“We have to design a residence that is comfortable to serves the customer demand, but how do we present both comfort and a design that attracts customers to learn about our brand? Siri House is the outcome of our idea to design a space and to create community and lifestyle within this space to explain what is Sansiri,” Ou said.

Ou took on the role of Sansiri’s chief creative officer last year, tasked with designing and creating the Sansiri brand, what it stands for, and positioning it as a top-of-mind brand in the property sector.

“Sansiri’s business concept is not limited to developing residential. We create complete living experiences, and so must find a way to reach our target customers and help them experience what it is to live in a Sansiri home,” Ou said.

“This is the way to help them to decide decision to buy our residence over buying it from our competition.”

In addressing the question of how they could provide an experience that makes it clear to customers what they can expect from Sansiri’s residential projects, the company chose to open Siri House at Singapore on January 11. This is challenge for its foreign customers to know and learn what a Sansiri residence is about and to also learn about Thai culture.

Siri House in Singapore has a total space of 300.5 square metres and is located at Dempsey Hillhouses. It is designed with additional facilities, including a restaurant, an art gallery that exhibits a roster of art shows by Thai and international artists, a retail shop featuring a hot list design brands to know and to watch from Thailand.

Ou said that its design for Siri House in Singapore includes spaces where potential customers can touch the interior features of a Sansiri resident. It attracts foreign buyers interested in buying residential in Bangkok, including current Sansiri residents.

“This looks like our showroom, but we do not directly offer our residential projects directly for sale here. Instead, we present our lifestyle, our community concept and inspire people to live in our residential projects. This is the way to build our brand to attract long-term customers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the house offers art exhibitions to present Thai and international artists. Kantapon “Gong” Metheekul, who works under the name Gongkan, was the kick-off artist with an exhibition under the theme of Another Dimension is Gongkan.

Kantapon is a former art director and illustrator based in New York and Bangkok. His work is best known for its minimal street art-inspired drawings and “Teleport” art works – a sticker and mural series featuring characters climbing out of dark holes scattered among public spaces. His work explores themes of freedom and inequality in race, sexuality and human rights.

Gongkan will be followed by exhibitions by other Thai and international artists aimed to inspire potential customers to learn about the lifestyle they could enjoy in a Sansiri community.

“As the next step, we may open the exhibition space for rental by other exhibitors to show their work,” said Ou. The house will soon generate income from both the restaurant and rental income,” he said.

However, producing on-site income is not the main objective for Siri House, but rather it is about presenting the business brand, he clarified.

He has translated the idea to design the 1,600-square-metre Siri House at Soi Somkid in Bangkok, which opens on March 15. The concept behind that space is “all-day living by design”.

The building will offer facilities to attract a wide range of people as an open house for all, said Ou, noting that it will reflect the approach taken in Sansiri’s residential projects such as a co-working space and creation of a community for all lifestyles that include a restaurant, retail shop and other amenities.

“We created Siri House to inspire our customers by demonstrating what they will get from Sansiri Plc. This is the way to build a strong brand for our customers – by building them a life rather than building residential,” said Ou.

Sansiri president Srettha Thavisin said that Siri House “is the way to present what we are”. From Singapore, and now Bangkok, the company is next studying opening its third facility at Hua Hin.

“This is the way to build our brand and talk with our customers, showing that we don’t just build residential buildings – we build their living solution and lifestyle,” he said.

“From long experience in this industry, we’ve learned that though the demands of customers change, most want to buy a new experience when they purchase residential property,” said Srettha.

“When we expand our target customers from domestic to foreign buyers, we have to find ways to win customer confidence, and how to create new experiences so they can learn who we are in this industry.”

Siri House at Soi Somkid is an effort by the property firm to build its brand, by demonstrating the range of services it offers to meet customers’ desired lifestyle.

Siri House at Soi Somkid will offer food and beverages, a shopping outlet, |co-working space and an exhibition space.

“We’re opening Siri House for all people to share its space and to create an open space for people to work. This is the way we want to build our brand, to be the brand at the top of our customers’ minds,” Srettha said.

The food and beverage service will feature well-known brands like Luka, Quince, Jacqueline and others.

The retail shops will offer Booksmith, Olympic Digger and Heartmade, among others.

The house will open on March 15.

Focusing on AI, IoT and blockchain technologies, Sansiri entered into partnership with Amazon Web Services, Digital Ventures and Microsoft to create innovations to enhance and accomplish real estate value chain from the stage of project development, workforce productivity improvement, to expansion of service offerings to meet all aspects of resident’s living needs.

