TRUE TO STYLE
Boss says patience key for condo developer
Ananda Development follows a tailored formula, choosing only prime land locations for its urban condo projects.
Ananda Development Plc follows a tailored formula, choosing only prime land locations for its urban condominium projects.
Chanond Ruangkritya, chief executive of Ananda, said reasonable patience has paid off in great dividends for the company.
“One needs patience as well as the ability to be hands-on. For some tracts, it took us 5-6 years before we finally sealed the deal,” Mr Chanond told the Bangkok Post, describing the arduous process that goes into building up the company’s land bank.
But the company also has to act fast at times and be resourceful to capture desirable plots.
Mr Chanond said his company constantly studies the real estate market and its geoeconomics while keeping money close at hand. This ensures that when someone is ready to sell land, the company is the first to jump on it.
The flagship Ideo condos show Ananda’s acumen in acquiring land at some of the most strategic locations, only steps from the threshold of subway or skytrain stations, such as Ideo Ratchada-Huaykwang, launched in 2010 and only a stone’s throw from the MRT system.
The proximity to mass transit is also advertised in new developments like Ideo Sukhumvit 115, which almost shares an entrance with the exit of Phujao Samingprai skytrain station, and Ideo Sukhumvit 93, which is 15 metres from Bang Chak skytrain station. The more upscale Ashton Asoke is 20 metres from Sukhumvit MRT station.
“For certain plots of land, we just couldn’t let them slip through our fingers,” Mr Chanond said.
Many Ananda projects are in Bangkok’s outer zones, and the demographics of areas where the company selects land to purchase dictate buyer preferences.
Mr Chanond stressed that the real estate business hinges on geographic zoning, which requires a thorough feasibility study to fully grasp the needs and wants of customers.
“People buying homes, say in Lat Phrao, differ in tastes and what they look for in real estate products than buyers in Thon Buri, for example,” he said. “There’s that uniqueness in each micro-segment. We need to understand how to play with it.”
In Ananda’s playbook, the strength of the company’s projects is harnessed from nearby landmarks. Elio Del-Moss, one of the newest condo line-ups, incorporates product elements that appeal to students and their families, given its location in Phahon Yothin Soi 34, right down the road from Kasetsart University.
On the whole, Mr Chanond said the real estate business rests on a set of equations in which success depends on land, construction and capital.
He said land sets the tone as far as business viability is concerned. Where the land is and what shape it’s in determine the flexibility or limitations of a project. If or how a construction can proceed has
everything to do with land, while capital must also be there, ready to get the project off the ground.
“Land is [arguably] the swing factor, whereas construction and capital do not vary as much,” Mr Chanond said.
In his experience, land is the least understood subject, even by the owners themselves. Some owners his company had approached to buy property from tended to overestimate the price of their land. Owners are often fed inaccurate information from relatives or someone they thought was knowledgeable or authoritative in the field of real estate.
The price of land had to be bargained down because of “limitations” such as plots in areas where city ordinance forbids construction of high-rise buildings or for land in narrow alleys.
“Some owners believe that their plots are more real-estate-worthy than other tracts,” Mr Chanond said.
Despite niches being carved in the housing sector, Ananda has been adamant that it will continue to lock its radar on the massvolume markets.
The niches, including the houses and condos that target single parents and socially oriented groups, might be marketable; however, Mr Chanond has expressed curiosity as to whether in practice many people with similar lifestyles and ways of life would actually want to live close together in the same buildings or communities.