Amporn Pannarat (78) has to leave her house after 60 years

The Crown Property Bureau, one of Bangkok's largest landlords, is in a tough spot. Aid to society comes before making a profit, according to the CPB annual reports, but the agency also has to survive.

And that is why after 60 years, 78-year-old Amporn Pannarat will have to leave her two-story concrete house near Lumpini park. Because the CPB wants to commercially develop a site of 4,48 hectares on Lang Suan Road.

Amporn has no idea where to go. Currently, her house rent is 496 baht per month. The agency has offered residents who have to leave a coupon of 5.100 baht per square meter, which can be used to buy a housing unit in the new building. But they are sold at market prices, which amounts to 200.000 baht per square meter. Amporn does not know anyone who uses the offer.

The CPB wants to get more money from its land holdings

The financial crisis of 1997, when the baht devalued, Asian currencies collapsed and Thai banks ran into problems, prompted CPB to withdraw more money from its land holdings. The CPB owns approximately 66 square kilometers of land across the country, 1/5 of which is in Bangkok. "We don't know if the government will continue to support the monarchy in the future, so the monarchy must support itself," said Aviruth Wongbuddhapitak, adviser to the CPB.

The CPB has been publishing an annual report for 2 years, so that we now know that it also has control over two of the Thailandthe largest listed companies. Last year, the CPB earned 11,1 billion baht, of which 2,7 billion in rent and 7 billion in dividends from Siam Commercial Bank and Siam Cement. Another 1,4 billion baht came from holdings in CPB Equity, CPB Property, Deves Insurance and Siam Sindhorn.

The shares in these companies are estimated at 284,95 billion baht. The value of the land was estimated in 2005 at 987 billion baht. All together, the CPB would have a net worth of at least 1,26 trillion baht. By comparison, the largest publicly traded company, state-owned oil company PTT Plc, is worth 1,4 trillion baht.

Old Mrs. Amporn's house has already been measured

But Aviruth does make a comment on the calculation of the land value. You can't put market prices on it, he says, because the agency rents most of the land to poor people and has no plans to sell. But old Mrs. Amporn has to leave her house. She has already seen surveyors measuring her house. "I don't know how much compensation they will give, but it will never be enough to buy a new house."

(Source: Spectrum, Bangkok Post, December 16, 2012)