The company is set to become an AI-First organisation by 2020. For the first time in Thailand, Sansiri planned to launch show unit of Smart Home capable of learning the behaviour of its dwellers and Virtual Sales Gallery simulating sales gallery of several residential projects in one single sales centre by the third quarter of thIs 2019, the company’s chief technology officer Dr Tawicha Trakulyingyong said yesterday.

The milestone was marked with a traditional Buddhist ceremony, giving the residents an auspicious start to their new lives by the ocean. Phrakhru Priyatayanuyu, the abbot of Wichit Sangkharam Temple, led the ceremony with the new owners, MontAzure’s management, including the Vice Governor of Phuket Province. Islamic and Brahman blessings were also performed, reflecting the rich cultural diversity of Phuket.

The ceremonies, which included prayers and the sprinkling of holy water, will help to bestow good fortune, success and happiness on the new residences and their owners, they said.

“This is oceanfront living at its finest, offering a perfect balance of peace and seclusion in a pristine setting, while also being surrounded by world-class amenities. I am delighted to officially welcome our first owners with such an auspicious ceremony, and I wish all our residents a happy and healthy new life at MontAzure,” said Setthaphol Boottho, director of MontAzure.

Twinpalms Residences MontAzure forms part of the landmark 72-hectare MontAzure project – Phuket’s largest mixed-use community, the company said.

He added that the company expected its net profit to reach Bt2 billion this year, up 12 per cent from Bt1.78 billion at the end of 2018, he said.

To drive net profit growth, the company plans to launch 13 residential projects worth Bt22.7 billion to boost its presale value to Bt22 billion and Bt19 billion in total revenue this year. Nine of the 13 projects will be low-rise residential developments (single-detached houses and townhouses) worth a total of Bt6.5 billion while the other four will be condominiums worth Bt16.2 billion.

Meanwhile, the company’s board has approved a dividend payment of Bt0.16 per share on May 23, subjected to shareholders’ approval at a general meeting scheduled for April 25, he said.

The campaigns also allow the firms to reduce their high inventory at a time when the economy has slowed down.

Noble Development Plc, for example, has launched it latest marketing campaign, with a 29 per cent discount for customers who buy into its Noble Ploenchit by offering prices of Bt190,000 per square metre, down from Bt270,000 per square metre.

The project now has about 200 units sized between 44 and 110 square metres and selling for about Bt2 billion.

“We expect this campaign will sell out this project,” the company’s assistant managing director Sira Udon said recently.

Assetwise Co Ltd offers a discount price of up to 20 per cent for its H2 Condominium Ramindra 21, reducing from Bt3.53 million per unit to a discounted Bt2.79 million per unit, along with a free transfer fee.

Origin Property Plc is offering a discount price for Knightbridge Tiwanond,  from the original of up to Bt3.66 million to the new price of Bt3.39 million, drop of 7.3 per cent.

Sena Development Plc offers free down payment and a discount of up to Bt1 million for its 18 residential projects nationwide, with residential units priced between Bt1.2 million and Bt8.2 million. The company expects sales of  Bt1.2 billion from this event that runs from now till the end of March, 2019.

Supalai Plc offers a discount of up to Bt270,000 per unit.

Sansiri Plc offers a discount price up to Bt12 million, or about 48 per cent, for its Baan Mai Kao, Phuket from a starting price of Bt25 million per unit. The company has also launched other campaigns such as a free transfer fee and public area fee, free to stay in the first two year. The campaign runs from now till March 15, 2019. The company expects sales of about Bt2 billion from the campaign.

From now till March 24, 2019 Grand Unity Development Co Ltd is offering a discount price of up to Bt2 million, along with a free-to-stay offer for the first two years for all customers who buy its brand U, and U-Delight condominiums nationwide. The company expects sales worth up to Bt2 billion from this campaign.

Most property firms also showcase their latest marketing campaigns at the 40th House and Condo Show 2019 between March 21-24, 2019 at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre.

The event expects above 100,000 visitors and sales values of up to Bt8 billion during the show. Most property firms and commercial banks are also offering a special price and financial package before the Bank of Thailand measure comes into effect on April 1, 2019.

They also expect to achieve total revenue of Bt319.19 billion, a double-digit growth over last year’s sales. All of the firms are confident they will sustain their income from 2019 through 2022.

