Historically, luxury businesses have always been immune to uncertainties and crises. With Thailand’s political instability over the past year, many property developers here have been hesitating on starting new projects or even halting them all together.
Despite the events of the past year one company in Thailand, Raimon Land has remained confident as ever; a fortunate effect of being the nation’s leading luxury property developer. This confidence in their project and their niche luxury market has enabled the construction and recent completion of what is now Thailand’s most expensive condominium project, 185 Rajadamri.
Editor of Thailand Property Magazine met with Simon Derville, Raimon Land’s Deputy Vice President of Business Development to discuss the luxury property sector in Thailand, how it’s still thriving, and what it takes to establish success in the marketplace.
As the leading luxury developer, what does the word “luxury” mean to you? 
Luxury is so subjective—people have different tastes and design is often very trendy. What is considered the height of luxury one day may become dated in a decade. To Raimon Land, real luxury is timeless. This means choosing premier locations with untouchable views, carrying out top notch construction and using only high quality materials that won’t deteriorate.
These things are lasting qualities for a physical development, but we also believe that the luxuriousness of a property has a lot to do with the people who live there. A true luxury developer will invest in building and fostering the right community; looking for people who will not only purchase the units but to live in them as well. The buyers should be as much of an investment for the project as the project is for the buyers.
Can you give us some examples of what makes your project “true luxury?”
Our newest project 185 Rajadamri is the most luxurious condo project in Thailand. This doesn’t mean it has the biggest units or the most elaborate design, but that it offers a timeless investment. Of course it is an exquisite design, with the highest quality construction standards, world class amenities, etc. but the standout feature is that it was designed to maximize the views of Lumphini Park and the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.
Considering many of the world’s great cities, residences that offer views of a signature park set against the metropolitan skyline are among the most celebrated homes. Now 185 Rajadamri is among the likes of the addresses that overlook Central Park in New York City, Hyde Park in London and the Champs de Mars in Paris. We’ve taken care to ensure that our views will never be compromised by purchasing and building on extremely-difficult-to-find freehold land in a downtown area.
It’s also important to note that our clientele, many of which are repeat customers, match the caliber of our project as well. The community within each of our projects is an important contributor to its overall appeal.
Investing in creating a luxurious community is fairly unique selling proposition. How does Raimon Land invest in its buyers?
We do this in many ways; starting by checking profiles and doing background checks on everyone who buys a unit. The fact that we ask for 40% of the cost upfront establishes the project not as one to be flipped, but one to invest in and even live in. We are proud that the majority of our buyers actually live in our units.
We focus on attracting investors who understand what a timeless property is, and we find these people in all corners of the world. Quite a lot of our efforts are put into building relationships in international markets, and offering resources and staff to work with them in languages they understand.
Speaking of attracting foreign investors, this year there were a handful of setbacks for the real estate industry regarding the country’s political situation. How have these things affected your niche market, if at all, and how does this play into the nature of luxury business in general?
I would never say that politics have no impact on the luxury sector, because they do. However this is a market that is generally quite immune. Investors in our category tend to adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude, which did happen during the height of the coup this year. Then, as we had expected, business picked up again immediately afterwards whereas other groups remained more cautious.
The difference between the luxury sector and the mass market is that our success is determined by how well we can market our projects to potential buyers. From an international perspective, if the economy of one foreign market is going down another is going up. We work with over sixty nationalities so there is always someone in the world who is ready to buy. Other markets in Thailand will find success based on more local factors, such as the state of the national or ASEAN economy, the mortgages that the banks can provide and general employment stability.
If you are interested to contact Raimon Land or find out more about 185 Rajadamri please click here or email [email protected]
