Home-builder eyes growth

Home Develop Co targets 10-per-cent sales growth this year from launching four new series to focus on the luxury-home market.

The builder's managing director Boonlue Wongpornpenpap said the market faced a hard time last year due to the flood disaster. Many potential customers delayed their decision to build a home.

However, demand has started to recover this month. Some customers have decided to sign home-building contracts before prices rise along with increasing costs of construction materials and energy and the hike in the daily minimum wage on April 1. "We have seen demand return to the market since late January," he said.

He added that the market would see significant recovery in the second quarter when customers have confidence with the government's flood-management policy.

Meanwhile, to boost customers' confidence further, the company has designed its new series to cope with flooding. The first floor is higher than last year's flood level, at about 1.2 metres.

The company has also revised its target customers into four categories, following market demand. The first group is its Premium Series that has utilisation space of 600-1,000 square metres. The Luxury Series has utilisation space of 1,001-1,500sqm, the Elegance Series runs from 1,501-2,000sqm, and the last group is the Extravagance Series with utilisation space higher than 2,000sqm. Prices run from Bt20,000 to Bt23,000 per square metre.

Under this new business strategy, the company expects sales of Bt200 million this year, he said.