Mr. Anant Asavabhokhin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Land & Houses Plc, said the company and subsidiaries delivered 1,567 houses to homebuyers and booked 4.403 billion baht from sales in the second quarter of this year. Given the number of units, the company held a 22% market share in the Bangkok's detached house market.

Mr. Anant added that the housing registration in Greater Bangkok totaled 19,123 units during the first half of this year, up 3.55% year-on-year. Among the total registration, the units built by developers rose 5.16%.

Comparison of registration of detached houses between Jan - June

Comparison of registration of units built by developers between Jan - June

Though the registration of townhouses and shophouses during the first six months of this year declined from the same period last year, the figure of 3,444 units showed a 127% growth or 1,925 units from 1,518 units in the second half of last year. The drop of townhouse registration was because the unsold inventory had been absorbed and no more new units were developed and put into the market.

The condominium registration continued to shrink despite rising demand. At the same time, new supply was limited due mainly to a restriction of property-related regulations.

In general, the momentum of housing recovery continued from last year but the market growth was mainly driven by an adjustment of real supply and demand. The supply is not sufficient to serve fast-growing demand.

About the property market in the second half of this year, the competition in the residential sector will get more serious as developers will try hard to deliver houses and transfer ownership to buyers by the year-end.

At the same time, prospective buyers will speed up their buying decision as property tax incentives including property transfer and mortgage registration fees as well as special business tax are scheduled to expire by December 31.

Mr Adisorn Thananun-narapool, a Senior Executive Vice-President of Land & Houses Plc, said that the company posted a consolidated net profit of 1.566 billion baht in the second quarter of this year, a 49% rise from 1.049 billion baht during the same period last year. Contributing to a big quarterly profit jump was as following;

1. The company and subsidiaries booked sales of 4.403 billion baht from the transfer of homeownership to buyers, a 16.08% increase year-on-year.
2. Sales and marketing expenses of the company and subsidiaries were reduced to only 7% of the total sales, the lowest in the industry and down from 8.3% in the second quarter of last year. This was because efficiency of internal management, which could handle more works without hiring additional staff.
3. Interest expenses in the second quarter of 2003 were reduced by 50 million baht when compared to the same period of the year before. The company was able to repay debts and the costs of funds were lowered because of the falling interest rate trend in the financial market. Moreover, the company turned to raise more funds from the capitals market.

About the financial position, the company and subsidiaries repaid debts of two billion baht in the first half while its shareholder equity rose by 2.7 billion baht due to the solid earnings. By the end of June, the debt to equity ratio stood at 0.25: 1, down from 0.4:1 in the first quarter.

The proportion of debts from financial institutions was only 7.7% of the total outstanding debts at the end of second quarter compared to 40% at the end of last year.

As of June, the company had 1.2 billion baht in cash on hands. The board of directors also approved to pay an interim dividend to shareholders at 0.20 baht per share, which was higher than the total dividend payment last year. (In 2002, the company paid an interim dividend at 0.07 baht per share, plus another 0.10 baht per share in the second half. The total dividend payment was 0.17 baht per share)

Mr Naporn Sunthornchitcharoen, another Senior Executive Vice-President of Land & Houses Plc, said about the development policy in 2003 that the company set its sales target to post a 20% growth.

Last year, the company built and delivered 2,800 houses to homebuyers in Bangkok and major provinces. This year L&H will deliver 3,300 houses and during the first half, the company and subsidiaries have already delivered 1,567 units to buyers.

In 2003, the company plans to have 37 housing projects under construction, of which 31 are in Bangkok and 6 projects in major provinces. Of the total, 14 projects worth 22 billion baht are newly launched in Bangkok and vicinity. During the first half, five projects have been already launched and another nine are planned for the second half. Among the new nine projects, eight are detached houses and one for four-storey villa houses near Chao Phraya River on Charoenkrung Road.

The company will close 10 housing projects this year and this will bring down the total projects under construction to 27 by the year-end.

Next year, the company plans to develop 16 additional housing projects, of which 12 projects are detached houses in Bangkok and four are condominiums in downtown areas. As a result, the company will have a total of 43 projects under construction in 2004.