What began as a plan to sell a few floors and keep two rooftop homes became a 20-plus-year development business on Pattaya’s Pratumnak Hill. Founder Juha Timonen reflects on the journey as Oasis and Beach move the Finnish-led Thai developer into its next generation.
By Vision Finland Partner Content Team
“The original idea was simple: build a few floors to sell and get ourselves holiday apartments. It ended up becoming an incredible journey.” JUHA TIMONEN, FOUNDER OF SIAM ORIENTAL CONDOS
More than two decades ago, Juha Timonen was not planning a property company with thousands of apartments. He was looking for more space for his own family in Pattaya.
Timonen had been an entrepreneur in Finland since the age of 18, from a lunch restaurant in Hämeenlinna to industrial work and a specialist cleaning company. Seasonal work let him spend winters in Thailand. His first encounter with Thailand, on a trip to the south more than three decades ago, was very different from the country he would later come to know. He remembers the experience as unfamiliar and somewhat overwhelming. It was only later, after a relative working for Finnair encouraged him to visit Bangkok and Pattaya, that his view of Thailand began to change.
“It felt like a good base,” Timonen recalls. “There was something for everyone, and from Pattaya you could travel all over Thailand.”
A holiday-home idea becomes a development business
After buying a small condominium in Pattaya, Timonen eventually needed more space. He and his wife began looking for a house or land. An Estonian friend, Aivar, suggested a different solution: buy a plot together, build several floors of apartments to sell, and keep penthouses at the top for themselves. Selling part of the building would help finance the homes they wanted.
Aivar reduced the site-selection logic to a phrase Timonen still remembers: “location, location, location.” On the map, Pratumnak sat between central Pattaya and Jomtien, the beachfront district just south of central Pattaya. At the time, Pratumnak was much quieter than today.
The original plan grew. What was meant to be only a few floors became a seven-storey building. Six floors were sold and two rooftop homes were kept for the founders. Siam Oriental Condos’ first 57-apartment condominium was completed in 2007.
That first experiment became a business model. Timonen says Siam Oriental Condos has since brought 14 projects to market, selling one large project on to another developer and developing and selling 13 itself. Across those projects, he estimates that around 2,700 apartments have been brought to market and built.
Why Pratumnak kept winning
Siam Oriental Condos has considered opportunities outside Pratumnak, but the hill has remained its long-term base. Timonen says the decision was reinforced project by project: buyers valued the location, the area continued to develop and each completed building added to the company’s local track record.
Pratumnak sits between central Pattaya and Jomtien, the neighbouring beachfront district to the south. Beaches, restaurants and everyday services are close, while the neighbourhood remains more residential than the busiest parts of the city. For Siam Oriental Condos, staying in the same area also means new buyers can visit earlier projects, see how common areas have aged and understand how the company manages buildings after completion.
Land values on Pratumnak have risen substantially during Siam Oriental Condos’ time in the area, reinforcing the logic of condominium development. For today’s Oasis and Beach buyers, however, the more relevant result of that long presence is a cluster of completed projects nearby - a track record that can be inspected rather than only described in sales material.
A Thai developer with Finnish leadership
Siam Oriental is a Thai developer with Finnish leadership and continues to employ Finnish professionals in key roles, Timonen says.
According to Timonen, the development side is led by a Finnish managing director, while a Finnish construction engineer works on supervision and planning from the developer’s side. The aim is not to transplant Finnish construction wholesale into a tropical climate, but to apply relevant engineering and management practices to Thai conditions.
Current project materials for Siam Oriental Beach show that approach in practical details such as waterproofing, protected tile edges and coated frames. The newer projects also reflect changing expectations around resource use: Beach is planned to use solar power to support electricity consumption in common areas, alongside water-saving fixtures and LED lighting. These details are less visible than a rooftop pool, but they illustrate the same principle: the building should be designed not only for handover day, but for years of use in Thailand’s climate.
Why the relationship continues after the handover
That long-term view is most visible in BaanCare, Siam Oriental Condos’ property-management subsidiary, established in 2012. The company provides maintenance, security, cleaning, landscaping and services for individual owners, including technical assistance, air-conditioning maintenance, key holding and apartment checks while an owner is abroad.
Timonen says the wider property-management operation employs roughly 70–80 Thai staff alongside Finnish technical and management personnel. For a developer whose customers may spend much of the year in Europe or elsewhere, he sees that continuity as part of the product rather than an optional extra.
For Timonen, that continuing role is central to the business model. Staying close to completed properties gives the company a direct view of how materials, systems and shared spaces perform over time - lessons that can be carried into the next project.
