Managing director Suphin Mechuchep said that before the end of last year, the company had been quite positive about the prospects for the Bangkok property market and expected it to continue to perform well this year.

However, Thailand has experienced a number of events since mid-December, including the Bank of Thailand's currency-control policy, the Bangkok bombings and the Cabinet's approval of draft amendments to the Foreign Business Act. She said all of these have negatively affected sentiment for the economy and Bangkok's property market, despite strong market fundamentals.

As a result, prospects for the market this year have been "weakened to some degree", but provided there are no more major surprises, demand in most property sectors is likely to remain stable, because fundamentals in the Bangkok property market remain strong.

Suphin said many property sales and leasing transactions planned for the first half of the year might now be postponed to the second half, with buyers and tenants waiting to see what happens next.

In the office sector, for example, market fundamentals indicate that although rents are expected to continue to rise, the pace of the increase is likely to be slower than in previous years and will be driven by new supply coming on stream over the next year or two. She said if Thailand's "situation of uncertainty" were ended soon, then strong rental growth would be more likely.