A little surprised “but, of course, delighted,” sums up the reaction of the developers of Tropical Dream Condominium after their project was voted Best Condo Development (Eastern Seaboard) in last month’s Thailand Property Awards ceremony at Bangkok’s Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel.
But that’s the nature of awards, writes Dave Buckley, participants often feel that “it’s not going to be my year” even if, deep down, they very much would like it to be.

Collected award
“Yes, we were very happy to win,” said Sylvie Schäffer, Tropical Dream’s director who collected the award from one of the judges, Clayton Wade, head of Jomtien-based, Premier Homes.
“We thought that Nova’s The Cliff provided strong competition,” she added. “But, of course, we were delighted when Tropical Dream’s name was read out.”
I spoke to Sylvie with Tropical Dream’s managing director Gery Kis just a few days after they had attended the awards.
I sensed that the implications of the win were still sinking in. Yes, they felt they deserved the accolade. They simply hadn’t set their expectations of winning too high because they had been nominated alongside two projects from a developer they have a lot of respect for.

First development in Pattaya
“Tropical Dream is our first development here in Pattaya,” said Gery. “But we are already making plans that will ensure it won’t be our last. So it is vitally important that we get this one right. We simply won’t rest until it’s perfect.”
It was a case of first time developer vying for the award with one that has a long track record of success in Pattaya. But the “new kid” won.
Did they know what the judges thought was special about their project to earn the award?
“We got the impression that three factors helped us.
“The first is value for money. We have only 79 units on three rai which means that owners at Tropical Dream will be getting plenty of space and some great amenities for their cash.
“Next was quality of workmanship. Our project manager is Robert Scheitz, who has 40 years experience on some of the biggest projects in our home country of Hungary,” said Gery.
“He is passing all his know-how onto to our workforce and now we are really starting to see the benefits.”
Gery and Sylvie (seen in the first picture on this page, top left) both insist on very high standards. One time they replaced an entire floor’s worth of tiling. “It hadn’t been done to our satisfaction so we had the tiles taken off and new ones laid,” said Gery. “Only when it was 100 per cent right could we move on.”

Quality materials
Third on Tropical Dream’s list of plusses is the quality materials they are using in the construction process.
“We don’t believe in cutting corners,” said Gery. “People describe high-rise buildings as landmarks but we believe we are building a low-rise landmark here at Tropical Dream so we put in many features that people do not expect and it seems to be paying off.”
One of the biggest winners on the night was Soneva Kiri by Six Senses Resorts and Spas on Koh Kood.
Not only did it get the vote as the Eastern Seaboard’s Best Villa Development it also picked up the award for the best in the country overall.
Soneva Kira’s architects, Habita, received two awards for Best Residential and Best Hotel Architectural Design.
And just to top it all off the project was also voted best Green Development – an award previously won so many times by Horseshoe Point that I thought the organisers might just give it to HSP in perpetuity.
Soneva Kira is a new name to me. I hope to get the chance to fill the gap in my knowledge later this year. Ω