PROPERTY FIRMS have sped up transfers to home-buyers this month in an attempt to meet their revenue targets as commercial banks restrict mortgage approvals for the middle-to-lower-income market.
"We have tried to speed up transfers of our residential projects to customers in the final month of the year, especially our Lumpini Township Rangsit project," LPN Development managing director Opas Sripayak said in an interview with The Nation. He said more than half of the homes in the Rangsit project had been delivered to buyers by November, and the rest would be transferred this month. This would achieve this year's revenue target of Bt16 billion.
In the first nine months, LPN Development reported revenue of Bt13.4 billion and net profit of Bt2.12 billion.
Pruksa Real Estate is also speeding up deliveries of its condos to meet its 2015 revenue target of Bt47 billion, Prasert Taedullayasatit, managing director of the company's condominium group, told The Nation . He acknowledged that the commercial banks were restricting mortgage lending to mid- and lower-income people already carrying heavy debt burdens, concerned about their ability to make their payments.
However, Pruksa has tried to support its customers by getting pre-approval from the banks before signing their contracts. This has helped it maintain a mortgage-rejection rate of 25 per cent, he said.
He said the government's decision to cut transfer and mortgage fees to 0.1 per cent until the end of April 2016 was encouraging people to purchase homes and take delivery. However, the main problem is the commercial banks' reluctance to provide mortgages.
Pakorn Partanapat, senior executive vice president of Kasikornbank, acknowledged that mortgage-rejection rates had increased since last year amid rising household debt.
"Our mortgage-rejection rate has been about 50 per cent of total new applications, especially from the lower income market," he said.
Thawat Yooyod, first executive vice president and managing director of the retail banking sales and distribution group of Krungthai Bank, said it had cut back on mortgage approvals amid high household debt.
This year, the bank targets housing-loan growth of only 8 per cent compared with last year's growth of 20 per cent.
The Bank of Thailand reported that new lending in October grew by only 5.2 per cent year on year,compared with 5.7 per cent in September. The commercial banks have been restricting new lending,especially personal and housing loans, it noted.
Property firms have tried to speed up transfers this month by launching special promotions.
Nusasiri is holding a campaign until December 15 that it calls "Nusa Grand Sale" for three residential projects, Nusasiri City Rama II, Na Rathon Suwinthawongse, and Fresh Condominium at Bang Pho. It is offering discounts of up to Bt1 million for Nusasiri City Rama 2,and up to 10 free home appliances for the Na Rathon and Fresh projects.
Pruksa Real Estate's "Pruksa Best Buy Moment" campaign offers discounts of 2 per cent and a lucky draw for two MercedesBenz CLA 250s and four Honda HR-Vs worth a total of Bt9 million.
The campaign started on October 31 and will last until December 30.
"We are launching this campaign to support the government's stimulus package to boost the property market in the last quarter of this year," the company's chief operating officer, Lersak Chuladesa, said earlier.
The campaign is part of its aim to boost presales above the early estimates of Bt47 billion by the end of this year.
Lalin Property's latest promotional campaign offers free transfer and mortgage fees and free furniture, air-conditioning and home appliances from now until December 31.
Caption
Pruksa Real Estate Plc's chief operating officer Lersak Chuladesa introduces 'Pruksa Best Buy' campaign to boost its sale in the last months of this year. Pruksa is one of the many property firms to launch special promotions at a time when banks are being tight with providing loans despite government measures to boost the sector.