REIC records 25% jump in foreign condo purchases in 2023

The number of purchases jumped 25% year on year, while the total value of these condos also rose 23.5% year on year, said REIC director Wichai Wiratkapan. He added that both numbers are higher than that in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chinese nationals bought the most condo units last year at 6,614, making up 45.8% of all condominiums being transferred to foreigners in 2023. In second place were buyers from Russia with 1,260 units (8.7%), followed by the United States with 631 units (4.4%), Myanmar with 564 units (3.9%) and Taiwan with 532 units (3.7%).

The average price per condo bought by foreigners in 2023 is 5.2 million baht, while the average unit size is 39.5 square metres.

Provinces where foreigners bought condominiums last year are Chonburi, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Samut Prakan, respectively, with nearly 80% of the units bought by foreigners in either Chonburi or Bangkok.

REIC also reported that in the fourth quarter of 2023, a total of 3,746 condominium units worth 20.9 billion baht were transferred to foreigners, dropping 0.9% year on year.

Wichai attributed the jump in condo sales to foreigners to the recovering tourism industry and the government’s policy of waiving visa requirements for visitors from China, Kazakhstan, India and Taiwan for a limited time.

The visa-free policy for Chinese arrivals was then upgraded into a permanent measure from March 1 under an agreement between the Thai and Chinese governments to boost mutual tourism.

Another factor is the geopolitical conflicts in several parts of the world that have driven affluent foreigners to buy properties in Thailand as vacation or retirement homes, he added.