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Published on October 25, 2007

The firm's survey found that their investment in mutual funds increased two percentage points to 12 per cent this year. The affluent have moved away from traditional investment products such as stocks, securities, bonds as well as foreign currencies, all of which declined slightly this year.

"Perhaps with diversification in mind, affluent Thais also ventured into offshore accounts for investment purposes, which increased this year from 1.4 per cent to 2.4 per cent while income protection through life insurance remained unchanged at 57 per cent," Steven Britton, managing director of Synovate Thailand, said yesterday.

The affluent are also thinking about more secure and long-term investments, he said.

The results were measured year-on-year from 1,759 respondents across financial categories consisting of unit trust and mutual funds, priority banking accounts, ownership of private properties for residency as well as for investment, life insurance and offshore accounts for investment purposes.

"The notion of having a roof over one's head still rides high on the list of priorities of affluent Thais. In fact, the percentage of home ownership remained unchanged this year and last year at a continuous high of 47 per cent, while residential and commercial property investments increased by two percentage points from 16 per cent to 18 per cent," he said.

The opening of priority or privilege banking accounts this year also increased by 2 percentage points from 0.8 per cent to 2.7 per cent, showing that the affluent were demanding better service when it came to banking.

 The Nation