Is it reliable to buy property in Thailand for investment?

Investment depends on the timing. For example, the matter of buying a house in Beijing, ten years ago casually buy brainless buy, however, now in 2017, if it is not just need, not recommended to buy.

Investment depends on financial strength. Can play with millions of investment people to look at hundreds of thousands of projects, investment starting point and risk tolerance, and those who have only hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people on hand is not the same. After all, the former is called asset allocation, the latter is called all in.

Investment depends on personal circumstances. In particular, buying a home to buy a home is not a pure numbers game, there is a house that you need to regularly maintain, take care of, and how to deal with the subsequent house, are all problems.

So, when I say "not recommended to buy a house in Thailand", I'm just sharing my thoughts, but everyone's situation is different, just for reference.

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Thailand Real Estate Introduction

Buying a house abroad, one is to further diversify the risk of asset allocation, the second is to think that the domestic real estate market has been over the golden decade (do not go against the environment), but Southeast Asia may still have a similar opportunity to earn rent as well as appreciation, to see if there is still anything cheap to pick up.

Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, the center of ASEAN, the political environment is relatively stable, and our political and economic exchanges are also very frequent, is in the scope of Southeast Asia is very suitable for in-depth understanding of a country.

In Thailand, foreigners can buy Thai condominiums up to 49% of the total number of households, can not buy villas such as property with land. But condominiums are also freehold, so there's no need to worry about that. And there is a benefit, Thai houses are calculated according to the actual use of the area, that is to say, assuming that a 100 square meters of condominiums in Thailand, the actual rooms in the usable area adds up to a real 100 square meters, not like the domestic developers told you that "ah this set of housing is about 80% of the room, and there are 20 square meters of the elevator and the corridor of the The common area is ......"

The Thai algorithm is more realistic.

As for the choice of city to buy a house, I mainly researched three places: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Pattaya.

Thailand map

Pattaya is a tourist area and is very popular, but property development is equally strong. From a supply and demand point of view, supply now far exceeds demand, which affects property appreciation on the one hand, and rental income on the other. In addition, the good location of the real estate development are almost developed, now you can buy the real estate has been very remote.

Of course the whole of Pattaya isn't that big, so it's not that far to live. However, when you think about your own travels abroad, the vast majority of people still choose to live in the center of the city, which is the most bustling and well-serviced, don't they? After all, it's only for a few days, so easy transportation and sound facilities are most important.

Overall, the value of a house in Pattaya is more of a consumer than an investment.

Pattaya night view, still beautiful ah

Chiang Mai's situation is similar to that of Pattaya, the entire city's industry is only the tourism industry, and the off-peak season is very obvious, the off-season house is easy to be vacant. In Bangkok and Pattaya there are agents who can handle escrow services for rentals, but in Chiang Mai there are no agents who do this, so you can see how difficult it is to secure this rental income.

With no guaranteed rental income and no clear expectation of a rise in house prices, it's clear that neither is good for investment.

But Chiang Mai does have a pleasant climate, a pleasant environment, and a lot of very good international schools, and house prices are not expensive, 1~20,000 per square meter, from the perspective of immigrants can be studied in depth.

Chiang Mai street scene. Another meaning of old city is economically underdeveloped, lack of infrastructure, and old downtown properties

Finally, Bangkok, which I know in detail.

Anyway, Bangkok is the capital after all, Bangkok's economy accounts for 44% of Thailand's total, Bangkok port is responsible for 90% of the country's foreign trade, the city's construction and infrastructure are among the best in Thailand, and the degree of internationalization is also very high, and there are a lot of European, American, Japanese, and Korean property investors, and of course the vast majority of the Chinese people also choose to buy properties in Bangkok.

From an investment point of view, Bangkok clearly beats Pattaya and Chiang Mai.

The city of Bangkok is beautiful

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However, it is not recommended to take the plunge

However, after studying the Bangkok real estate market, I feel that ...... is really not very suitable for taking the plunge.

1) Return on investment is declining

Bangkok's current average price is at 30,000~40,000RMB/sqm, however I took a closer look and the areas worth investing in have risen to 40,000~60,000, with luxury condos soaring above 100,000 as well.

Bangkok city

This is the Bangkok urban area map, most of the Chinese people to buy real estate is mainly concentrated in the three districts:

The core of which is the center of the Lon Pheni district, the core business district, luxury homes, Bangkok landmarks and so on are in this district, the current prices have been high, the highest house prices have been 120,000 yuan/square meter;

It is the Lon / Sathorn district is the financial center and the Embassy District, is Bangkok's old-school business district, house prices are currently 40,000 to 50,000 yuan / square meter

Sukhumvit district is currently Bangkok's largest commercial CBD and residential areas, but also Chinese people to buy a house is very centralized in the area, house prices are almost

Additionally, because of the above three districts house prices are also up, and Sukhumvit outside the area of the overall housing prices are not so expensive, so many Chinese people started to buy houses here, but it should be noted: this district is the only district that has seen a decline in house prices in 2016 ......

If you buy in Bangkok when house prices are 10~30,000, I think this matter is still negotiable, however, in these two years, domestic real estate policy has been tightened, and a large amount of money is running to the overseas real estate market leading to the rise of house prices in Thailand The price is now at a high level, so if you want to get a significant price appreciation ...... you're a little late to the party ......

The condo I was looking at a while ago, Ikea style, beautiful

Of course, the more tangible benefit of overseas home ownership than house price appreciation actually comes from rents. It's a shame, then, that Bangkok's rent-to-sale ratio is falling. On the one hand, this is because house prices are rising too fast, and on the other hand, the pace of property development is too fast, but the changes in supply and demand have not changed dramatically, so naturally rents will suffer.

