If you are looking to sell your overseas property in Thailand, your best chances of getting it off your hands as quickly as possible are to sell it to wealthy Chinese or Hong Kong investors. Chinese investors are among the biggest buyers of overseas property and generally offer all-cash deals, so they don’t take long to complete a purchase.
Cash-rich buyers from China and Hong Kong are the biggest buyers of overseas properties in Thailand post pandemic. Because of the huge interest from the Chinese mainland, the Thai property index has risen by 180 percent in 2022.
Indeed, Thailand ranks as one of the ten most popular countries with Chinese buyers in a list in which the US, Australia, UK, Canada and New Zealand come on top. Indeed, the purchasing intent index among Chinese buyers for these countries rose only by 37 percent in 2022, in comparison to 180 percent in Thailand.
The average price of real estate bought by Chinese buyers in Thai has risen by 111 percent since 2019 and it is now as high as $611,062.
Juwai.com CEO Andrew Taylor explains, “Chinese buyers are taking advantage of their strong currency and proximity to Thailand to invest in vacation homes and investment properties. Over the past five years, the Renminbi has gained 19 percent on the Baht.
“Chinese businessmen with commercial interests in Thailand were among the first buyers of local residential real estate. Now, you see vacationers and investors joining their ranks,” he adds.
The most popular destinations in Thailand among Chinese buyers are Pattaya, Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and the capital city, Bangkok.
Thailand has certainly benefited greatly from the massive Chinese property investment in the country and is on course to be one of the most popular overseas property destinations in the world.
The real estate market in Thailand is generally domestically driven and less exposed to foreign capital. Much of the Chinese interest in Thai property in concentrated in its luxury property sector, where the prices are generally higher than US$300,000.
Indeed, in central Bangkok, which is the most expensive neighborhood in the city, 20 percent of the buyers of high-end condos are foreign nationals, most of them from Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Chinese mainland. Thai developers have been successful at generating a huge volume of sales from high-net-worth Hong Kong investors, in particular.
Chinese and Hong Kong buyers have been helped by the weakness of the Thai currency and are encouraged by the new political stability in Thailand, after years of political unrest. Also, rising real estate prices in Hong and the Chinese mainland has encouraged many to look for new opportunities abroad. Thailand offers an attractive alternative.
As Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, the managing director of CBRE (Thailand) explains, “With the baht at a six-year low, foreign investors can take advantage of this opportunity to buy Thai properties at a cheaper price in their local currencies. Hong Kong has also long been the top foreign nationality for [investment in] Bangkok properties and we expect this to be maintained … for the rest of this year.”
“Foreigners are keen to invest in prime downtown Bangkok as they see opportunities for further capital appreciation. This is evidenced by the number of units sold by CBRE to foreigners, which has risen from 18 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022 to 22 per cent in the first quarter of 2023,” Mr. Pathnadabutr added.
Finally, to sell your Thai property to cash-rich buyers from China, you must hire UK and Irish estate agents who specialize in overseas properties. It requires a special set of skills and connections to sell overseas properties to wealthy Chinese buyers and you cannot trust a local agent to do it for you.
Always hire the most experienced agents who know what it takes to market your property overseas, on international property shows, property portals, online forums, and so on. If you want to sell overseas property in Thailand fast contact us today.
