It Was Garbage Then , Its Garbage Still !

[Darlek]

01 August 2004 1333 hrs

Bangkok's ghost buildings get new lease of life amid economic expansion

BANGKOK : More than 100 unfinished buildings that have marred the Bangkok skyline since the 1997 Asian financial crisis are having facelifts as the property sector kicks into high gear with the surging Thai economy.

Some 330 "ghost buildings" -- unfinished shells of concrete and steel -- jab into the capital's sky, standing as testament to a collapse that began in Bangkok in the go-go 1990s and infected the entire region.

But for some, particularly those shrugging off concerns of a second property bubble in one of Southeast Asia's best-performing economies, the skeletons represent tarnished but viable development opportunities.

"These black marks on the skyline are being completed now, and some of the ghost buildings are turning into extremely profitable ventures," Nigel Cornick, the chief executive of Raimon Land, told AFP.

His firm was among the first to rehabilitate a major project that went bust during the meltdown, when thousands of property developers were caught unawares and many went bankrupt.

Eighteen months after taking on the property, Raimon Land is close to unveiling a 1.6 billion baht (39 million dollar) office block it has turned into some of the city's most ritzy condominiums.

The company said it had sold all units, as the Thai economy surges with anticipated growth rates of seven percent for 2004.

Cornick and other experts say dozens more buildings are soon to follow suit, buoyed by the steady restructuring of non-performing loan debt, a raft of unfinished properties sold at auction, low interest rates and surging demand.

In the majority of cases, the original designers and engineers have disappeared, leaving the new contractors to conduct expensive tests before being able to get the necessary insurance. It has failed to deter them.

"In the central business district most of these buildings have already been re-started," he said.

"If the commerce makes sense, there is nothing to prevent them from being completed.

"The problems are really in fringe areas where you have monstrous projects that are still not viable," he said, referring to a host of overly-ambitious undertakings from the 1990s in Bangkok's southern and eastern outskirts that could remain abandoned for years.

Cranes are most likely to be seen atop unfinished buildings on key avenues and close to mass transit, according to Sopon Pornchokchai, a developer and president of the property consultancy Agency for Real Estate Affairs.

"I think developers are keen to restart development of more than 100 of these half-finished buildings," Sopon said.

The trend over the past year has been to convert former retail office projects into condominiums, he said.

James Pitchon, executive director of real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis, warned that despite central ghost buildings being snapped up, the good times were not endless.

"An awful lot of developers have launched condos and sales have been good, but not everybody is going to be a winner," he said.

"There's plenty of (supply) choice now, and confidence is a bit cooler this year."

Property analyst Jiraporn Bumrungchatudom, of Phatra Securities, warned of a mini-bubble in the condominium market as construction costs increase and more properties come on to the market.

"My concern is on the supply side," Jiraporn said. "Developers are increasing these properties aggressively, and there is clearly a demand-supply imbalance that will result in more price cutting."

Yet she insisted there was enough demand for condominiums that could sustain a healthy market for the next five years if developers gradually unveiled new buildings.

Not everyone envisages a rosy future for Bangkok's ghost buildings, particularly those outside of prime sites and put up by unscrupulous or clueless developers in the 1990s.

"There is a lot of garbage out there, and if it was garbage then it's garbage now," one analyst, who preferred to remain anonymous, told AFP.

"They will remain as relics to stupidity."

- AFP