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PussyLover 69
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Report from Bangkok Post dated Thursday 11 January 2007 :-
Property investments to slow down
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Property investment from overseas will definitely slow down and move to other countries as foreign investors fear more changes in Thai regulations may damage their investments, according to property consultants and experts.
Phanom Kanjanathiemthao, managing director of the property consulting firm Knight Frank Chartered (Thailand), said the amendments to the Foreign Business Act (FBA) would particularly affect the psychology of foreign investors.
''The issue of the use of voting rights will impede fundraising,'' he said yesterday. ''The government should estimate risks and benefits before announcing FBA amendments, otherwise it will create the same impact as what happened with the capital control measure.''
Any company that might be affected by the amendments must quickly make its business legal, he added.
''If their business is lawful, there is nothing to fear. If their business has a risk from the amendments, they might draw the investment back.''
Most hurt by the new rules will be companies selling villas to foreign buyers, as any foreigner now needs to buy a unit with a company set up with at least a 51% Thai shareholding. To comply with the amendments, companies need to change from freehold to leasehold contracts.
''If we open up for all, it will benefit investment in the country, but it will put Thais at a disadvantage as we have less capital,'' said Mr Phanom.
Longlom Bunnag, chairman of the property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle, said the villa-for-sale market in resort destinations including Phuket and Koh Samui would suffer from the amendments. Foreigners owning houses will have to change to leases.
The amendments would affect the hotel businesses, as it was on the FBA's List 3. New investment or establishment of new hotels would have to comply with the new requirement.
''The solution for nominee firms might be to create their own minority protection scheme, even though that is not as flexible as the majority's rights,'' said Mr Longlom.
While investment would slow down and shift to rival nations including Vietnam, China and Cambodia, Thailand would benefit through more serious joint ventures.
Nigel Cornick, chief executive officer of Raimon Land Plc, said the amendments would not have an impact on his company as it had to comply with the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
''They will surely have an impact on future investment in Thailand from overseas investors. It will be slowed down. And now they've affected sentiment as we've seen the aftermath in the stock market,'' he said.
He added that big problems were in store for foreigners owning or buying houses. If the act takes effect, they would have to switch to leasehold property.
Mr Cornick added that some property laws should be relaxed for foreign buyers, including an extension from 49% to 70% for foreigners holding units in a condominium, and an extension of more than 30 years for leasehold contracts.
Property expert Manop Bongsadadt said the amendments would benefit Thailand, as they would obstruct short-term investment and hedge funds that speculate on the stock market and the baht.
''We remain open for overseas investments,'' he said. ''The amendments in the FBA will [filter out hot money and encourage] only medium- and long-term investors.''
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:59 pm on Jan. 10, 2007
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PussyLover 69
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Report from Bangkok Post dated Tuesday 16 January 2007 :-
Leasehold-right extension to 90 years urged for foreigners
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The government should extend the leasehold right for foreign buyers of properties in Thailand to 90 years, in conjunction with the proposal to restrict nominee-structured companies from owning landed properties under the Foreign Business Act, according to the international real estate agency CB Richard Ellis (CBRE).
The agency also hopes to see the government increase the ratio of foreign buyers in condominiums to 75% from 49%, said CBRE managing director Aliwassa Pathnadabutr.
She viewed that some properties, especially in tourist destinations such as Phuket, were targeted specifically at foreign buyers and had never attracted significant local demand.
"If the government did move to extend leases to foreigners to 90 years, this would be an obvious route for such villa owners to convert to leasehold," Ms Aliwassa said.
Aliwassa: Steady income contributed
Current rules allow for a 30-year lease with one 30-year extension, or a maximum of 60 years.
Foreigners buying such properties contribute income not just on the purchases, but continuously over the life of the properties through the purchases of local services, she said.
CBRE suggested that current owners of houses or villas with nominee structures should monitor the FBA proposals and seek expert legal advice on how to comply with any changes. The proposals allow a period of one year to amend or change a company's status.
The company also advised existing foreign owners and prospective buyers of Thai real estate not to panic or abandon their interest in purchases. Instead, they should focus on the foreign condominium quota and leasehold properties developed by well-known and established companies.
The agency believes that there is strong overseas demand for luxury real estate, both condominiums in Bangkok and resort properties in the price range of 12.5 million baht and above, as well as the mid-range market with prices of 3.6 million baht and above for holiday and retirement homes in destinations such as Pattaya, Hua Hin and Phuket.
Despite recent events, there is still sustained foreign interest in Thai real estate, as reflected by sale bookings on multi-million-dollar leasehold villas in Phuket.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 9:09 pm on Jan. 15, 2007
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PussyLover 69
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Report from The Nation dated Wednes 28 March 2007 :-
Middle to upper condos face oversupply this year
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The middle-to-upper condominium market has shown a trend of oversupply due to a predicted low growth in demand this year and throughout next year, according to a research report by Raimon Land's Condominium Focus Thailand yesterday.
CEO Nigel J Cornick said that 5,037 condominium units in Bangkok worth over Bt37.4 billion were unsold at the end of last year. The statistics pertained to condominium projects priced up to Bt2 million per unit.
