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Published on August 10, 2007

Ideo Lardphrao 17 is the first of five city condominium projects being built by Ananda Development in the second half of the year. The concept is similar to the recent wave of midtown condominium sites that rely on mass-transit stations to provide easy commuting for office workers to the inner city.

Ananda has been acquiring choice plots of land ever since last year's property fallout, to make its push into this profitable segment, expanding from its traditional detached-housing segment in the eastern suburbs of Bang Na-Trat and Kingkaew roads.

The Ideo condominiums are a bit bigger than the mini-units in some of the lower- and middle-market projects offered by more budget-minded developers.

Ananda is relatively more generous with its units, with a one-bedroom, 34-square-metre unit selling for Bt1.7 million and a two-bedroom 74-square-metre unit going for Bt3.14 million.

Like most condominiums in this class, the units are contained inside mid-rise buildings of eight floors.

Ananda has been astute in avoiding the 24-square-metre mini-units that are probably better suited to buyers from countries suffering from a scarcity of residential land.

But Bangkok, an amazingly flat river basin, is especially abundant in land in the eastern and northeastern suburbs, such as the Lat Phrao area.

This is one of the chief reasons why property booms in Bangkok are largely capped by enormous supply of both units and available land for construction.

Also, Ananda recognises that the local psyche, even among less-sophisticated younger home-buyers, has its limits. They do not appreciate being asked to live in highly confined spaces, given the potential long-term detrimental health effects.

One of the main attractions of Ideo is its proximity to a subway station, which is only 20 metres away.

Ananda CEO Chanond Ruangkritya has teamed up with veteran Aquarius Estate condominium-builder Yongyuth Chaipromprasith to embark on this new batch of city condominiums.

Aquarius was behind the Clovers project in Soi Thonglor. It was one of the first developers to shift away from high-priced luxury units and cater to the middle-class segment when it was not fashionable to do so.

While the Lat Phrao suburbs were for many decades avoided by buyers, because of its chronic traffic jams and impoverished infrastructure, recent changes have made it more liveable than many parts of Sukhumvit Road that have become highly overcrowded and dangerously polluted.

With new Expressway sections connecting Lat Phrao to the rest of the city, the area stands to gain as one of the capital's less dingy quarters.

Given the daily monster jams from Soi Ekamai to Bang Na-Trat Road, which is packed with half-crazed lorry and bus drivers, home-buyers would do well to look at alternative sites that offer more bearable living conditions.

Itthi C Tan

The Nation