Mr Chainid (third left) and Mr Sekiguchi (third from right) shake hands at a press conference for the joint venture.

Sekisui Chemical Co, a Japanese construction materials producer, expects to boost sales of modular homes by 1.5 times to 1,200 units in 2018-20 through its joint venture with SET-listed developer Property Perfect Plc (PF).

Shunichi Sekiguchi, Sekisui Chemical's director and senior managing executive officer, said the joint venture with PF to develop single detached houses built with modular home parts will drive growth of the company's subsidiary, Sekisui-SCG Industry Co.

"This is the first time our housing business has formed a joint venture with a developer," he said. "PF will seek land plots and prepare development, while Sekisui will produce modular houses and build them at the joint venture projects."

Since being established in 2009, Sekisui-SCG Industry Co, which produces prefabricated modular houses, has built and sold 800 units. About 95% of those units were sold to self-built home buyers, while 5% were supplied at PF's housing projects.

Sekisui-SCG Industry Co is a joint venture between Sekisui Chemical and SCG, Thailand's largest building materials producer, holding 51% and 49%, respectively. The firm has a plant in Saraburi with production capacity of 1,000 units per year.

Last month Sekisui Chemical formed a joint venture with PF in PF-Sekisui JV Co, with registered capital of 200 million baht, of which Sekisui and PF hold 49% and 51%, respectively.

The joint venture plans to develop single detached houses in four projects worth 2.23 billion baht in locations including Krungthep Kreetha, Ramkhamhaeng, Chaeng Watthana and Rattanathibet. In total, 74 units priced between 25-60 million baht are targeted.

"This partnership will help us drive growth by 1.5 times in three years (2018-20), reaching sales of 1,200 units," said Mr Sekiguchi.

He said the residential market in Thailand has strong potential for growth, drawing a lot of Japanese firms to invest through joint ventures with local developers over the past four years.

"While other Japanese firms focus on condo development, we focus on single detached houses as we are the only player with a construction materials factory to build houses in Thailand," said Mr Sekiguchi.

In 2016, Sekisui joined property developer Siamese Asset Co for a single detached housing project. For that project, Sekisui supplied modular home pieces and Siamese Asset built them.

Over the last five decades, Sekisui has built 550,000 units in Japan.

PF chief executive Chainid Adhyanasakul said the company aims to become one of the top three in the single detached house segment for units priced 20 million baht and above.

"Our sales from luxury single detached houses will grow from 2 billion baht this year to 4 billion in the next three years," he said.

PF shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 92 satang, unchanged, in trade worth 14.9 million baht.