Thailand Condominium Market Facing Glut With More Than 450,000 Units Unsold

• 17 May 2019
• Property Focus
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Thailand’s condominium market is seeing a glut with more than 450,000 units going unsold across the country in 2018, according to business media outlet Bloomberg.

On 16 May 2019, Bloomberg reported that around 65,000 new apartments were added to Bangkok alone in 2018 while 454,814 residential units across Thailand went unsold in the same period with a value worth around US$41 billion.

“The overall condominium market will be slower this year but there are still opportunities in some locations with the right product at the right price,” Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, a managing director of Thailand CBRE Group Inc. was quoted as saying.

This market slowdown came after the government imposed stricter mortgage-lending rules for second-home buyers which was implemented in April. The move aimed to improve credit standards while also preventing speculative activities.

The impact also came as Thailand is heavily reliant on foreigner buyers, mostly from China.

“Most of the recent foreign buyers are investors and CBRE doubts they will live in the units they have bought. Foreign sales are highly sensitive to economic conditions of the buyer’s home country,” the source quoted the CBRE real estate report 2019 as saying.

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