“We want the buildings we have developed to stay at a certain standard, so the homes have a functioning resale market, the properties remain in good condition and maintenance costs stay as predictable as possible over the life of the building.” JUHA TIMONEN
The philosophy is preventive rather than reactive. Timonen argues that waiting until something breaks can create a chain of larger problems and costs. Regular inspections and maintenance are intended to spread expenses more evenly and help a building remain attractive decades after completion.
There is also a practical advantage: because the same group developed the building, it retains detailed knowledge of how it was put together. “We have the best information about the building because we developed it,” Timonen says.
From Finnish buyers to a broader international market
Siam Oriental Condos’ first projects had a stronger Finnish presence, but the customer base was international from the beginning. Timonen recalls buyers from Scandinavia, Australia and Central Europe alongside Finns. Over time, customers from Russia, Eastern Europe, the Baltic countries and Central Asia became more significant, while Chinese demand has moved through its own cycle.
The larger change is that buyers are more informed and more demanding. They compare projects online, expect more services and look beyond the apartment itself to management, security, shared spaces and the practicalities of owning a home from abroad.
That change is also visible inside Siam Oriental Condos. Sales Manager Christoffer Timonen works with international customers and current project sales, while a broader generational transition is under way. Juha Timonen says a new leader has stepped into the business, the organisation is being renewed and all four of his children are involved in the family company in different roles. The next generation is already building experience across management, sales, commercial functions, technology and customer service.
Oasis: the large project approaching delivery
For buyers looking at a nearer-term completion, Siam Oriental Oasis is the more advanced of the company’s two current sales projects. The 12th project consists of three eight-storey buildings with a total of 377 residences.
At the time of Vision Finland’s interview on 27 August 2026, Timonen said about 86% of the apartments — more than 300 homes — had been sold. Construction was already at the eighth-floor structural stage, with partition walls and tiling under way. Completion is scheduled for December 2027.
The project is designed for longer stays as well as holidays, with planned facilities including swimming pools, a fitness centre, coworking space, Finnish and steam saunas, landscaped areas, underground parking and 24-hour security. Siam Oriental Condos currently offers a 0% payment plan during the construction period, subject to the terms of the selected unit and sales agreement.
For buyers considering Oasis now, the timing is part of the story: construction is visibly advanced and most of the development has already been sold, while units remain available. Current prices, unit selection and payment-plan details should be confirmed directly with Siam Oriental Condos sales.
Beach: the next generation of the Pratumnak formula
Siam Oriental Beach is the company’s newest project and, according to current company materials, its 13th development. For buyers who place a premium on proximity to the coast and a newer amenity concept, the eight-storey project is planned with 175 apartments only a few hundred metres from the beach.
Timonen says Beach was brought to market in April 2026 and had already sold slightly more than half of its apartments by the August interview. Construction is planned to start around the turn of the year, with estimated completion in the first quarter of 2029.
Beach also shows how much the product has changed since the first seven-storey building. Planned rooftop facilities include a swimming pool, children’s and shallow pools, a gym, Finnish-style sauna, coworking area, sun deck and outdoor cinema. The plans also include underground parking, controlled access, lift connections and solar power for common areas, with commercial units at street level.
Beach is at an earlier sales and construction stage than Oasis, giving buyers a different point of entry into Siam Oriental Condos’ current pipeline. Current prices, unit availability and payment-plan details should be confirmed directly with Siam Oriental Condos sales.
“The only way to stay in the market is to keep up with development.” JUHA TIMONEN
A founder stepping back — and a company staying put
At 62, Timonen describes himself as moving gradually toward a semi-retired role. He expects Siam Oriental Condos to remain strongly focused on Pratumnak over the next five to ten years. The company has land available for future development, a new generation moving into greater responsibility and two active projects that extend the same geographic strategy that began with the first building.
For buyers, Timonen says the strongest proof of the brand should not be a slogan. It should be the ability to visit previous projects and speak to people who already own homes there.
“I want customers to feel that this is a brand they can trust — that we build reasonably priced, good-quality homes and continue to look after them professionally afterwards. A new customer should be able to ask an earlier customer how the building has worked and how they have been taken care of.” JUHA TIMONEN
That idea brings the Siam Oriental Condos story back to where it began. The first project was never intended to create a 13-project portfolio. It was meant to make two holiday homes possible. But the decision to build on Pratumnak, sell the floors below and remain involved after completion became a repeatable model.
“It has been an incredible journey,” Timonen says. “I am extremely proud and happy that I have been able to be part of it.”
