It’s always a good time to buy Thai property, says Hong Kong developer Allan Zeman
Allan Zeman, the driving force behind Hong Kong bar and nightlife district Lan Kwai Fong, has formed a joint venture with Pacific Century Premium Developments, a unit of telecommunications firm PCCW – which is chaired by Richard Li Tzar-kai, the youngest son of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man – to develop a luxury villas project in Thai Muang, a town near Phuket. Zeman’s Phuket portfolio now includes four resorts and a retail property.
Other Asian investors, especially from mainland China, have followed Zeman into Thailand’s property market.
According to the country’s central bank, the value of residential property in capital Bangkok has risen by at least 10 per cent annually since 2010. And deep-pocketed mainland Chinese buyers are a major force driving this boom.
“In Bangkok alone, we saw about 15,000 new apartments being sold to buyers from mainland China and Hong Kong in 2018, accounting for about half of all foreign purchases,” said Carrie Law, chief executive of property platform Juwai.com.
Having entered Pattaya, Zeman has now set his eyes on residential property in Bangkok.
Kingston Lai, chief executive of Hong Kong-based “Asia Bankers Club,” said: “There is a good chance for Thailand to become the next Singapore.
Last year, the government unveiled “Thailand 4.0”, an initiative aimed at reinventing the country as a hi-tech, high-value and highly creative economy by 2036, with an emphasis on development in 10 strategic and innovation-driven industries.
The government is determined to double Thailand’s GDP growth from 3 per cent to 6 per cent and create more than 100,000 job opportunities by 2020.
– source: South China Morning Post
