The slowing property market is possibly a blessing in disguise, helping to screen out condo speculators and the developers targeting them and offering a chance for real demand and healthy developers to set a fair price.
Tritecha Tangmatitham, managing director of SET-listed developer Supalai Plc (SPALI), said the sluggish property market could be advantageous because property, particularly condos and land, is not overpriced.
"The market is no longer seeing condo projects sold out in a day, as such a situation is often driven by speculative demand," Mr Tritecha said on Tuesday. "It's good for real buyers because they can purchase a unit directly from the project, not from speculators."
At the same time, some developers that focus on condo projects to sell to speculators may get the hiccups when the property market slows and speculators have gone.
With a possible lack of financial liquidity, these developers will put land purchase plans or new condo launches on hold, Mr Tritecha said.
This will be a chance for developers with strong finance to buy land at more reasonable prices or launch new condo projects to get a good sales rate, as there are fewer rivals competing for land or new supply launches.
"The number of new condo projects launched in Bangkok in the second half will cool down due to many negative factors like the loan-to-value (LTV) limits," Mr Tritecha said.
But the central bank's cooling measures had more impact on buyers of single detached houses, townhouses and semi-detached houses than on condo buyers after they took effect on April 1, since low-rise units were ready to transfer in a shorter period.
"During the past few months, we needed to educate customers about LTV because many understood that LTV requirements covered everyone," Mr Tritecha said. "This led sales to drop by 8-10%."
He said the unfavourable sentiment in the condo market is not seen in all segments. Condo projects in potential locations with affordable prices remain in demand, particularly units priced lower than 100,000 baht per square metre.
But more than half of new supply launched in the first half was priced higher than 100,000 baht per sq m.
"A project can have a good sales rate if the price is right," Mr Tritecha said.
In the second half, Supalai plans to launch three new condo projects, all of which will be located near mass transit stations and have units priced below 100,000 baht per sq m.
One of them will be Supalai Park Yaek Fai Chai Station worth 2.27 billion baht. It will be located on a six-rai plot on Charan Sanit Wong Soi 28/2, two kilometres from Siriraj Hospital.
Slated to launch on July 20, it will have two 22-storey towers and a total of 726 units sized between 29.5 and 74.5 sq m with prices ranging from 2.03 to 7 million baht a unit.
The company expects to have half the units sold on the launch date. Targeted buyers are doctors, nurses, medical personnel and those buying to rent out to patients' relatives.
SPALI shares closed on Tuesday on the SET at 23.30 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 116.3 million baht.