Political unrest weighs down on investments.

A number of residential projects, worth more than Bt10 billion, in Bangkok and resortdesti nations including Phuket, Krabi, Hua Hin, Pattaya and Koh Samui, saw delays in sales or construction as demand from foreign investors dropped in the past month after the global economy slumped.

"Starting with the subprime crisis in the US, demand for luxuryresiden¬tial projects, priced between Bt25 million and Bt50 million, has dropped significantly in inner Bangkok and resort destinations," Colliers International Thailand research head Risinee Sarikaputra said.

Given this market trend, a number of property developers who had planned to launch new residential projects in the last quarter of the year or early next year, have decided to delay launches, together worth more than Bt10 billion, from the last quar¬ter of the year to the next year.

However, Risinee said, the compa¬ny's customers, who are from India and the Middle East, have continued to develop their residential and hos¬pitality business.

They include property funds from Pakistan and Bangladesh, and India's Taj Exotic Group, which plans to invest about Bt50 billion in residen¬tial and hospitality projects in Phuket between next year and 2010.

The global economic crisis has started to affect the Thai property market as buyers from the US, Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore suspend investments overseas. As a result, Thai residential projects' sales especially luxury condominiums, which focus on foreign buyers, dropped significantly last month, he said.

Nexus Property Consultants man¬aging director Apisit Limlomwongse said the company's sales from August to last month dropped 5 per cent to 10 per cent as compared to the same peri¬od last year.

"The US financial crisis has not affected Thailand's property market as much as the country's political uncer¬tainty has. This has directly impacted local as well as foreign buyers who plan to buy property in Thailand," he said.

Residential projects in resort des¬tinations such as Phuket, Hua Hin, Koh Samui and Pattaya are seeing a negative impact from Thailand's polit¬ical turmoil and most homebuyers - Thais as well as foreigners - are delay¬ing their decision to expand their investment after People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) seized the Government House in August.

"Most of our buyers have suspend¬ed investment after this event and are concerned about Thailand's political situation," he said.

Meanwhile, some prices for resi¬dential projects in Bangkok located close to the masstransit system will stay stable, he said.

Harrison vice president Kitisak Jampathippong said one of the com¬pany's customers from Malaysia sus¬pended an investment, worth Bt5 bil¬lion, that they were going to make in the hotel business in Bangkok after witnessing PAD's seizure of the Government House and the protests at Phuket International Airport.

"Most homebuyers from Europe, including Scandinavia, who remained unmoved by the US financial crisis, have raised concerns about Thailand's political turmoil and that has prompt¬ed them to delay their investment," Kitisak said.