Thai real estate market future is bright - packages for foreigners driving consumer confidence

[webfact]

File photo: REUTERS/File

 

The acting chief of the Real Estate Information Center (REIC) said that confidence in the sector over the next six months is bullish.

 

Dr Wichai Wiratkaphan told Thai business media that confidence in the third quarter (July to September) was slightly down on previous quarters due to the raging pandemic in Thailand.

 

But with vaccinations continuing apace and the end of lockdown this was now changing to a greater mood of confidence.

 

And it was being fuelled by the prospect of changes to rules to attract foreign buyers.

 

The government is hoping to attract a million foreigners over the next five years to invest a trillion baht. 

 

Four groups of well-heeled people like well-off retirees, businessmen, those with special skills and digital nomads are set to be able to buy 10 million baht and up property and become landowners.

 

Condo ownership rules, special visas and tax breaks are also in the offing as Thailand turns to foreigners - particularly Chinese and other Asians and Russians - to bolster the real estate market.

 

Dr Wichai was principally referring to the situation in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces in the assessment. 

 

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[ThailandRyan]

A Pipe Dream a wonderful Pipe Dream is all this sentiment is.

[EVENKEEL]

And the dog and pony show continues.

[RotBenz8888]

22 minutes ago, webfact said:

The government is hoping to attract a million foreigners over the next five years to invest a trillion baht

A new day, a new laugh. 

[BKKTRAVELER]

I don't change their enthusiasm obviously...

 

One rule I wish they would drop is the requirement for foreigners to have the money sent from abroad to get a foreign exchange form. If you have the money here already, it would be great to be able to purchase a condo on the spot. Having to send the money abroad, send it back here with precise purpose while paying bank fees and exchange rate fees both ways over large sums of money is quite discouraging.

 

Case in point, you want to sell your condo here in order to purchase a new one. You have to go through all the nonsense I mentioned above.

 

I know foreigners with PR can already do that, I wish they extended the courtesy to everyone or at least to those with yearly visas. 

Edited October 11, 2021 by BKKTRAVELER

[kotsak]

46 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

A new day, a new laugh. 

24/7 actually ????

[John Drake]

1 hour ago, ThailandRyan said:

A Pipe Dream a wonderful Pipe Dream is all this sentiment is.

Some things are true even though Thai authorities say they're true.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The government is hoping to attract a million foreigners over the next five years to invest a trillion baht

????????????????

[Rampant Rabbit]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

bullish.

missed  off the "it" at the end  mate

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, RotBenz8888 said:

A new day, a new laugh. 

It's almost live streaming now.

[Doctor Tom]

Pure wishful thinking,  horse manure.  

[Doctor Tom]

2 hours ago, John Drake said:

Some things are true even though Thai authorities say they're true.

but most are not 

[freedomnow]

"Keep banging the drum loud".....got to come up with some <deleted> every day, same as TAT.

 

 

[DrPhibes]

Bright, like a shooting star before reality does it in.

[Elkski]

Seems like he is saying this to express his associations approval for this new government idea and this keep putting  pressure on them to continue to finalize these ideas.  But I don't think any idea like this will not bring in even a small fraction of 1 million who will buy 10 million condos. And 90% will be Chinese. 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Elkski

[Tim207]

1 hour ago, Elkski said:

But I don't think any idea like this will not bring in even a small fraction of 1 million who will buy 10 million condos. And 90% will be Chinese. 

The chineese are exactly why the thai property market could be optimistic. The speculators who are able to liquidate their chineese properties will have cash they want to get out of china. Thailand is an accessible market for those not well enough connected to be able to access western markets. Only time will tell if enough of them will be able to get out of their chineese properties and be able to get the cash offshore before the bottom falls out but the Thai market could benefit.

[spidermike007]

Complete tripe. Total BS. 

A close friend told me that his GF friend works as a senior level manager for one of Thailand's biggest developers. She told him that they have reduced their building by 90% of what it was pre-Covid, which was around 100 developments a year. They cannot lease or sell any residential or commercial property at prices that bring them a profit. They are down to a skeleton staff. This is a multi billion baht a year operation, with hundreds of hungry employees. 

 

On Samui, hundreds of villas were built on spec, by hungry investors. And they could not sell for years. The land sold, for the spec villas. But the villas ended up on the rental market, and they decimated the rental market too, as there were an incredible number, and the owners were desperate to get something out them. And that was pre-Covid! 

 
Demand is way down. The Chinese market is nearly gone, Russians and others are very hesitant to commit. And the long term tourists are gone too. So, who does that leave? Wealthy Thais, many of whom see the market collapsing, and would rather wait and see how all of this shakes out, and ex-pats, many of whom are smart enough to be shopping for bargains right now. I spoke to someone today who just sold his 132 rai property. All chanote land. He said he got about 60% of what it was worth, and he was happy to walk away. 

