designs last year and got a good response, he said.
       The homebuilding market in the second half of the year will improve from the first half as the world economy is in an upward trend, said Mr Sakda.
       "Many stimulus packages will take effect in the second half," he said.
       "I believe Thailand can overcome any potential deterioration in the political situation. We've done it before."
       The company expects to achieve sales of 830 million baht in 2009, up from 730 million last year, due to improved market sentiment. In the first half of the year,the company passed its target with sales of 430 million baht.
       Royal House plans to launch four highend housing designs with usable areas of 850-1,200 square metres and priced from 15 to more than 20 million baht at the Home Builder Fair from tomorrow at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.
       "Some cash-rich customers told us they got a negative impact from the economic downturn so they had more free time to build a house. In a sluggish economy, they expected lower-priced materials and more bargaining power than homebuilders in cost negotiations,"said Mr Sakda.