Khao Yai’s slumping property market could start to recover soon as developers in the region predicted that demand for resort homes remains strong and new transportation routes scheduled to be built over the course of the next few years should make getting to the area easier.
Thammarat Nirandara, chief executive at Privilege Estate Co, explained to the Bangkok Post that the market will be buoyed by the new motorway from Ayutthaya’s Bang Pa-in district to Nakhon Ratchasima which will have an exit in Khao Yai.
“Khao Yai is a hillside resort location with cool weather and very close to Bangkok,” he stated. “It’s only 200 kilometers to Khao Yai, where temperatures are usually five degrees lower than in Bangkok.”
Authorities started clamping down on illegal land encroachment in Khao Yai national reserve forests in the Pak Chong district last year. This in turn negatively affected the property market. Many projects with unclear land title deeds were frozen after this happened and a few developers stopped construction completely.
Privilege Estate is confident of a market turnaround and will launch the fifth phase of its condo development at Baan Tiew Khao in May. The Bangkok Post added that 80 units are scheduled to be built and these have a total value of THB200 million. The developer hopes to close sales of the new phase by the end of 2016.
“After the government’s crackdown on forest encroachment cases, only one or two projects were launched for sale each month. Most of them were not successful, as buyers were not confident,” Thammarat told the newspaper. He also pointed out that demand for resort homes was less affected by the economic slowdown, given that 97 percent of buyers paid using cash and only three percent used bank loans.
Research from Plus Property concluded that the Asean Economic Community will draw more visitors to Khao Yai and this will help improve the property market here as well. The area’s population is still seeing consistent growth, while visitor numbers should increase by at least 10 to 15 percent year-on-year, according to Plus Property’s findings.
Image: Baan Tiew Khao project