 

Anyone interested in buying a condo right now, would be better off waiting awhile. Timing is on your side. Time is now your ally. The economy is going remain devastated here, for a very long time to come. I predict 5-7 years. And the longer this goes on, the more people are going to be affected by it, and the more desperate some will become.

 

For the wealthy it barely matters. But, there are many middle class who have money invested, and there are alot of Chinese and Russians who bought, and cannot even visit Thailand. Some of them will want to unload their properties. Wait. The condo market is severely overbuilt. And demand is low, for all but the top buildings. 

[Albert Zweistein]

Slip of the pen ; should read bull$h1t instead of bullish.

[milesinnz]

5 hours ago, Tim207 said:

The chineese are exactly why the thai property market could be optimistic. The speculators who are able to liquidate their chineese properties will have cash they want to get out of china. Thailand is an accessible market for those not well enough connected to be able to access western markets. Only time will tell if enough of them will be able to get out of their chineese properties and be able to get the cash offshore before the bottom falls out but the Thai market could benefit.

meanwhile, in countries like Australia, there is concern that Chinese owners in Australia will be forced to sell up to cover their losses in China...  "speculators able to liquidate their properties".. and who will the buyers be ? - other speculators ?.. are you paid by the Chinese government ? then you have China's demographics.. where will all the new young Chinese come from who have money ?

[Tim207]

6 hours ago, milesinnz said:

meanwhile, in countries like Australia, there is concern that Chinese owners in Australia will be forced to sell up to cover their losses in China...  "speculators able to liquidate their properties".. and who will the buyers be ? - other speculators ?.. are you paid by the Chinese government ? then you have China's demographics.. where will all the new young Chinese come from who have money ?

People in Australia may think one way and people in Thailand may be thinking another. Only time will tell who is right and those two outcomes are not mutually exclusive.

 

Chinese property sales are way down but there are still plenty of sales happening. Some of those sellers will be ahead of the curve and not dump their profits into more chinese property. Those are the ones Thailand may be hoping to attract.

 

What does young chinese buyers and future demographics have to do with anything? The story and my post were about possible short term possibilities. Obviously the chinese property market will collapse, probably soon, but that doesn't mean everyone in china will be broke. There will be some that saw it coming before the others and some of those will want to get there money into assets outside of china before the whole economy falls apart.

[herfiehandbag]

21 hours ago, webfact said:

Dr Wichai was principally referring to the situation in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces in the assessment. 

He went on to express surprise that the country extended beyond Bangkok and it's surrounding provinces, although he did admit to wondering occasionally where all the poor people went when their jobs had gone!

[sammieuk1]

Very pessimistic what comes after a trillion ???? 

[John Drake]

12 hours ago, milesinnz said:

meanwhile, in countries like Australia, there is concern that Chinese owners in Australia will be forced to sell up to cover their losses in China...  "speculators able to liquidate their properties".. and who will the buyers be ? - other speculators ?.. are you paid by the Chinese government ? then you have China's demographics.. where will all the new young Chinese come from who have money ?

When will other countries, particularly Western ones, realize that they are responsible for their own troubles. Their laws, their investment regulations, their immigration rules, their social engineering, their economic decisions, all have made them what they are today. Not China. China may have taken advantage of things. But whose fault was that? Now, housing bubbles across the world are going to be blamed on the Chinese? I don't know. Maybe Western and other governments should look at how China is handling Evergrande and their own property bubble. They're letting the air out slowly. Xi wants housing prices to come down. He and China needs it to come down. So does the rest of the world. And who would benefit in Thailand if property prices came down? Maybe average Thai people could own their own place? Xi is stiffing foreign creditors and paying domestic ones. Smart move. It just might work. Meanwhile, Wall Street bubbles, Bitbubble, Techbubble, housing bubble, debt bubble, all just keep on climbing. It's going to pop. And it will not be China's fault.

[tomyami]

I remember around 2011 they eased the 49/51% rule in new condo development to attract buyers only to retract it later owners thought they had foreign quotas till they tried to sell.

not a problem now because they cant sell now unless they give it away.

I know more trying to sell than buy

[overherebc]

What happens after 10 years?

Will proof that you still own the condo' be all that's needed along with proof of income etc?

[BritManToo]

On 10/11/2021 at 11:35 AM, webfact said:

But with vaccinations continuing apace and the end of lockdown this was now changing to a greater mood of confidence.

 

And it was being fuelled by the prospect of changes to rules to attract foreign buyers.

Seems unlikely.

Can't imagine any foreigner being that eager to buy in Thailand after COVID restrictions kept them out for the past two years. Buy a property then let it sit empty because Prayut and Anutin don't like 'dirty foreigners'.

Edited October 12, 2021 by BritManToo