Samui market in dire straits
Sales in Pattaya, Phuket also slow
KANANA KATHARANGSIPORN
The property market on Koh Samui is facing so many problems that some developers may dump their projects and offer them wholesale in overseas markets, while sales in Phuket and Pattaya have slowed due to capital controls and changes to the Foreign Business Act. Wasant Kongchan, deputy managing director of the property consulting firm Agency for Real Estate Affairs (AREA), said property sales and investments in the three tourist destinations slowed in the first quarter as foreign buyers were concerned about changes to Thai law.
Besides the nominee curbs and capital controls, Samui faced problems of land rights documentation and new environmental rules banning construction on land more than 150 metres above sea level.
Samui had 100 projects on sale worth around 60 billion baht, with only 10% offered in the overseas market.
''Buyers were not confident in the land rights documents,'' he said. ''Some projects may need to offer discounts of up to 100%, but they are overpriced by up to 300%.''
According to an AREA survey in March, the three areas had 175 resort properties with 9,721 units, worth 151 billion baht. Only 37% of the units had been sold.
Pattaya had 43 projects with 4,975 units, Phuket 73 projects with 2,792 units and Samui 59 projects with 1,954 units. The lowest sales were in Samui at 26%, followed by Pattaya (37%) and Phuket (47%).
But the residential market remained buoyant with 63% of units sold. There were 193 new residential projects in the three destinations with 21,284 units worth 61.58 billion baht.
AREA managing director Sopon Pornchokchai said the three locations still had strong potential but Samui faced more challenges than the others.
Phuket's average housing price was 3.52 million baht a unit, higher than 2.83 million in Bangkok, due to a lack of low-priced townhouses or condominiums.
In the first quarter of the year, the average land price in Phuket was 25 million baht per rai.