The condo I'm looking at on the chart is a little further north than the Sukhumvit area (along the rail line), 70 square feet of about 2.7 million yuan (about 38,000 yuan per square meter), with reference to the current average rental price of 6,000 yuan a month to rent (all in yuan), then the rent to sale ratio is about 1:450, that is, with 450 months can recover the cost of housing prices, almost It will take 38 years - this rent-to-sale ratio is already about the same as some first-tier cities in China, not taking advantage of anything.

Of course, if you list your condo on airbnb and run it yourself, you'll get more rent than if you delegate it out, but it's illegal to use your condo for airbnb and short term rentals in Thailand. While the reality is that there are indeed Chinese people who buy apartments in Thailand and do this, it's easy to get reported.

While many real estate advertisements say Bangkok rentals yield around 8%, the average rental yield in Bangkok in the first half of 2017, according to the latest statistics, was at 5.15%, which is the level of a bank account.

2) Difficult to get a loan, too much capital tied up

Of course, there may be some people who think it's good to recoup the cost after 38 years and leave a house for future generations. So I'll follow up with another question: would you still be willing to pay full price for a house now that you need to do so?

Last year, when I bought a house in Thailand, several banks such as the Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China were still able to offer loans of up to 20 years. However, due to this year's strict foreign exchange policy, Chinese banks stopped providing home loans for mainland working residents from June 1 this year (mainland residents working in Thailand are still allowed). And Thailand's central bank has always banned local banks from offering home loans to foreign customers in order to control phongsia.

Loans are also currently available through Singapore's UOB, but require proof of the customer's annual income of 500,000 yuan or a deposit of 500,000 yuan with UOB.

UOB currently has three branches in downtown Beijing, which is quite convenient

Even though Bangkok houses are still cheaper than those in the north, it is still too much of a drain on liquidity if you don't leverage up to buy a house. If you want to take out a loan, you'll first have to get past that 500,000 threshold.

But it is said that many people buy houses in Thailand with full payment and no loan.

So it's still my lack of financial strength

3) It's a bit hard to get out of the house in one piece

Well, even if you have enough financial strength, you still have to think about the liquidity of this house.

Thailanders buy their own homes with 0 down payment and 50-year loans, it's just not too easy ...... Why do you have to buy your second-hand home? In fact, Thais are accustomed to buying new homes, as are most non-tier one cities in China. And we buy this kind of condominium last more practical two out of the way, one is resold to the same does not live in the local foreigners, pure investment to buy real estate; second is by the local Thai developers to recover.

The first is a risky operation, and the second is limited to a few new developments that are currently operating with some conditions attached.

Actually, many of the online posts recommending buying a house in Thailand nowadays don't write about how to sell it after buying it ...... is really not good enough to sell ah.

4) too many sets

There are already too many Chinese buying houses in Thailand and too many Chinese working as real estate agents in Thailand. This market is gradually enriched with games and routines.

Without further ado, you know what I mean.

5) Not the best choice

The total price of the apartment I looked at above came to almost RMB 2.7 million, which is about RMB 3 million after taking into account all the costs of purchasing the property. If you have 3 million investable funds, simple and rough, directly buy 10% annualized P2P, and save trouble, liquidity and better than the house; or still want to allocate in the real estate, this price can be considered the United States and Europe.

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Of course, this situation can continue to buy

1) Immigration preparation

Thailand's medical and educational resources, the cost-effective but too much better than the domestic first-tier cities. I've seen a few cases where people bought houses because they wanted to take their kids to international schools.

2) Frequent travel to Thailand

There are also some people whose family background is related to Thailand, or who have their own business in Thailand, or who just like to spend a few months in Thailand every year, or who can continue to consider buying a house in Thailand. For you to buy real estate in Thailand again can not only count the property itself, but also look at and Thailand's close ties to bring you a comprehensive income.

3) Consumption of self-occupation

The last situation is:

"Investment can earn some better, but pure consumption of self-occupation I am also willing to buy."

After all, Thailand's climate is good, the scenery is good, the tourism reception capacity is strong, and the house is built really beautiful, even if it is the same price, in Beijing is also to buy an old raggedy small, in Thailand can buy a real - mansion ......

Their own vacation or with parents to escape the cold recreation or, Thailand's house is good!

If that's what you think, then buy it~~

(After all, there is a house on the beach in my dream list, not for investment, pure consumption)

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Conclusions and Recommendations

Summary:

From the investment point of view of the Thai real estate, it has already been at a high point, the yield is expected to decrease, and the increase in the leveraged The difficulty of selling the property at a later stage is not guaranteed, coupled with factors such as the lack of control over the local situation, it is not considered a particularly good investment option for me.

Of course, Thailand's housing prices are indeed cheaper than the domestic first-tier cities, the economic trend has been on the rise, the tourism industry is well developed, these advantages can not be denied. People still remain sensible, comprehensive consideration of their own financial needs to make a decision.

On the current understanding of the information, to give you three suggestions:

1) really want to buy, be sure to go to Thailand to understand the situation on the ground, look at the house of the surrounding, property, supporting and so on, do not just listen to the words of the agent; I actually Thailand to buy a house is not dead, may find an opportunity to go to Thailand to see on the ground, although the environment has been so, but maybe individual properties may pick up the leakage! I'm not sure if it's a good idea for me to go back to the city, but it's a good idea for me to go back to the city.

2) Thailand is not the only option for overseas property purchase, really want to buy property overseas, you can take a look at more and then, and there is no rush.

3) More money, more savings, the hands of a few hundred million liquidity, do not listen to my nonsense, the mood is good to buy what can be :)