Thailand’s property market will keep growing as land and residential prices soar, just as office rents have risen consistently over the past three decades despite two major economic crises in 1997 and 2008, according to property consultancy CBRE Thailand.
“Each cycle took 10 years, but the second one in 2008 was not caused by Thailand,” said Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, managing director of CBRE Thailand. “The property market today is in the third cycle and still on the rise. We see no risk factors at the moment for the next dip.”
The highest jump in land price per square wah (43 sq ft) was 190,000 baht (US$5,804) in 1988 for a plot on Sukhumvit Soi 19. Last year a plot on Lang Suan Road was sold for to 3.1 million baht per sq wah.
The average condo price has jumped from 35,000-38,000 baht per sq metre in 1991, when Thailand’s first luxury condo (Somkid Gardens in the Chidlom area) to 400,000 baht per sq m currently in the Phrom Phong-Thong Lor area.
Aliwassa said the peak year for condos in the first cycle was in 1993, when residential units at All Seasons Place for 65,000-88,000 baht per sq m, more than double the price at Somkid Gardens in 1991.
Land prices in the first property cycle peaked in 1996 at 400,000 baht per square wah on Lang Suan Road after the floor area ratio permitted for building construction increased from 6:1 in 1992 to 10:1 in 1994.
