Japanese developer Shinwa Real Estate (Thailand) plans to spend 3 billion baht in Thailand this year and aims to develop a pilot low-rise condominium project near the Yellow Line.

Tomoyasu Yamabe, managing director of Shinwa Real Estate Thailand, a subsidiary of Shinwa Group from Osaka, said the group's investment policy this year will use the parent firm's cutting-edge construction technique as its key strength in developing quality condominiums with a truly Japanese spirit. One of Shinwa's subsidiaries is a contractor that owns an innovation.

The group invested in Thailand two years ago and introduced the "Runesu" innovation -- a sigma beam adjusted to be the floor, and the floor serves as a beam freeing up another 25-40% of space, he said.

"Thailand remains attractive for investment because of many positive factors including GDP growth, the consumer confidence index, which has remained high for many years, and the government's investment policy," said Mr Yamabe.

"The government is pushing ahead many mass transit lines consecutively and quickly, which will have a domino effect on other investments, especially in the property sector. The mass transit projects will boost a lot of condominium projects, which will be good for customers as they will have a variety of attractive choices."

Wichai Chula-Olarnkun, the company's executive director, said Shinwa's policy remains to focus on the middle section of Sukhumvit Road to meet Japanese customers' requirements, as it is the location and target for firm, in line with research data.

This location has strong demand and price is on the rise, he said.

The company's investment plan includes the REN Sukhumvit 39 project.

In addition, the company this year will kick off a pilot project with a plan to launch a low-rise condominium project in a location near the Yellow Line in the Srinakarin area.

The condo is to be situated on a plot sized nearly one rai with 7-8 storeys, a total of no more than 100 units, and a total area of 4,000 square metres worth around 200 million baht. It expects to start sales by the third quarter. Despite the smaller size, the project will have attractive gimmicks, which are Shinwa's identity.

In the future, the company hopes to add new projects under the same concept in other community locations because they are small projects that can start development and close sales in a short period.

This year, according to Mr Wichai, the company will realise revenue from unit transfers at Runesu Thonglor 5 project by the third quarter.

"Shinwa Group in Osaka has various businesses including construction, condominiums, serviced apartments, single detached houses, hotels, car parking lots and onsen. Developing property projects in Thailand should open the door to businesses in other segments in the future. These will include selling the Runesu innovation in target markets like Singapore and Malaysia, which are interested in our innovation," Mr Wichai said.