Siam Oriental Plaza 5 well on the way to completion
The Siam Oriental Trading Company is currently entering its 12th year of building and maintaining quality residential projects in the Pattaya and Eastern Seaboard area.
Towards the end of last year the company opened a showroom for Siam Oriental Plaza 5, which represents their 10th major development, a number which is testament to their continued success and popularity with investors in this difficult economic climate.
Situated in Soi 3, off Pratamnak Road, and being a soi that only into Soi 2 and then back again to Pratamnak Road, it is neat little oasis when it comes to traffic.
Juha Timonen is the man who heads Siam Oriental, and the Finnish expatriate realized that while Soi 3 is quiet, it also meant there were not a lot of convenience shops in the immediate area. Rather than be deflated by this apparent negative, Siam Oriental management actually saw this as an opportunity, especially given the proximity of other condo complexes. So, the entire ground floor of Siam Oriental Plaza will be given over to shops.
Siam Oriental has a subsidiary company called BaanCare, which looks after properties for owners who are not full-time residents. BaanCare is able to check up on any property at whatever frequency a customer may desire: daily, weekly, monthly, whatever.
The company believes Siam Oriental Plaza 5 takes their developments to the next level of quality with many of the materials they are using. Owners familiar with Siam Oriental projects should see a rise in the luxury level, but without any major jump in price.
Prices start at a little under 50,000 baht per square metre, so a 27sqm studio with balcony has an entry level of 1.3 million baht.
Prices rise the higher you go in the building, so a two-bedroom unit of 56sqm on the second floor has a start price of 2.7 million baht while the same size unit on the eighth floor (which is the top of the building) would be 3.8 million baht.
It is important to Siam Oriental to keep adding improvements with each new project. In the Plaza, for example, they have ensured the design allows for a washing machine to be incorporated within the unit – not stuck outside on the balcony. This is in response to feedback from owners.
Siam Oriental is very involved in renting out units to support their investors. While loose furniture is not included in the sales price, the company does stress they require a certain level of furnishing before they will agree to rent out a unit.
All told, Siam Oriental Plaza 5 will comprise 197 units in a U-shaped formation around a small plaza. It is just 700 metres from the sea and, by the time people move in, the company hopes to have direct footpath access to the waterside.
The piling work for the Plaza project is far advanced and the building is expected to be completed during 2016.
Tropical Gardens, another of their signature projects, is situated not far away, in Pratamnak Soi 4, and according to the company, sales have exceeded their projected forecasts, which is testament to the strength of the Siam Oriental brand.
The company is also involved in operating an orphanage, named Siam Oriental House, in western Thailand, near the border with Myanmar. It has facilities capable of housing 36 orphans and Siam Oriental Trading supports the project on an ongoing basis, and has been doing so since it was founded in 2011.
