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Commercial property sales in the Asia Pacific region dropped 62 per cent in the third quarter as the lending crisis spread, Real Capital Analytics said.

Sales declined to US$20.9 billion (Bt719 billion) in the three months ended last month from $55.5 billion a year earlier, Dan Fasulo, head of research for the New Yorkbased company said. Worldwide, property sales dropped 59 per cent to $119.8 billion from $292.8 billion.

Sales in the Thai property market for the third quarter have slipped 6 per cent compared to the same peri¬od last year, research by Agency For Real Estate Affair (AREA) showed.

Thailand's property projects launched in the first nine months of the year had a combined value of Bt145.96 billion of which 90 per cent were residential projects, the research said.

AREA president Sopon Pornchokchai said Thailand's prop¬erty market is expected to drop between 5 to 10 per cent by the end of the year, following a drop in homebuyers' confidence after facing twin crisis including the domestic politi¬cal turmoil and USled global econ¬omy crisis.

The slide in Asia followed a rela¬tively strong first half in which banks including Resona Holdings, Shinsei Bank and Citigroup sold their Tokyo headquarters to raise capital. Investors had flocked to Asia hoping the region might be immune to the credit crunch, Real Capital said.

"Little by little, the whole world became infected by this credit crunch," Fasulo said. "When lending dried up, it dried up worldwide. We're all togeth¬er now, for better or for worse."

During the first eight months of the year, global sales of offices, hotels, shopping malls and other commercial properties fell 57 per cent to $388 bil¬lion, Real Capital said in its Global Capital Trends report for September and October. The United States tum¬bled 77 per cent to $106 billion, the UK declined 55 per cent to $38 bil¬lion while Western Europe dropped 50 per cent to $89 billion.

The credit crunch may prompt buyers to seek partners as deals require more equity, Real Capital said.

Currently, about 20 per cent of property transactions worldwide are made by two or more equity partners, Real Capital said.Year to date through August, AsiaPacific property sales fell just 18 per cent to $113 billion. Some of the recent declines in China were due to new regulations aimed at curbing speculation and land hoard¬ing, Real Capital said.