Bangkok developers trim prices of condos

LUXURY condos in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit area have slashed prices to attract buyers, while demand for condos as a second home has been rising.

Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, managing director at CBRE Thailand, the local affiliate of US commercial real estate services and investment firm CBRE Group Inc, said the property market in the second quarter of this year is showed positive signs after the government eased lockdown measures imposed during the height of the Covid-19 outbreak.

She said: “Demand is starting to climb while developers are launching promotional campaigns to attract buyers to sell their stock of finished condo projects and regain cash flow to compensate the contraction during the outbreak.

“CBRE statistics also show that the number of potential buyers visiting projects’ mock-up units in July is higher than that of the same period last year.

“This year, the condo market has fewer supplies in the luxury section while most new projects have been focusing on units lower than three million baht [$95,000] or less than 150,000 baht per sqm to suit the purchasing power of people during economic contraction.

“As a result, developers of luxury condos, especially in the Sukhumvit area which has around 4,000 unsold units, are slashing their price by five to 40 per cent so that they could close the project as soon as possible.”

CBRE also found out that last year, 61 per cent of buyers bought condos for residential purposes, 34 per cent bought for investment and five per cent bought as a second home.

But in the first half of this year, the number of people buying condos as a second home rose to 25 per cent while those buying for investment went down to 16 per cent, and 59 per cent bought for residential purposes.

Aliwassa said: “This is because the current economic status is not suitable for reselling so fewer people are choosing to invest in condos, while those who already have a house are looking for condos located in city areas for convenience in commuting.”

Meanwhile, Major Development Pcl managing director Suriya Poolvoralaks said the company’s Munich Sukhumvit 23 luxury condo project is now 70 per cent sold with one-fourth of the buyers foreigners, mostly from Hong Kong.

He said: “The Covid-19 situation has prevented potential foreign customers from coming in so we launched a promotional campaign offering discount of 30,000 to 80,000 baht per sqm to attract domestic customers.

“We expect that the move will help drive the sale of the project to 80 to 90 per cent.” THE NATION (THAILAND)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK