The Prospect of Facilitating Elderly and Children Daycares in Condominiums to Achieve FAR Bonus in Bangkok

Abstract

The number of the elderly population of Thailand is currently greater than the population of children and tends to increase every year causing the ratio of labor age to raise 1 elderly to decline in the past years based on data provided by National Statistical Office in 2017. Thus, the primary care by family is no longer sufficient. The cause of this phenomenon is partly due to the reduced birth rate. The reason the modern families have fewer children can be explained as a result of modern work culture and smaller family size causing the lack of caretakers in the daytime. Based on the preceding circumstances, the government has issued numerous policies and measures in response to this change including promoting the cooperation from the private sector. A planning incentive is one of them to encourage the private sector to cooperate in the establishment of social welfare. The Department of City Planning and Urban Development is in preparation of the Bangkok City Plan, 4th edition which will include a new incentive for developers who establish a daycare facility for elderly and child in exchange of FAR bonus. Therefore, the question arises in the implementation of such laws relating to both the factors affecting real estate development and financial return by choosing to study on condominium projects that are increasing in urban areas where land is scarce.
The research is based on the opinions of experts consisting of developers, senior daycare specialists, childcare specialists and urban planning specialists, 19 persons in total. Regarding this, the Delphi technique was adopted in the selection process, interview and questionnaires. For the study on financial return, a financial model was created to simulate the increase of areas based on case studies of 11 condominium projects divided into high, medium and low-price levels. The study found that the incentive measure requiring developers to establish daycare for elderly and child is feasible subject to project type and size. In particular, the mid-class projects has more potential to be applied for this incentive as the locations of these projects have many aspects that drive developers’ need to gain extra areas. In addition, the number of residential unit tends to be higher in these projects, hence, enhancing the chance of having more users for daytime cares. In term of investment, the model shows that the incentive measure requiring developers to establish daycare for elderly and child yields the highest revenue in high-class and decreases in mid-class and affordable-class projects respectively. In term of constraint, there are concerns about alterations of the usage, the need to acquire for more building areas which grows inversely with the demand for daycare between the center and outskirts of Bangkok including the difficulty of finding a qualified daytime caregiver.