Luxury homebuilder Emperor House Co is confident of higher revenue this year thanks to the number of building contracts in hand.
It expects revenue growth of almost 5% to 400 million baht from 382 million baht last year.
The company has secured contracts to build eight luxury houses, worth 1.04 billion baht in total.
The luxury house segment is unlikely to be hurt by the ailing economy, chief executive Suratchai Kuengharit said.
This segment has quite a strong outlook, he said during a visit to a 1,300-square-metre luxury house valued at 200 million baht in Nonthaburi province.
The house is among the eight luxury homes for which the company has signed construction contracts.
Construction will take the firm three years to complete.
Among them, five are in Greater Bangkok and one each in Sukhothai, Suphan Buri and Mukdahan provinces.
He said the unit in Sukhothai runs to 320 million baht for construction, interior design and decoration, making the house the most expensive in Emperor House’s portfolio.
The company expects to two or three more contracts for super-luxury houses this year.
Apart from Thailand, the company has also expanded to constructing luxury houses in neighbouring countries.
It is building a luxury house worth 200 million baht in Vientiane, with delivery scheduled for the first half of this year.
The market in the region is promising, with demand from customers assured.
However, Mr Suratchai said his company has not benefited much from the advent of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
He said the AEC would be good for Thai homebuilders but not for contractors seeking opportunities abroad.
"Doing business in other countries is risky due to unexpected costs, which could be higher compared with constructing residential units at home," Mr Suratchai said.
Emperor House has been in business for 28 years, with 100 luxury houses and 15 commercial units in its portfolio. It has focused solely on the luxury segment since 1996.
Mr Suratchai forecasts the market value of the self-homebuilding market may decline by 10% this year to 1.3 billion baht due to the slow economy, far lower than last year’s 57 billion baht.