I’m hoping someone in the community can give me some real insight into a question I’ve never quite been able to answer. How are there so many housing developments being built around Bangkok and suburbs, and who is actually buying them? All these developments are primarily built for Thai buyers, since foreigners can’t own land. But with new houses and developments constantly going up, I’ve always wondered how developers are finding enough buyers to absorb all this supply. Looking at developers such as SC Asset, Pruksa, AP Thailand, etc, they often have a pretty clear good/better/best branding. Homes in the ฿5–7 million range, then ฿8–10 million, ฿10M+, and even ฿30M+ ultra luxury segment. The part I struggle to understand is the affordability. To comfortably qualify for and service a mortgage on a ฿5–10 million home, you’d need a fairly substantial income — well above what I’d consider a typical Thai salary. Even when looking at national income statistics, the percentage of people earning the equivalent of $90,000+ USD per year is very small (top 1%). Yet, I constantly see these developments selling, with perfectly normal Thai families living in them. Sometimes the cars outside the house even seem more expensive than the house itself which also baffles my mind. Are buyers taking on very large loans based on expected appreciation? Is there a lot of refinancing or rolling debt involved? Is there an exploit of the 100% LTV? I’ve also wondered whether there’s some element of money laundering or other sources of wealth involved, but honestly, when I see actual Thai families living in these homes, they look like completely ordinary families. I’m genuinely curious about how the economics work. Who is buying all these homes, and how are they affording them? Would love to hear from anyone in Thai real estate, banking, finance, or from Thai homeowners themselves.
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