According to a recent survey by The Nation, listed property firms have announced a high backlog as of December 31, 2018 worth over Bt300 billion combined. Nearly 10 per cent or about Bt30 billion of that total backlog involves sales to foreign buyers.

Sansiri Plc shows high backlog totalling Bt63.5 billion, with up to Bt14 billion tied to overseas customers including in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore (see graphic).

Meanwhile, all listed firms continue to expect this year’s presale target to record over Bt375 billion in transactions from both domestic and overseas customers.

“Our high backlog has secured our income for the long term,” Sansiri Plc’s president Srettha Thavisin said in a recent interview with The Nation.

The company has confidence that it would complete the presales with successful transfers of all units to customers, he added.

Foreign buyers must make a down payment of 25-30 per cent of total residential values. “Most of our foreign buyers are individuals and also made a high down payment. This secures our business in the long term,” Srettha said.

Sansiri has set presale targets for 2019 to 2021 that will reach Bt160 million combined, and generate income to the company from this year through 2024.

Also carrying a high backlog is AP (Thailand), with Bt41.8 billion on the books to provide revenues from 2019 through 2022.

The company also expects its presales to hit Bt60 billion in the year 2022, and is setting aside a Bt10 billion yearly investment budget from 2019 to 2022.

“We have boosted our presales to secure our revenue in the long term,” Anuphong Assavabhokhin, AP (Thailand)’s chief executive officer said recently.

The company’s success in speeding up its presale value has been helped by joint ventures with its Japanese partner Mitsubishi Real Estate Group. The joint venture has supported AP’s financial budget as well as improving its product designs, he said. Up to 60 per cent of its presale for condominium projects, which has been recorded at half of its total presales of Bt41.8 billion, has come from joint venture projects.

Prasert Taedullayasatit, honorary chairman of Thai Condominium Association, said the 2018 property market recorded total presale values for the combined 121,193 combined projects at Bt512.17 billion, up 18 per cent from the year 2017. That Bt512.17 billion included Bt293.72 billion from condominium projects, up 19 per cent from 2017 and spread over 70,066 units. Next was Bt122.58 billion from single detached houses, up 22 per cent from 2017, spread over 18,601 units. The remaining Bt87.57 billion from townhouses, up 13 per cent from 2017, was for a combined 30,914 units.

“Most of condominium projects sold last year included sales of up to 20 per cent to Chinese investors, which includes both the individual investors, and the brokers and agencies who bought more condominium units than they could sell to individual investors on the China mainland,” he said.

Following high recorded presales in 2018, some homebuyers have been rushing to transfer their residential purchase before a new measure by the Bank of Thailand kicks in on April 1, 2019. The BOT measure increases the required down-payments by reducing loan values from the current allowable 90 per cent to new limits of 80 per cent or 70 per cent for customers who buy second and third homes.

According to a survey by the Real Estate Information Centre of Government Housing Bank, in the fourth quarter of the year 2018, property transfers worth Bt339 billion were recorded for 92,500 units nationwide. This is the highest recorded in the past 12 quarters. The bump reflects the rush by homebuyers and property developers to finish transfers before the BOT measure begins.

The centre also forecasts that the property market will slow down after the Bank of Thailand measure begins, with 307,000 units transferred with a value of about Bt747 billion.

Meanwhile, Terdsak Taweethiratham, vice-president at Asia Plus Securities, is warning that both listed and non-listed property firms should be concerned about both their backlog and inventory as the country’s economy, and the property market, are due to slow down in this year compared with last year.

He added that a high backlog is normally better for property firms when they have product being sold on-hand and to be delivered to customers when the project is completed.

However, at this time of slow economic growth and the impending BOT restriction on mortgage loans, some customers may be not be able to complete the transfer when the construction is completed. This would impact the financial results of property firms, said Terdsak.

Meanwhile, both listed and non-listed property firms have high inventory worth above Bt520 billion as of 2018 year-end.

The Asia Plus Securities’ research found 12 listed property firms with inventory worth a combined Bt520 billion, with 10 per cent of the Bt520 billion tied to construction already completed and the remainder for projects to be completed in this year and the next.

All of the inventory will take time to sell out – between 18 months and as long as two years, the research found, and this will impact directly on property firms as they shoulder the costs until the payments are made.

“We see more property firms also planning to launch new residential projects, while they also carry more inventory. That is both an opportunity for sales, also a burden if they cannot sell,” Terdsak warns.