Inner-city Bangkok includes the Sathorn, Sukhumvit, Central Lumpini, Silom, Riverside, Rama III and Phya Thai areas.
Sukhumvit is the main location for unsold condominium projects worth Bt13.3 billion or 35 per cent of total unsold stock worth Bt37.4 billion, followed by Silom/Sathorn worth Bt8.7 billion, Riverside (Bt6.9 billion), Central Lumpini (Bt5.6 billion) and Bt1.5 billion for the Phya Thai and Rama III areas.
Cornick said that if demand shows slight growth lower than supply - both, the existing supply of 5,037 units, and the new projects launched with construction completed of 5,460 units this year, 8,333 units in 2008 and 2,553 units in 2009 - the market for middle to upper condominiums will be at risk of oversupply this year and next year.
Meanwhile, resort condominiums at tourist destinations Pattaya, Koh Samui, Hun Hin and Phuket also risk facing oversupply in some locations.
According to the research, as of last December, unsold projects at the four tourist destination areas were recorded at 2,466 units, worth Bt29 billion.
Despite the business risks, Raimon Land is continuing three new condo projects worth Bt18.5 billion this year. The three projects are The River on the Chao Phya worth Bt10 billion, 185 Rajadamri worth Bt6 billion and Amanpuri in Phuket worth Bt2.5 billion.
The company will also invest Bt2 billion to buy land for developing new property projects next year. Half of its investment budget will come from the company's cash flow and the rest will be borrowed from banks.
"We believe that our new projects in prime locations will meet both foreign and domestic customer demand and will succeed after launching in the market this year," he said.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:23 pm on Mar. 27, 2007
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PussyLover 69
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Report from Bangkok Post dated Sunday 27 May 2007 :-
Property market goes into decline
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With consumers feeling gloomy over the outlook of post-coup Thailand, the kingdom's nearly six-billion-dollar housing market has shrunk for the first time since 2000, industry experts say.
"People are delaying buying property due to a lack of confidence in the economy and politics," said Atip Bijanonda, president of the Thai Condominium Association.
Sales in the residential property market, worth 200 billion baht ($5.8 billion), dropped by 10 billion baht in the four months to April this year, marking the first decline since 2000, the association said.
The figure has rattled the industry, which saw demand nosediving during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Atip said he expected more bad news with Thai consumer confidence stuck at a five-year low.
"The market may have negative growth this year," he said.
To shore up housing demand, the military-installed government, which came to power after a coup in September 2006, is expected to launch measures aimed at reviving the property sector, including tax cuts.
Pimonwan Mahujchariyavong, a property analyst at Kasikorn Research Center, said consumers were putting off buying property as they awaited a further cut in the key interest rate.
"Consumers are expecting gains from falling interest rates and they are waiting for the rate to go down further," Pimonwan said.
The Bank of Thailand slashed its key interest rate by a half-point to 3.5 percent last week in a bid to spur sluggish consumer spending and the slowing economy.
It was the fourth rate cut this year but business leaders called on the central bank to lower the rate more aggressively in an effort to stimulate the economy, which is seen rising 3.8-4.8 percent this year.
If growth was just 3.8 percent in 2007, it would mark the lowest increase since 2001, when Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.2 percent.
With flagging finances and political uncertainty under the military government, the number of new housing projects has fallen as some 90,000 houses and condos remain unsold in the market, said Pimonwan.
"The property market has slumped significantly since the beginning of this year because of shrinking confidence in the economy among developers as well as consumers," she said.
Longlom Bunnag, chairman of real estate management firm Jones Lang LaSalle Thailand, agreed.
"The slow growth of demand that the market is experiencing now is largely due to a lack of consumer and investor confidence rather than a decline in spending power," he said in a statement.
But Longlom said anticipated elections will likely see sales pick up later this year.
"We expect demand to recover in late 2007 or early 2008, once the political uncertainty is clear following the new election scheduled for December this year," he said.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 8:00 am on May 27, 2007
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Mel Gibson
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A lot of people are waiting for the next election,,,a lot of foreign investors are waiting to see if some form of sense can be added to the foreign investment rulings.
The worse the situation gets the more likely the rules regarding foriegn investment are likely to be relaxed back to the "norm" before the tanks rolled down the streets.
time for thailand to grow up and stop pretending to be a little frightened boy in a big wide world.
Mel
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 10:38 am on May 27, 2007
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PussyLover 69
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Report from Bangkok Post dated Thursday 25 October 2007 :-
Is real estate in Bangkok cheap?
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International investors are still very interested in the Bangkok property market as real estate is cheap compared to other Asian cities of a similar size.
But are they making the right comparisons? Bangkok is very different than some of the more expensive cities in Asia. Let's look at Hong Kong or Singapore, as they are often the cities that are compared to Bangkok. First, both Hong Kong and Singapore have obvious land constraints. The whole country of Singapore is about the size of Bangkok, and Singaporeans literally can't keep building because they don't have the land - unless they find a way to build on water.
