Firms say now is best time to buy realty

Foreigners are looking at a luxurious condominium project in Bangkok at “Emporium Lifestyle Home and Residences II’ at the first floor of Fashion Hall last week. This event run now till September 2, 2008.

After being stagnant in the first half, the Thai property sector has witnessed substantial growth in the third quarter of the year, particularly in the luxurycondomini¬um and housingestate segments.

He is the managing director of NC Housing and his company has recent¬ly developed the 10th phase of Baan Fah Piyarom, Premier Park, in Lam Luk Ka, Pathum Thani, comprising 390 housing units. It has also com¬pleted the second phase of the Thanyathanee Home on Green proj¬ect at Thanyathanee Golf club, also in Pathum Thani.

"We have seen the highest impact on medium to lowend projects because they target salaried workers as their core segment, whose pur¬chasing power has been reduced because of soaring oil prices and high inflation," he said.

Many customers, who wanted to buy a house or a condominium, decid¬ed to buy this year on the expecta¬tion that prices would rise in the next couple of years.

"Commercial banks will reduce their deposit insurance to Bt1 million [per account] in the next five years in compliance with the new Deposit Protection Act and many people who earn interest from bank accounts have sought alternative investment oppor¬tunities, such as investing in proper¬ty, which gives higher returns," he said.

KPN Lifestyle chief executive Korn Narongdej said the current econom¬ic conditions had affected many property companies, who have con¬sequently recorded slower sales. Despite that, the performance of con¬dominiums and housing projects was not as poor as seen in other segments.

"As I see it, a house is one of the four necessities for human life. And real estate is an interesting invest¬ment alternative because asset val¬ues are bound to rise significantly in the future," Korn said.

Keppel Thai Properties marketing head Lau Gek Chuan expects this year to be a good one for highend prop¬erty projects in Thailand.

"A lot of things have stabilised. Thailand exports a lot of rice and commodities, and the country's econ¬omy is growing well and should get even stronger. This is a good time to buy property," Chuan said.

Many property projects that had been built a year ago are still reason¬ably priced because developers incurred lower costs then, he said. However, things will become more expensive next year.

Keppel Thai Properties has devel¬oped two housing projects in Bangkok - the Villa Arcadia Srinakarin and Villa Arcadia Watcharapol, which cover 357 and 40 housing units, respectively.