ABOUT CBRE CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (in terms of 2012 revenue). The Company has approximately 37,000 employees (excluding affiliates) and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE established an office in Bangkok in 1988, followed by its Phuket office in 2004. CBRE Thailand has grown to be a leading real estate services provider, offering strategic advice and execution for sales and leasing for all types of property, facilities and tenancy management, valuation and advisory, and research and consulting. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.cbre.co.th.
Bangkok mid-town and suburban areas will see a dramatic increase in supply, this has been driven by Thai end users, usually singles and couples but also speculative buyers. The slower economy, rising levels of consumer debt and a more cautious approach to mortgage lending by banks means that CBRE expects that this sector will slow in 2014 and 2015, until the recently completed projects are occupied by end users. Thailand has always been a resilient market, in the main due to the spending power of the Thai people, meaning that they are not dependent on overseas purchasers to buoy their property market, which served the country well in past crises including the global financial crisis and domestic events such as the civil unrest in 2010 and floods in 2011. Bangkok in particular is a good example of this, as 80 per cent of the market is comprised of Thai buyers. In the resort market, both domestic and Russian sales will continue to be strong, particularly as Russian buyers appear to be more robust than other nationalities about issues that concern other foreign buyers, such as civil unrest. Phuket will continue its trend towards mass market sales, similar to Hua Hin and Pattaya, where people focus on unit type, price and size. Volume might drop a little across the prime Bangkok market due to political turmoil, but prices are unlikely to fall. The recent decline in value of the Thai baht against both the US dollar and British pound has made the market more attractive to some foreign purchasers.
All prices have been converted from local currencies and are correct at the time of print
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