Panasonic has teamed up with Chulalongkorn University for a research collaboration project focused on comfortable living conditions for Thai residents.

The reduced purchasing power of consumers affected the Thai real estate sector in the first half of 2024 and hit the electrical appliance sector, according to Panasonic Solutions (Thailand) Co Ltd, a business arm of Japanese multinational electronics appliance maker Panasonic.

"The real estate sector is affected by the country's sluggish economy; this will impact the division's performance as sales from developer customers have dropped by around 10-15%," said Pongwut Sangprasert, director of the B2B sales division at Panasonic Solutions (Thailand).

According to the Real Estate Information Center, new residential sales amounted to 15,000 units worth 90 billion baht in the first quarter of 2024, down by 26.6% compared to the same period last year.

Mr Pongwut said that despite the gloomy real estate sector, the company sees promising opportunities for the hospitality sector due to the rebound in the tourism sector as hotel operators opt to renovate their properties.

At present, real estate customers account for 40% of the company's business-to-business (B2B) revenue, followed by commercial building customers with 20%, and hospitality customers with 10%, he added.

"Overall, the company's performance in the B2B sector remains on the positive side," Mr Pongwut said.

He said the company is conducting a Home Internet of Things (IoT) solutions project, called "Comforting environment", with the help of the Faculty of Architecture at Chulalongkorn University.

The project aims to find the perfect home living environment which balances the settings of home electrical appliances and human comfort.

"Preliminary testing shows that a 'Comforting environment' for Thais would be a room with a temperature of 26.3 degrees Celsius, with an airflow of 0.2 metres per second," said assistant professor Terdsak Tachakitkachorn of the Faculty of Architecture at Chulalongkorn University.

Funded by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, the project will start pilot testing in a total of 12 homes built by three developers.

The company expects the testing to be concluded by the third quarter of 2025, and aims to launch an IoT business solution on the basis of the test results by the end of 2025, Mr Pongwut said.

Mr Pongwut said the company expects the B2B business to achieve 5-10% growth this year, accounting for 60% of the company's total revenue.

Moreover, the company aims to increase the proportion of its B2B revenue to 70% of total revenue within five years.