DDproperty.com, No. 1 property portal in Thailand and a part of PropertyGuru Group, Asia’s leading online property portal group, revealed that confidence level of Thai consumers in 2016 towards property industry slightly increased from 61% in 2015 to 68% in the most recent survey, thanks to the government’s policies.
Miss Kamonpat Sawangkit, Country Manager – Thailand for DDproperty.com said, “DDproperty conducts regional consumer confidence survey online on an annual basis. This is an encouraging start for 2016 as Thai market polled reflected positive consumer sentiment looking ahead. This certainly reflects the fact that the real estate climate in Thailand is on the rod to recovery.”
Supporting factors include government stimulus packages to help boost economic and real estate growth such as supporting housing loans for low to medium income people, flexible and more relaxed mortgage lending conditions, reduced fees for registration and legal processes, which will soon end on 28 April 2016, and personal income tax deduction for first home buyers priced no more than 3 million baht.
Overall consumer confidence has increased across the five indicators that make up the survey compared to a year ago – good long term prospects for capital appreciation (48%), low mortgage or interest rates (35%), properties are not overpriced (34%), government policies are favorable (31%) and prices keep increasing (29%). Around 32% of the consumers surveyed are not yet optimistic about the real estate market, reasoning that property prices have risen a lot, and the economy is still slowing down.
Meanwhile, most consumers expect that prices for single houses, semi-detached houses and commercial properties are not too high, while condominium prices are rather high and may increase by 5-10% in the next six months (second half of 2016). However, 36% of those surveyed do not think that there will be a housing bubble coming up, and 56% say they are not sure and have no comment.
As for property ownership, 75% of those surveyed say they own at least one residential property, and only 8% of those have overseas property. Top overseas property locations include Australia (22%), Canada (17%) and the US (11%). As for property type, 79% are landed houses, 15% are condominium and serviced apartment, and 2% are commercial properties.
Tops the reason for overseas property purchase are better environment and surroundings (50%), for retirement (42%), for family (31%), children’s education (29%) and investment (23%).
However, the recently held DDproperty Show during February 11-17 at Central Plaza Ladprao, it was found that many real estate projects were able to close sale worth over 160 million baht or 56 units in total, 66% of which are under 3 million baht and ready for immediate transfer or to be transferred within this year, 29% are between 3-4 million baht, 4% between 4-5 million baht, and 2% are 5 million baht or more. This reflects that the government’s stimulus package does affect consumers’ decision in buying property.
“In macro economy, Thailand is moving forward with transportation and infrastructure improvements, especially the extension of the mass transit system that enhance Bangkok’s property market in the long run. On a global scale, the declining of global oil price, economic crisis in China causing the outflow of capital to a $1 trillion in 2015 which is the highest total since 2006, and the decreased interest rate in Europe and Japan to below zero and to a negative interest rate, help bring more investment to Thailand,” said Kamolpat.
This recent confidence survey was conducted in November-December 2015 by DDproperty.com, Thailand’s leading property portal with a 60% market share, randomly carried out amongst 1,307 Thailand-based respondents out of 3 million visitors per month via online questionnaires. The respondents include first-time buyers, upgraders, and investors age between 21-70 years, with an average income of 20,000 baht or more.
