Mr Anant Asavabhokhin, president of Land & Houses Public Company Limited, said the company and subsidiaries recorded revenues totaling 4.303 billion baht during the first quarter of this year. The majority of revenues of 3.979 billion baht came from house ownership transfers to homebuyers and 618 detached houses were transferred to homebuyers during the first quarter, up 18.5% year-on-year. When considering the transferred units of L&H, the company held a 27% market share in the sector of detached houses built by developers in Greater Bangkok.

Mr Anant explained about the overall property market that the housing registration in Bangkok and neighboring provinces totaled 8,746 units during the first quarter, a 5% rise from the same period last year. The market expansion was mainly contributed by the growth of detached houses and townhouses while the new registration of condominiums declined sharply. The registration of detached houses built by individuals and developers has changed in the same direction with growths.

Comparison of housing registration between Q1/2003 and Q1/2002

At the same time, the registration of condominium units continued to decline obviously.

The main reason the condominium registration dropped a lot was supply of condominium units was limited and the number of newly completed condominium projects has reduced.

By conclusion, Mr Anant said the housing market in the latter of the year remained prosperous with the continuing growth momentum. Housing demand is strong, matching with the increase of supply. At the present, newly launched housing projects are also on a rise.

Mr Adisorn Thananant-narapool, senior executive vice president of Land & Houses Plc, said the company and subsidiaries reported a consolidated net profit of 1.172 billion baht during the first quarter of this year, a 126% surge from 519 million baht from the same period last year. Factors contributing to the huge growth in performance in the first quarter were as following;

1. The company and subsidiaries generated sales revenues totaling 3.979 billion baht during the first quarter of 2003, up 18.5% year-on-year.
2. The sale and marketing expense to total sales of L&H and subsidiaries reduced to only 6.9%, the very low level when compared to the industry, from 7.6% in the first quarter of last year. This was because the company's efficiency and good internal system could serve the rising work with the same number of staff.
3. Interest expenses during the first quarter of 2003 declined 40 million baht as the company and subsidiaries continued to reduce debt payments and costs of funds were also lowered due to low interest rates.

About the financial status of L&H and subsidiaries, the company repaid debts almost two billion baht to creditors while the shareholder equity rose more than 500 million baht. This prompted its debt to equity ratio for the company and subsidiaries lower from 0.40:1 at the end of last year to 0.33:1 at the end of first quarter of this year.

Moreover, the proportion of debts borrowed from financial institutes to the total debts continued to reduce from 40% at the end of last year to only 30% at the end of first quarter this year.