SET-listed Pruksa Holding Plc (PSH), one of the country's largest developers, is beefing up its online sales channel and resale services to improve sales this year.
Supatra Paopiamsap, deputy group chief executive, said there is still real demand in the market but the global and local economies, the new loan-to-value limits, high household debt and fierce competition are driving developers to extreme ends to increase sales.
"We need to use every channel and tap every segment to generate sales in a sluggish market," she said. "There should be more government measures as the recent tax perks will not help. The real problem is borrowing ability."
Pruksa expects a presales slowdown in the second quarter of this year because of more long holidays than usual. However, it will try to boost presales to 54 billion baht by the end of 2019, up from 51 billion last year.
Pruksa will join e-commerce operator Shopee to launch a mid-year sales campaign on June 6, offering a booking fee of only six baht for 547 residential units from more than 79 projects in Greater Bangkok and key provinces.
The offer translates into a discount on the booking fee of between 10,000 and 20,000 baht, costing only six baht a unit. The company expects to sell all its units that day.
Next week, Pruksa plans to open a new business unit for resale and rental services called Deal to help customers resell or rent out their homes. It has 10,000 units on hand to initiate the new service.
"The new service will be a secondary market for our customers, with more than 200,000 units in our database, and 20,000 new customers added each year," said Mrs Supatra.
She said the company's presales in the first quarter of 2019 declined by 12% from the same period last year to 11.2 billion baht as it launched fewer projects in the period -- only five, down from 15 last year.
PSH reported on Tuesday year-on-year growth of 96% in net profit to 1.68 billion baht in the first quarter this year on revenue of 11.9 billion baht, up 44% from the same period in 2018.
The highest growth was from condos, with a rise of 137% to 4.25 billion baht, followed by townhouses, gaining 21% to 5.45 billion. Single detached houses recorded sales of 2.17 billion baht, up by 10%.
"Another key driver of revenue growth was the new lending curbs as many customers tried to get in the market before the new rules took effect on April 1," Mrs Supatra said.
As of the end of the first quarter, Pruksa had a sales backlog of 17.8 billion baht, of which 51% will be realised within this year. It aims to have 47 billion baht in revenue by the end of 2019.
PSH shares closed on Tuesday on the SET at 19 baht, up 20 satang, in trade worth 79.4 million baht.
