The real estate market could pick up 5-10 per cent if the recovery momentum extends into next year, property experts said yesterday.
Thongma Vijitpongpun, president and CEO of Preuksa Real Estate, said the residential market has become more dynamic since the third quarter of this year because of the improvement in the overall economy and shift towards political stability.
New housing registrations in greater Bangkok were estimated to drop by 4 per cent to 70,000 units this year from 73,000 last year, he said at the release of the Real Estate Information Centre’s “Property Market Outlook and Survey”.
Kessara Thanyalakpark, director of Sena Development, said demand for homes priced Bt1 million-Bt3 million has continued to grow.
This was true for both condominiums and low-rises, such as townhouses, duplexes and single-family homes.
According to a survey by the National Statistical Office early this year, 90 per cent of people in Bangkok earn less than Bt50,000, which means that the upper limit to what they can afford is a Bt3 million unit, she said.
From now till the first half of next year is a good time to buy a place because prices and mortgage interest rates have not moved up, following the government’s policy to spend the budget through its stimulate package, she added.
Opas Sripayak, managing director of LPN Development, said that after the company sold out its two new condo projects worth Bt4 billion at Pinklao and Chokchai 4 last week, it believes that demand for units priced Bt1 million-Bt3 million has continued to grow.
“Location and price have continued to be the main decision-making factors for homebuyers,” he said.
Siriroj Chaopaknum, deputy director-general of the National Housing Authority, which manages the Ban Uathorn project, said demand for low-income residential projects has continued to grow.
The housing agency has succeeded in selling 220,000 units after launching this project five years ago. About 120,000 units have already been transferred to homebuyers and the rest will be delivered to customers over the next two years, she said.
This project was downsized from 300,500 units to 281,556 units when it faced an investigation from the National-Anti Corruption Commission.
Teerachon Manomaiphibul, deputy governor of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), said that after the BMA launched the Ban Yim (Smiling Home) project early this year, it got positive feedback from BMA staff.
Nearly 10,000 units have found owners, which means that demand for homes priced between Bt1 million and Bt1.5 million would continue to grow if the government offers the best solution that makes it easy to buy them, he said.
Samma Kitsin, director-general of the REIC, said housing stock in greater Bangkok has built up to 107,500 units worth Bt333 billion. That would need from one to one-and-a-half years to work off.
However, demand for homes going for Bt1 million-Bt3 million would continue to grow, he said. The second half of this year will see 8,704 housing units added to new inventory.
Nonthaburi is the most popular location for new project launches in the second half of this year, followed by the Suvarnabhumi Airport area and Bangkhen-Saimai, he added.
Somluck
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