A place to call home: foreigners snap up condo units
Foreigners spent more than 17 billion baht on condominiums in Thailand during the first quarter of 2023, an increase of 67% year on year and the highest in five years, the Government Housing Bank’s Real Estate Information Centre (REIC) reported on Wednesday.
A total of 3,775 condominium units worth 17.12 billion baht were transferred to foreigners from January to March, the centre said. This number is 79.2% higher than the same period last year.
The Thai property market has sold an increasing number of condo units to foreigners since Q2 of last year, thanks to the reopening of Thailand and several other countries after the Covid-19 lockdowns, the REIC added.
The nationalities of foreigners who bought the most condominiums in Q1 of this year are:
- Chinese: 1,747 units
- Russians: 387 units
- US citizens: 156 units
- Britons: 146 units
- Germans: 131 units
- French: 130 units
- Taiwanese: 94 units
- Myanmar: 76 units
- Australians: 71 units
- Indians: 63 units
- Others: 774 units
The average size of condos bought by foreigners is 44.7 sq.metres, at an average price of 4.5 million baht per unit or 101,553 baht per square metre.
Condos costing less than 3 million baht, however, are still the most popular among foreigners, with over 1,900 units, or about half of all the units bought. This trend has been observed since 2018, according to the centre.
REIC said one interesting finding is that Myanmar buyers, despite ranking eighth in the chart of units bought, have the highest average price per unit at 6.5 million baht.
The top five provinces in which foreigners have bought the most condominiums and apartments in Q1 are Chonburi (1,601 units), Bangkok (1,423), Chiang Mai (240), Phuket (208), and Prachuap Khiri Khan (95).
The Thai capital and Chonburi’s eastern resort city together make up nearly 85% of all condos bought by foreigners in the first three months of this year.
