‘Good signs’ seen for super-prime condo

It also said Phuket’s villa market showed a tremendous increase in prices in 2015. 

Frank Khan, executive director and head of residential at Knight Frank Chartered (Thailand), said the super-prime market segment in Bangkok performed well in 2015, with 1,350 units sold.

He said that was the result of a limited supply of only 1,814 units. The sold rate was 74.4 per cent. 

This market segment is popular among Thais, Taiwanese, Singaporean-Chinese and Hong Kong Chinese, who purchased such properties for capital appreciation, he said. 

He said this year it was expected that prices of super-prime condominiums would increase at least 10 to 15 per cent. In addition, areas near the central business area with access to rapid transit systems, such as Ratchada-Rama IX, Phetchaburi, Paholyothin and Lat Phrao, would continue to be desirable for the overall condominium market.

In the future, he said it was expected that more leasehold condominiums would be launched for sale in the downtown area because most of the remaining land in downtown Bangkok was owned by the government, including the State Railway of Thailand, Chulalongkorn University, the Crown Property Bureau and the Port Authority of Thailand.

Khan projected that the condominium market in the Sukhumvit, Ratchadaphisek and Paholyothin areas would perform well in the year ahead. As for condominium projects along the mass-transit routes, a few projects stretching along the Purple Line must exercise caution as there were a large number of them. So developers should be cautious when selecting a location. 

He said projects along the Blue, Green, and Orange lines would have a good future as the existing stock was still low. Therefore, developers would have good prospects if they chose the right location and offered the right product and price. 

But he said the Ramkhamhaeng area, where the Orange Line would pass, did not have enough proper parcels of land for development. 

Khan forecast that Hua Hin’s property market this year would remain the same as in 2015, showing no significant movement with supply way over demand. 

He said Pattaya would see growth as Chinese and Russian buyers were coming back. “We will start to see some movement in Pattaya in the second quarter of 2016,” he said. 

Nattha Kahapana, executive director Knight Frank Phuket, said the island’s residential market was not looking too good as there was an supply of 11,177 units, 1,654 of which were launched in 2015. 

He said there had been cumulative sales of 7,393 condominium units from 2007 to 2015, representing a 64.89-per-cent sold rate.

He said a drop in demand had been caused by the slowdown of the world economy and the rouble depreciation, causing Russian buyers tp fade from the market. Nattha said the villa market in Phuket had also slowed, with only 176 units sold in 2015 compared with 220-250 units sold annually between 2012 and 2014. 

However, he said it was interesting that the average selling price of super-prime villas launched in 2015 had jumped up as high as US$7 million (Bt252.4 million) to $10 million (Bt360 million) per unit in contrast to units launched earlier that sold at $3 million to $5 million. 

These new super-prime villas offered sea views with four to eight bedrooms.