Oct. 23--The top five listed developers posted record presales in the third quarter, according to estimates by Asia Plus Securities.

The five accounted for 68 percent of all housing sales posted in the third quarter by the 13 listed developers on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The five are Land & Houses Plc (LH), Preuksa Real Estate Plc (PS), Sansiri Plc (SIRI), Asian Property Development Plc (AP) and Quality Houses Plc (QH).

AP senior vice-president Therdsak Thaveeteeratham said his company had record third-quarter presales of more than 8 billion baht with the launch of four condominiums targeting the middle- to high-end segment. The projects recorded presales ranging from 41 percent to 85 percent of each development's total value.

PS was the second best performer in the quarter with presales of about 6 billion baht, a record for the firm. PS launched 10 projects targeting multiple customer segments.

Asia Plus research estimates LH presales at 4.8 billion to 4.9 billion baht in the quarter, when it launched three projects. Mr Therdsak said SIRI in the third quarter had presales of 3.9 billion baht, up 74 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Condominium sales grew the most, almost tripling to 1.53 billion baht, while townhouse and single house sales rose by 41 percent from the second quarter.

Asia Plus estimated QH's third-quarter sales at 2.8 billion baht in low-rise projects and about 1.5 billion at its Q House Condo Sathorn development.

Mr Therdsak said the market in the third quarter was much better than in the previous quarters. The 13 listed developers saw record sales with presales of 37.31 billion baht, up 38 percent quarter-on-quarter and 47 percent year-on-year.

Their presales in the first nine months were 88.5 billion baht, a trend likely to beat the industry average, he said.

"The high increase in presales was derived from many factors including better consumer confidence after the violence in April. The economy also shows clear signs of recovery," he said.

Mr Therdsak said high competition in the mortgage market stimulated purchases while buyers sought to benefit from government tax breaks that will expire at year-end.

Incentives include a deduction of up to 300,000 baht from taxable income for principal payments for a new house. Property tax incentives, which cut transfer and mortgage fees to 0.01 percent from 2 percent and 1 percent respectively and trim special business tax to 0.1 percent from 3.3 percent, end on March 28, 2010.

"If the property tax incentives are not extended, developers' normalised profit margins will decline from 15 percent to 11-12 percent," said Mr Therdsak.

Also lifting demand is the faster launch of new projects, especially condominiums. Single-house and townhouse demand is stable, he said.

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