Tri Property spots new income in elderly care

Developer Tri Property Co is shifting to recurring income businesses, planning to develop hotel and elderly care projects in Bangkok and key resort destinations to fill the gap in income from property sales.

Chaiwat Tantivivat, chief financial officer and managing director, said recurring-income businesses like hotels and nursing homes usually generate lower returns than property development, but they also carry lower risks.

“Over the past eight years we have developed condo projects in Bangkok and Phuket, but sales slowed down when there was a political change,” Mr Chaiwat said. “The hospitality business can help us generate income when property development for sales is silent.”

Earlier this year Tri Property’s major shareholders, i ncluding Mr Chaiwat and his friends, founded Arna Development Co with registered capital of 100 million baht to expand into recurringincome businesses.

Arna will form a joint venture with healthcare professionals via A Plus Care Co, which will be established in the next couple of months to develop nursing home and elderly care projects in Bangkok and Phuket.

The first project will be in the Chaeng Wattana area, where the company will spend 50 million baht to develop a 64-bed facility on a one-rai plot.

The other project will be in Phuket, where the company is studying the feasibility of a retirement home project.

“The key to the nursing home and elderly care business is a location near a hospital for easy patient referrals [and visits],” Mr Chaiwat said. “Worthwhile investment scale entails 60 beds per site.”

The managing director said the company has seen growth in the industry after investing in Ditsara Nursing Home last year.

Ditsara Nursing Home, which opened a decade ago, has two nursing home and elderly care centres with 200 beds.

Those facilities are located in the Pin Klao area near Chaophya Hospital and on Charoen Nakhon Soi 40, with a monthly rate of 26,000-65,000 baht per bed.

For its hotel business, Arna will spend 200 million baht to develop a three-star business hotel with 150 rooms on a onerai plot near Vichit Songkhram and Chao Fah Tawan Tok roads in Phuket by year-end.

The company will also launch a new condo project with 197 units worth 500 million baht on a two-rai site near the hotel.