xfdws THAI-PROPERTY-MART sked Emerging Markets Datafile
September 16, 2003
NATION
THAILAND
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Thai property mart draws HK throngs, NATION
Itthi C Tan
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Hundreds of people in Hong Kong flocked to the second Phuket-Samui Property Exhibition over the weekend to check out the latest offerings on two of Thailand’s most popular resorts.
”Thirty developers have taken part in the exhibit,” said event organiser Graham Doven, who is also a developer. “They have each paid Bt190,000 per booth. That covers the cost of space, furniture and advertisements.”
Participants include Laguna Property, Lakewood Hills, Nirvana Phutri, The Plantation, Sri Panwa, Katamanda and The Breakers. Projects by JW Marriott and MBK Properties were also among the sites selling units-from Bt7 million to Bt25 million.
Thai Consul General in Hong Kong Tharit Charungvat presided over the opening at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wanchai and assured participants the Kingdom still welcomes foreign investors.
”This exhibition is important, as it is in line with the Thai policy of attracting foreign investment as well as our tourism policy to promote long-stay among visitors,” said Tharit.
Recent government investigation into land abuse in Phuket had unnerved foreign buyers, Phuket developers said. “But it hasn’t quelled their interest in buying a vacation home in Phuket,” said Stephen O’Brien, head of the Phuket office of developers Knight Frank Chartered. “The [investigations] have woken up buyers for the need to go with quality developments.”
He went on: “The primary concern among foreign buyers is the title deeds, and other legal issues. Today’s buyers also want completed products, something they can touch and feel, not just paper, as many people have been burnt before.”
He said property transactions had risen 25 per cent from a year earlier. Demand from businessmen and expatriates in Hong Kong and Singapore continues to power the resort-housing market despite Sars and the Iraq war, he said.
One buyer, Charles Dickson, 51, who is a consultant at Hogwath Financial Services, said he recently bought his second Phuket property.
”I’ve been coming to Phuket since 1979,” said the Briton. “I bought my first apartment at Laguna Resort’s Allamanda condominium project seven years ago.”
He said his family, which includes two teenaged children, enjoys going there, as their friends are also on the island. “I’m semi-retired. Eventually my wife and I plan to live there,” he said. Currently the consultant “spends 20 per cent of the year in Phuket”.
Another home buyer-who manages hedge-funds from Hong Kong-said he was planning to buy a second villa at the exhibition.
His choice, Lakewood Hills, stands on a 27-rai property overlooking Bang Tao Bay and is close to the 1,500-rai Laguna Resorts & Hotel estate.
Paul Moorhouse of Lakewood Hills said the company was constructing quality villas that offer 500 square metres of built-up space and selling them from Bt17.5 million to Bt21 million Lakewood also has nine large villas selling for from Bt28 million to Bt31 million. Seven of these units have been sold, he said.
Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, executive director of CB Richard Ellis, represented the Sri Panwa project at the exhibit. She said the “unique” estate lies at the southernmost tip of Cape Panwa. “We have 12 villas on the estate, which covers 52 rai,” she said. “The villas are selling for Bt12 million each.”
Larry Cunningham from Phuket One Real Estate said there has been a marked shift in the Phuket market this year.
”The top end, which is the US$1-million [Bt40-million] market, has collapsed,” he said. A fall-out in global stock prices, Sars and the Iraq conflict all have contributed to putting a dent in this top-most end, he said.
But the middle market is still holding up. The resale market has also picked up, said Cunningham, whose agency has homes in the secondary market selling for Bt3.5 million.
m around the world because of its reputation. Dulwich offers boarding facilities, he said, and a third of the student body are boarders.
Cook said that “quite a number of parents” of Dulwich students were keen to invest in homes in Phuket.
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