Allow us to first explain LPN’s history. We have been in the property business for 20 years now, and in the first 10 years we were building everything from office buildings, low rise condominiums, high rise condominiums, everything! But after the financial crisis, we looked at our strengths and at the property market and focused our energies into developing pure residential condominiums only. Eventually we began focusing purely upon the type of condominiums that you see us developing today.
Now our target customers are middle income earners, singles, and young couples with no children yet. Our target customers are those who normally rent units for 3,000–5,000 thb/month, thus with our competitive pricing they are able to pay the same amount each month while owning a condominium. Thus when selecting a plot of land to develop our condominiums, we do not look for lands in the CBD area, they are more likely to be 10 km outside of the CBD. Our first step is the pilot project whereby we build our first condominium and observe how sales are progressing, observing the demand in that area. Thai people in general prefer to see how the product is, thus in the beginning it could be difficult to sell our condominiums but once they have see the quality of our product and have confidence in LPN’s abilities they are willing to purchase units. Thus you see with our first pilot projects we are building brand awareness and consumer confidence, therefore once the pilot project is successful and we will immediately develop the second and third buildings. Within our developments we try to build a community with the residents, currently we have more than 20,000 customers, thus through our after–sales service, activities within the compounds we try to create an LPN community thereby keeping our clients confidence with us.
Today we are shifting our target customers from the middle/middle–high income earners to the middle/middle–low as you can see from our newly launched condominiums. Our condominiums are in 4 different product categories, ranging from the Lumpini Suite (premium product), Lumpini Place, Lumpini Ville, and Lumpini condo–town (C+). The quality within all categories is the same the only difference is the location.
The construction companies that LPN works with are the same ones that we’ve been using for the past 10 years. We are more like a family as we have all gone through the crisis together and have helped one another during those difficult times. This is LPN’s management culture, we talk with our heart not with money thus the construction companies are partners with heart, not money. Trust is a key point, they did many things for LPN before we even had a contract because they trusted us. This is a core strength of LPN which no competitor can copy.
Normally between 12-18 months
Speed of construction, Product design, Price per unit, Location, After sales service, and Community management
Due to our strength with our alliance of construction companies, we would first decide as a group if we were to expand outside Bangkok. If the whole group is ready then we will go together. Another strength is our after–sales service, Community Management. Thus we would need time to move.
Quite simply through our strengths: with the quality of our products, our abilities to grow, and maintain the confidence of customers with our products and after sales service.
Our risks are in the unknown factors such as the recent EIA regulations which would temporarily halt business and developments for contractors and property developers.
Real demand = 80% and Investor = 20% (not many speculator)
Land = 20%-25%, Construction = 45%-50%, Profit Margin = 30%
Sales Target 2010 = 13,000 MB
Revenue 2010 = 9,600 MB
About 8 projects with the total value of 13,000 MB
Our policy is to keep no land bank. We usually start selling a project within 3 months after acquiring a land.
LPN today is a conservative company because we have experienced the crisis. Now we carefully plan our steps going forward, examining all the potential risks, focusing on sustainable growth, our customers’ needs and fulfilling them. LPN does not follow trends. What we do is we sell our units, construct them and then take care of our customers. However, we aim to grow 15%-20% per year in term of volume.
