This month sees the launch of a Top 10 Bargains campaign by Benchmark Property Consultants, the Thepprasit brokers, writes John Davids.
As the project’s name suggests, Benchmark’s staff have been scouring the Pattaya and Jomtien areas in a bid to track down properties where the seller is prepared to accept an offer significantly below market value.
“We’ve been talking to a lot of potential sellers as part of this campaign,” Benchmark MD Gareth da Silva told me. “We’ve been saying to them that, most importantly, the motivation to sell must come from the seller himself.”
He added: “We can always advise if we think the price being asked is not competitive, maybe too high.”
But, once Benchmark has given that advice, the onus is on the seller to decide how important it is to him that the sale goes through.
“If the seller is willing to work with us I think there is a very good chance we can sell their property for them. They need to be flexible,” said Gareth. “I can see a clear improvement in the market and there are many bargain hunters around looking for ‘fire sales’. We sold two houses last week and we have several pre-qualified potential buyers taking tours with us at present.”
Benchmark is promoting its campaign through magazines such as this one but is also carrying out its own e-newsletter mailings to ensure the message reaches a wide audience.
“It will also be on our website and we will be distributing special flyers,” added Gareth. “We are looking at every way of giving this campaign the maximum exposure. We’re prepared to go the extra mile to get a property sold or rented.”
Benchmark is in its second year of trading and already the brokerage is starting to be noticed. It has been nominated in the “Best Thailand Agent” category of the Thailand Property Awards 2009. Also, it is now seeking membership of the Real Estate Broker Association – Eastern Seaboard (REBA-ES).
“I like the idea of leading brokers working together for the growth of the property market and setting standards for people in the business to match up to,” said Gareth. Soon some of his team will take training and a test with a view to being accepted for membership.

Years of experience
Those who don’t require such training are two recent additions to the Benchmark fold – Mary Walsh and Sutee Sumanont. Both have years of experience in the relocations and properties field.
Mary is the corporate relocations manager but Sutee, with 15 years’ experience in the local property scene, is no stranger to relocations, either.
“We have performed a number of relocations here recently and we are probably at the leading edge in this field,” said Gareth. “We have recently placed more than 10 employees, including high ranking executives, from leading corporates.
“There are still corporates who want to come here because of the resources and the price of labour and the like.
“Both Mary and Sutee are experienced in home searches and Mary is especially strong on things like school searches and all the other things that help people to settle here.
“We offer help with area orientation, work permits, setting up bank accounts and the actual move with help from partner companies. Relocation is definitely a growth area for us.”
Of course the rental market is another positive area for Benchmark with rentals in the Jomtien and Pratumnak area of Bt 100-150,000 a month being achieved.

Up-scale project
Benchmark has also been asked to take a leading role in the marketing and sales of Sedona, the up-scale housing project in the Mabprachan area close to Regent’s International School (pictured on facing page).
“Here the response has been quite good,” said Gareth pointing to an informative, hi-tech virtual tour that gives prospective buyers a great idea of what’s planned.
“We are very keen and motivated to work with developers to get their projects sold,” he added.
As another example of the need for flexibility Gareth told me that at Sedona they accepted the need to adapt to the current market so were planning to market six or seven executive villas in the Bt 6m price range.
“They will be of similar quality and will blend in with the rest of the development,” said Gareth. We recently reported that prices at Sedona would start at
Bt 12.5m so this represents a significant departure.
What of Gareth himself? Sri Lankan-born Gareth has been working in Pattaya property for eight years.
He is justly proud of the fact that before he came here he was voted world No 2 sales consultant in a company that has branches around the globe.
Before coming to Pattaya he spent two years in Bangkok with a tea exporting company.
“My first visit to Pattaya was to do sales and marketing research for the tea company,” he said. Gareth liked what he saw and decided he wanted to stay.

City of opportunity
“I see lots of opportunity for business here in Pattaya,” he said. “Compared to other places this is far more foreigner-friendly. I like the lifestyle here and, compared to Bangkok, the air is much fresher here.”
He added: “During my career in real estate here I have closed a construction sale of Bt 150m and sealed a rental deal worth
Bt 200,000 a month.”
Big numbers from a man with big ambitions. Ω