Pruksa bullish on market recovery this year

SET-listed Pruksa Real Estate (PS) is confident of achieving 47 billion baht in revenue this year in light of recovering consumer confidence and purchasing power.

Chief operating officer Lersuk Chuladesa yesterday said the overall property market had clearly started to recover, as evidenced by a 172% year-on-year surge in company presales last month to 3.4 billion baht.

“Normally, first-quarter property presales are less active than in the fourth quarter,” he said. “But our January presales came in at well above our target of 2.5 billion baht.”

Pruksa hopes to raise its presales and revenue to 47 billion baht each this year, up by 20.2% and 10.1%, respectively.

For presales, 20.4 billion baht will come from townhouses, 11.8 billion from detached houses, 14.4 billion from condos and 400 million from international operations.

Last year, Pruksa recorded 42.7 billion baht in revenue, up by 10.1% from 38.8 billion in 2013.

But presales dropped by 5.57% to 39 billion baht from 41.3 billion, missing the target of 43 billion, as the property market was sluggish.

Pruksa’s net profit rose by 14.7% last year to 6.7 billion baht.

The company projects the property market will be worth 320 billion baht this year, up by 10.3% from last year’s 290 billion, which itself was a decline from 340 billion in 2013.

Mr Lersuk said Pruksa was committed to launching 70-75 new residential projects worth 55-61 billion baht this year.

It will also pay 14 billion baht for new land, up from 6.2 billion last year.

The company hopes to raise its market share in Greater Bangkok to 15% from 13%, boosted by its 13 completed condominium projects worth 29.7 billion baht.

Pruksa this year plans to develop 60 single-house and townhouse projects.

Of those, 95% will be in Greater Bangkok and the rest in Chon Buri, Rayong, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, Ayutthaya and Phuket provinces.

Only 10-12 condominium projects will be launched, mostly in Bangkok with one in Chon Buri.

At present, Pruksa has 177 active projects worth a combined 78.4 billion baht — 145 single-house and townhouse projects worth 60 billion and 32 condo projects worth 18.4 billion.

Its backlog stands at 34.2 billion baht, of which 22.9 billion will be recognised as revenue this year including 11.6 billion from condominium sales.

PS shares closed yesterday on the SET at 32.50 baht, up 75 satang, in trade worth 176 million baht.