Investors who pumped cash into prime central Bangkok property five years ago are already sitting on at least a 50 percent capital appreciation in the price of their property. Those are facts supported by data from numerous government and agency sources.
Looking forward another five years to 2020, investors and buyers of prime central Bangkok property may also benefit from a further 50 percent rise in prices according to the head of one leading Thailand real estate agency.
Aliwassa Panthnadabutr, Managing Director of CBRE Thailand, said: “It’s difficult to predict what exactly will happen because we are subject to external factors, but if you look at prime central Bangkok if we have five years of stable politics and a decent economic situation then another 50 percent rise is not impossible for prime, prime Bangkok property.”
She was speaking exclusively to DDproperty.com ahead of the opening of CBRE’s fourth Elite Living Showcase at Siam Paragon, which runs until May 31.
The event features 13 projects from throughout Thailand, many of which are under sole-agency representation from the agency.
The Luxury Living event gave rise to another question in that what exactly defines the luxury market in Bangkok, with the word used by almost every developer in every price range.
Aliwassa was clear. She said: “For us, we define super-luxury projects are having an average price of THB300,000 per sqm and higher, with individual units priced at an average of more than THB20 million.
“For luxury, the average price per sqm needs to be between THB 200,000 per sqm and THB300,000 per sqm with average unit prices of THB10 million or more.
“For high-end developments, the average price per sqm falls between THB150,000 and THB200,000 with average unit prices of THB5 million or more.”
With many new projects launched or slated for launch this year in the luxury market, is Bangkok in any danger or reaching saturation point in this part of the market?
She replied: “No, not now. There is not enough land in prime central Bangkok and that’s one factor that has been driving prices upwards. Maybe some developers will need to wait until the market is ready to absorb the prices they will have to charge for their products.”
She made that statement based on rising land prices at a time of rising construction costs.
CBRE is seeing strong demand from overseas for Bangkok luxury property, as evidenced by the 52 units at the planned Four Seasons Private Residences worth THB1.6 billion sold at one of its property exhibitions in Hong Kong earlier this month, and as revealed by DDproperty.com last week.
That record number of sales for a CBRE event in Hong Kong came as no surprise to Aliwassa.
She said:” People there are very familiar with the Four Seasons brand, and with this being the only Four Seasons waterside offering, on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, the number and value of sales wasn’t a surprise to me.”
Image: Buyers and investors at the CBRE Elite Living event launch on Friday at Siam Paragon.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
