By Romesh Navaratnarajah and Andrew Batt:
The prices of single detached homes in Thailand fell 3.59 percent in the year ending Q2 2012, as residential markets across Southeast Asia start to feel the impact of the global economic slowdown.
These are the findings of research conducted by consumer portal Global Property Guide, citing data from the Bank of Thailand. Last year the publisher reported a 12.2 percent rise in prices of the same property asset class.
The latest report noted that Singapore’s housing prices also dipped 3.28 percent year-on-year in Q2 2012, and by 0.77 percent during the latest quarter, following a 5.27 percent increase over the same period in 2011.
“The turnaround [in Singapore] was due to government housing market curbs, exacerbated by the worldwide economic downturn,” it noted.
Indonesia’s residential property price index dropped 0.78 percent year-on-year in Q2, while Taiwan’s home prices dipped 0.74 percent year-on-year during the period from an 11.87 percent rise last year.
In contrast Hong Kong witnessed a 3.01 percent year-on-year uptick in housing prices in Q2, but this was a sharp decline from the 20.64 percent annual increase recorded for the previous year.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, said: "This price drop relates to one part of the Thai real estate market, and one that accounts for a small percentage of overall transactions. Whether these declines will be translated to the market as a whole remains to be seen."
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