Bangkok, on the other hand, does have the land. The south of Bangkok is sea-locked but east, west and north are all open for the taking. The north of Bangkok is already quite developed, partially as a result of the old international airport at Don Muang. But east and west of the city are large open green areas waiting to be developed.
Second, the average salary per capita is higher in Singapore and Hong Kong than Bangkok. People in Hong Kong earn more. Everything is determined by supply and demand, and if you get paid more in Hong Kong then you'll probably be willing to spend more.
Would people ever be willing to pay the same price for real estate in Bangkok as Hong Kong if salaries were five times less here? Is this situation likely to change? On a similar note, I would imagine that it is easier to employ cheaper labour in Bangkok and thus keep building costs to a minimum.
Let's look at some figures for 2006. The average price per square metre of a 120 sq m apartment in Hong Kong was approximately US$12,599 compared to US$11,800 in Singapore and $2,819 in Thailand. Taking Hong Kong as an example, apartment prices were 4.47 times higher in Hong Kong than Thailand.
Now let's compare GDP per capita for the same period. In Hong Kong, the GDP per capita was about US$26,824 per person, compared to $30,161 in Singapore and $2,959 in Thailand. In this case, GDP per person is more than nine times more in Hong Kong than Thailand.
Is Bangkok a more desirable place to live? This really depends on your own point of view. Some people might like cheap McDonald's, restaurants, taxis and other attractions. Others might put more emphasis on litter-free streets, pavements you can walk on, less traffic pollution and no street dogs. This is inconclusive.
We could turn to the surveys. According to the UN Human Development Report of 2006, which bases its findings on life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living, Hong Kong came in at number 22 (with a total score of 0.927), Singapore came in at number 25 (with 0.916) and Thailand came in at number 74 (with 0.784) - just in front of Samoa and Saudi Arabia.
Of course, this takes into account the population and country as a whole. If we take the two parameters of literacy and education, we find a number of good quality international schools in Thailand. If you factor in the cost of private schooling and general cost of living in Thailand, you may still find it more cost advantageous to live in Thailand.
In any event, I rarely hear people comparing the price of real estate in Bangkok with that in Manila, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City or Jakarta. Is there really that much difference? Is Bangkok really that much more similar to Hong Kong and Singapore? Are we comparing wines of the same vintage or is the price of real estate in Bangkok as it should be?
Neil Simmons is a director of Ideal Homes Real Estate Co Ltd, http://www.property-bangkok.com. He can be reached at 0-2714-3832-3.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 7:55 pm on Oct. 24, 2007
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chilli
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so did anybody buy a condo or town house in bkk recently?
I'm seriously considering doing it soon - not as investment - well maybe - but more as an alternative place to place sone hard earned money as opposed to investing in unit trusts etc. Plus then I get a place to live of my own 
So I plan to 'go thai' & buy a new unit directly from the developer, so no real need to use an agent right or how about the legal contract do I really need legal advice???
Wanting to hear from people how they did & whether they felt it was a good way or not. the pitfalls, joys it all 
Thanks you guys & see you soon in my coming new home country!
Cheers!
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:16 am on Oct. 26, 2007
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Packripper
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I purchase about 1-2 pieces of property per year, usually lower priced under 5 million Baht type homes, buildings, or small land plots well away from the BKK city center, but I also have Thai citizenship and I already also have a number of offshore interest income sources to balance out the somewhat higher risk real estate side of my portfolio. Worth the risk for me in my opinion, because the locals, not including the Thai Chinese ruling class have a very near sighted approach to real estate investment, often similar to many people in the west actually; which gives a lot of room for upside to land type investments. Just a few decades ago, places like Din Daeng, Lad Prao, and so forth were considered way out in the middle of nowhere and 'not a good buy.'
I wouldn't recommend it for foreigners unless they happen to trust their local wife or husband, because you never know when they are going to change the rules on you, not to mention that the failure rate for local + foreigner marriages seems to be unusually high.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:56 pm on Oct. 29, 2007
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ThaidUp
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PR living here I do not see a good second hand market for resale. Definitely a good buy if you want to own something for yourself. Also, the taxes on resale seem bizzare with no capital gains consideration, you seemed to be taxed at what ever value the assesor places on the property and tax at the normal income rates that are witheld at the time of sale. It does not take into consideration either what you paid forit, what you put in to it or what you sold it at.
What are you experiences in that regard?
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 6:41 pm on Oct. 29, 2007
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Packripper
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In regards to resale, it depends on your time horizon and financial situation. If you're buying to flip within a year, or even sell within a few years, I don't think you'll realize much in terms of profit. If you're under mortgage, it's probably not a good idea either.
For sales and transfer taxes, again, I find the assessed value generally way lower than the sale value, certainly more so than in developed countries where you are taxed more accurate, which is often not a good thing obviously. The holding cost for those looking for long term capital gains and/or rental income along the way is also very low say when compared to public school/property taxes for properties of equal value in the west. Also, there is no inheritance taxation here either.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:07 pm on Oct. 29, 2007
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