Low-rise houses continued to outperform condos in the first quarter, mainly attributed to presales of single detached houses, semi-detached houses and townhouses from large developers.
Vittakarn Chandavimol, chief of corporate strategy and creation for AP Thailand Plc, said the company's presales growth in the first quarter was driven by low-rise houses.
The company recorded 13 billion baht in presales for the period, soaring 63% year-on-year. Of the amount, 10.8 billion baht accounting for 84% was from low-rise houses, while 2.16 billion or 16% was from condos.
Last year 94% of AP's total presales derived from low-rise houses, comprising 32.8 billion baht out of a total of 35 billion, with condo presales making up 6% or 2.2 billion, said Mr Vittakarn.
Uthai Uthaisangsuk, chief operating officer of Sansiri Plc, said its presales in the first quarter also relied on low-rise houses. This week it reported 7.2 billion baht in presales in the first quarter. Of the amount, 64% or 4.6 billion baht was attributed to low-rise houses, while 36% or 2.6 billion was from condos.
"The best selling low-rise houses were single detached houses in the upper-end segment and affordably priced townhouses for first-time homebuyers," said Mr Uthai. "We maintained our target of 35 billion baht in presales by the end of 2022."
Last year Sansiri recorded 33.5 billion baht in presales, which comprised 22.4 billion baht from low-rise houses, accounting for 65%, and 11.1 billion from condos (35%).
Tritecha Tangmatitham, managing director of Supalai Plc, said the company's presales in the first quarter hit a new record high of 8.85 billion baht, year-on-year growth of 22% from 7.23 billion.
"The key driver was low-rise houses in top locations, including northern and eastern Bangkok, Chon Buri, Rayong and Phuket," he said. "Presales reached a new record high, helping us surpass our target for the quarter."
For the period, Supalai's presales from low-rise houses tallied 6.33 billion baht, growing 39% from the fourth quarter last year and accounting for 71% of the total. Condo presales stood at 2.52 billion baht, quarter-on-quarter growth of 28%, which represented 29%.
To capitalise on robust presales from low-rise houses, Supalai plans to launch six new housing projects worth a combined 8.7 billion baht and one condo project worth 1 billion, said Mr Tritecha. He said housing demand in the middle class, with units priced 4-6 million baht, as well as the high-end segment continues to grow, reflecting a recovery in consumer confidence and purchasing power.
"Momentum in the first quarter this year was carried over from the second half last year," said Mr Tritecha. "We expect presales and revenue in 2022 will be higher than the targets of 28 billion baht and 29 billion, respectively."
He said the property market for the rest of this year is likely to keep growing, boosted by real demand, government tax incentives, low interest rates and a recovering economy.
According to Asia Plus Securities, developers began their shift to the low-rise housing sector in 2019, when 57% of new supply launched was in this segment, with condos representing 43%, dropping from 55% in 2018.
In 2020-21, the proportion of newly launched low-rise houses rose to 81% and 71%, respectively, as developers reacted to momentum from housing transfers in 2017. Transfers of low-rise houses accounted for 55% of the total market in that year before rising consecutively to 59%, 61%, 64% and 70% from 2018-21.
In 2022, Noble Development Plc plans to launch 12 new low-rise housing projects worth a combined 18.8 billion baht and six condo projects worth a total of 28.9 billion. The firm recently launched the luxury low-rise project Noble Curate on a 9.3-rai plot on Ekamai-Ram Intra Road, offering 15 plots sized between 161 and 247 square wah and priced from 80 million baht per plot.
"High-end homebuyers want personalisation. They want one of a kind," said Sira Udol, chief business development officer at Noble.