SET-listed developer Land & Houses plans to spend 9 billion baht on the property business this year, with one-third going to three hotels as the economy and tourism sector are recovering.
Naporn Sunthornchitcharoen, chairman of the company's board of directors and executive committee, said the tourism sector is experiencing good momentum as the number of tourist arrivals last year, which was predicted at 8 million, ended up exceeding 10 million.
"Economic sentiment is improved from last year as tourists return, driven by pent-up demand in China," he said.
"This year the total number of tourists will likely rise to 20 million."
Mr Naporn said all aspects of the company's hotel business in the fourth quarter last year outperformed the fourth quarter of 2019, the last such high season before the pandemic, including revenue, room rate, occupancy and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.
As the company expected a strong recovery in the tourism industry post-pandemic, it chose to invest in three hotels during the pandemic. Land & Houses plans to spend 3 billion baht this year to continue their development.
These hotels comprise: Grande Centre Point Surawong with 399 rooms; Grande Centre Point Lumpini, which has 512 rooms and office space for rent; and Grande Centre Point Ratchadamri 2, which has 509 rooms. These properties are slated to open in 2023, 2024 and 2027, respectively.
"Home purchasing power from the tourism sector will also improve, but we need to keep monitoring high household debt and the global economy, which will impact the export sector," he said.
Land & Houses plans to launch 17 new residential projects worth a combined 35 billion baht this year, aiming for 35 billion baht in presales and 33 billion in revenue by year-end, said Mr Naporn.
Among these projects is The Key Srinakarin, a high-priced condo project comprising 805 units valued at 6.5 billion baht.
The project is located on Srinakarin Road, which is set to be served by the mass transit Yellow Line when it opens this year.
"The project will be the first condo we have launched in three years since the pandemic began," he said.
"This year condos should gradually pick up after bottoming out with little supply launched last year."
The company plans to spend 6 billion baht in 2023 to buy new plots of land for future residential development, up from the 4.4 billion it invested last year, said Mr Naporn.
Land & Houses also has four rental properties in the US in which it invested a total of US$412 million. They comprise Parc and Revere apartments in Campbell, California; a SpringHill Suites in Anaheim, California; and Yard apartments in Portland, Oregon.
"We earlier planned to divest from two of them, but prices were unattractive after the Fed raised interest rates, so we held back the plan," he said.
