HOME TECHNOLOGY
Home automation moves beyond lights and towards cameras and action, with everything controlled in-house or remotely. By Sasiwimon Boonruang
The concept of the smart home continues to evolve almost as rapidly as the technologies that are making our lives more convenient.
In the past, the smart home centred on “scenes” — control of lights, sprinklers, electric curtains — and people associated scenes with lighting. Lighting systems can be programmed to automatically switch the lights on or off.
Lighting reflects ambience. The most ordinary scene applications are “wake up” to illuminate the bedroom and “good night” to turn off lights in the house.
Today, with the i nternet and smartphones ubiquitous and mobile apps more advanced, the concept of the smart home has developed further. A smart home is now a system that lets occupants control and monitor different devices in the home automatically and sometimes remotely via the internet. Those devices can be controlled through home automation.
Teeradej Manasnayakorn, sales manager of Smartlife System, an automation systems specialist for houses and condominiums, said lighting control is
Whatever is very important should not make it online. CCTV set up in front of the house for surveillance and but it can potentially cause trouble once installed in the bedroom PRINYA HOM-ANAKE ACIS Professional Center
the common first step for a home automation system.
Home automation entails setting up home appliances, entertainment, surveillance and so forth in a way that the owner can monitor and control them using a smartphone, tablet or computer. The various functions include checking electricity status, opening and closing doors and windows, controlling temperature and operating appliances. Homeowners can view and control everything with a smartphone.
The basis of the smart home is the home network. The control hub of the network can be either a wired or WiFi connection, communicating with all smart devices.
The wireless network can operate on WiFi, Bluetooth or radio frequency identification (RFID), enabling multiple devices to connect through an application. The central hub that communicates and coordinates all smart devices in the home serves as a gateway between the connected home and the outside.
Smartlife’s home automation systems are built around the global standard known as zigbee, which can conveniently control a wide range of devices.
“It allows us to deliver an integrated ecosystem of home monitoring, energy management, heating and cooling, security, and convenience devices,” Mr Teeradej said.
The connected devices integrated into the smart home include smartphones, tablets, TV sets, game consoles, locks, lights, household appliances, thermostats, video cameras and home theatre gear.
Besides those devices, smoke and heat detectors can be enhanced through smart home integration. IOT DISRUPTION
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an important contribution to the development of the smart home. IoT is the ability of physical objects to use the internet to communicate and share information about their condition and process real-time data collected by sensors to perform smart actions.
According to Statista Inc, the market value of the IoT is forecast to pass US$1 trillion this year. The number of connected devices worldwide is seen reaching 50 billion by 2020, with the consumer sector accounting for most units.
still want spacious units and are willing to compromise on location. The luxury house market downtown emerged in 2014 with Parc Priva on Rama IX Road and Quarter 39 on Sukhumvit 39 as an alternative to high-rise condominiums.
The advantage of luxury houses is that they generally offer more usable area, convenient car parking, private gardens and greater lifestyle flexibility, such as the ability to keep pets. Most importantly, buyers have ownership of land.
However, with high land costs downtown, it is not feasible for developers to acquire super-prime land for houses that take up a lot of space. As a result, most houses have been located on the fringe areas of the CBD such as the Ratchadaphisek, Rama IX and Phatthanakan areas. Luxury semi-detached houses and townhouses can be found in more centrally located prime locations such as the sois of Sukhumvit and Sathon. Examples would include Mews Yen Akat and Quarter 31 & 39.
Most of those looking for luxury houses have been nuclear families looking to live together and new families looking for more space. Luxury houses will provide an alternative to downtown condominiums by still providing the same level of luxury and relatively convenient access to downtown amenities. But given the scarcity of land plots, this type of product has its own unique barriers to entry.
With the land cost in prime locations continually rising, luxury houses are very much a niche and probably have a very short cycle compared with luxury condominiums. We believe that the best of these projects will be good for the rental market and have good capital gains as they will be very rare in the future with comparatively limited supply and continual demand. BUYER RECOMMENDATIONS
These are our key recommendation to consider when choosing to buy luxury properties.
Location: Prime locations include Central Lumpini, early parts of north and south Sathon to Silom from Wireless to Narathiwat roads, Sukhumvit from Asok to Sukhumvit 55.
Where in these locations also matters. This is especially true in Bangkok where traffic is very congested with complex one-way road systems. Prime locations should have good accessibility by cars, which means second or third access points or ease of making U-turns. Prime locations also mean being in a good neighbourhood with convenient retail facilities. A short distance to mass transit will also be an advantage.
Unit types and sizes: One-bedroom units will always be popular for investment as prices are lower and they are easier to resell; however, because they are more liquid the majority of the total supply built in a project will be one-bedroom units, so competition is also higher when trying to rent or resell.
Two-bedroom units have proved to be the most popular in the luxury condominium market both for rent and purchase because they are more flexible in terms of meeting residents’ lifestyle needs. The extra bedroom gives residents space for guests or for an extra room for a child in case of a small family.
Three-bedroom units are slower to sell and the supply is less than for one- and two-bedroom units, which means there is less competition when looking for renting or resale opportunities. From our own reports, we have found that larger units like these are still in demand from luxury buyers looking for spacious units in the better designed projects such as The Sukhothai Residences, St Regis Residences, and 185 Rajadamri.
Specifications: Nowadays building materials are more advanced and combine innovative new technologies to make them not only beautiful but functional. With these material advancements, it is not necessary to always look for natural materials such as real stone or wood. We recommend that buyers pay attention to durability, ease of maintenance, design, look and feel instead.
The things you cannot see and cannot change: It is easy to be “wowed” by an aesthetically arresting building design and fancy specifications, which is not a bad thing, but be sure to pay attention and ask about the parts of the building that you cannot see from the show units, and parts that are difficult to change after purchase such as:
Building facade materials: soundproofing and durability of materials used.
Building safety systems: fire-retardant materials and water leakage concerns.
Building security and convenience: state-of-theart building management systems, access security, elevators and parking.
Common area design and equipment: Good design of common areas including corridors, quality materials and craftsmanship in common areas, and quality of equipment used in facilities.
Unit layouts and functional designs: Owners can always renovate unit interiors to meet their liking, and may even change them over time but unit floor plans are often related to the structure and cannot easily be modified, so be sure your unit has good layout design and livability. CONCLUSION
As prime CBD land in Bangkok gets bought up, land prices will continue to rise. Projects launched in prime areas and generally in CBD areas will continue to become more scarce and even higher-priced. Barriers to entry due to scarcity and price will make it more difficult for new players to enter the market.
Even so, Bangkok is a global gateway city and increasing demand from high net worth individuals, not only locally but globally, will continue to drive the luxury market.
Developers and investors must remember that luxury products are a niche category and not a mass market. Luxury is more than price, as described above, and buyers must be cautious when choosing the property they buy. Simply being high-priced does not make it luxury, especially in a city such as Bangkok where land price is driving up the price of residences. So when seeking a true luxury project, the buyer must consider all the aspects of what makes a project genuinely luxurious.
Buying a luxury property requires much research. What we’ve listed above are some trends and ideas to consider, but buyers must conduct proper due diligence before any purchase to ensure that the whole package has what they are looking for.
Online research can provide a wealth of information today to assist buyers in finding information such as neighbourhood details, pricing comparisons, pricing trends, developer track records, and project reviews by both professionals and end-users alike.
But before getting too excited about any property you are considering, we recommend to always go and do a physical inspection of the project and surrounding neighbourhood to ensure that it meets your needs, because if you don’t see the property in person it is difficult to get a real feel for the space.