The Bangkok Post’s Spectrum magazine over the weekend featured an interesting piece on the changing dynamics of the Phuket real estate market, especially at the top tier. Based on an analysis by Knight Frank, while the market continues to attract its fair share of extremely wealthy tourists and property investors, the number of foreign buyers willing to shell out big bucks for a luxury home or villa has dropped.
Previously, the demand was for large villas, with usable areas of up to 1,600 square metres and price tags of THB 100 million or more. Most of these homes were built before the global financial market crash in 2008. The Kamala area in particular earned the
nickname “Millionaires’ Mile” given the proliferation of luxury residential developments, where most homes costs in excess of THB 50 million.
Knight Frank identified that, of the cumulative supply of 1,874 villas located along thewest coast of Phuket from Nai Yang to Rawai beach, 1,474 units have been sold – a take-up rate of 78.7 percent. Of this figure, 51 percent were sold for less than THB 20 million each; only 18 percent have been sold for over THB 50 million.
In addition, the majority of the supply is concentrated in Bang Tao, with 770 units or 41 percent of the total. This reflects the influence of the multi-resort Laguna complex, which encompasses the Banyan Tree and Dusit hotel-branded villas for sale and rent. The selling price of villas managed by Banyan Tree range from THB 59 million to 125 million, while those from Dusit are around THB 34 million each.
The highest demand is now for villas priced below THB 20 million; such villas usually feature two to three bedrooms, with usable areas of 200 to 300 square metres on compact plots. The majority of investors are long-term expats based in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.
