Bangkok – The city

The city of Bangkok (The capital of Thailand) lies in the heart of the country. It serves not only as Thailand’s capital it is also Thailand’s largest city. Bangkok is a hit among foreigners for its booming tourism industry. There is an array of famous and interesting destinations for example Chitralada, Royal Grand Palace, Erawan Shrine, Wat Pho, the Reclining Buddha, the Bangkok National Museum, the Bangkok University Art Gallery and many more. In Thailand Bangkok is indeed the place to be.

Bangkok condo rental

For those planning to stay for quite a while, Bangkok condominiums (or condos) are readily available. In addition the Condos for sale and for rent can be a good investment for the university student, the young professional, the bachelor, or event the foreigner who’s planning a long term visit.

Living in a condo in Bangkok

Living in a condominium in Bangkok has its benefits. For one, it is relatively affordable, upkeep is generally cheap and, safety is also somewhat guaranteed by the building security team prevalent in most condo projects.

Condo communities

A condo owner can become part of an exclusive community of fellow owner with most condo developments having spas, gyms, saunas, swimming pools and last but not least a library.

Condo investments

A lot of foreigners invest in condo units because it is the only form of asset a foreigner can claim legal possession of. Buying or renting a condo unit in Bangkok is also assisted as there are a myriad of resources in the form of real estate consultants and property agents there to assist in making the process less tiresome. Nowadays, buying or leasing a condo unit has become really expedient.

Condo listings

If you are particularly interested in condo living in Bangkok but you’re still in another country, you can easily check the listings over the internet. The listings of rental properties in Bangkok are usually and mostly located in the most pleasing districts for residential areas. So you can be assured that even if you don’t get to accomplish a viewing at least you know, the condo unit is situated favorably.

The events in Bangkok in May 2010 have raised concerns about the recovery we were seeing in many sectors of the Thai property market in the first quarter of 2010.

However, it will take months to see what the effect will be on sales and letting volumes, prices and rents. We do not believe there will be a sudden a dramatic downward movement in prices or rents.

The total supply of expatriate standard apartments in downtown Bangkok increased 2.3% year on year. Occupancy was 88.2%. Rents rose in some locations such as Central Lumpini but fell in other locations.

Despite the increase in the Bangkok hotel supply, Bangkok occupancy rates and REVPAR increased but the Average daily rate decreased in quarter 1. International Tourist Arrivals increased by 27.1% on Q1 2010. Obviously Q2 numbers will be very poor and it remains to be seen how long it will take for business and tourist arrivals to recover.
The majority of new condominium launches in the first quarter were mainly small one bedroom units.

The office market remained weak. There was no increase in supply. Take up grew by 17,481 square metres. Grade A CBD rents fell by 3.8% year on year.

Retail Occupancy increased to 93.4%. Rents remained at similar levels. A number of shopping centres were closed in Central Bangkok for much of April and May.

882 Rai (349 acres) of SILPs were sold on industrial parks and estates in Q1 2010. This was an increase 891% y-o-y.

There was 175% increase in townhouse completions on quarter on quarter but developer built single detatched house completions fell by 74% quarter on quarter.

Condominium

The existing supply in downtown Bangkok reached 67,176 units, up from 65,067 units in Q1 2010. This was an increase of 3.2% Q-o-Q and 15.8% Y-o-Y. There were 2,109 units completed in this quarter. Another 5,220 units are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010 which will raise the total downtown condominium stock significantly to 72,396 units, or by 11.3 % Y-o-Y.

In Q1 2010, the average asking price for an off-plan freehold condominium unit (high-end and above) in downtown Bangkok was 156,460 THB/m2 an increase of 19.2% Q-o-Q or 3.0 Y-o-Y.
The total number of units occupied by owners or tenants decreased from 74.2 in Q4 2009 to 74.0% in this quarter.