Thailand is becoming an attractive investment option for the Chinese as tourist numbers continue to rise.
This year has seen bumper visitor numbers to Thailand. Recent data released from the Tourism Authority of Thailand states that there has been a 13 percent increase in tourism for the first six months of 2016, compared to the same period the previous year.
Flocking to the country to enjoy the culture, beaches and food, in 2015 the Chinese were Thailand’s most frequented visitors. Closely allied with China for the trading opportunities arisen thanks to ASEAN, Thailand is seeing a number of Chinese looking to invest in property.
The Kingdom’s second biggest island, Samui, is proving to be a real hit with the Chinese. Partly as a result of its incredibly well connected airport providing direct flights across the region including to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and destinations in China such as Chengdu, Chongqing and Guangzhou, but also due to the island’s tight planning controls that restrict high rise developments. A popular holiday destination, Koh Samui is an attractive investment opportunity for the Chinese providing retirement home options at a reasonable price that investors can also expect to receive healthy capital appreciation on.
“The real estate market is set for tremendous growth over the next decade. We are achieving 8 to 10 percent returns just from rental income on holiday homes and in many tourist areas the capital increase has been over 15 percent per year,” comments Derek Muhs, Founder of Global Edge Investment (GEI).
As tourism is expected to continue to remain buoyant in Thailand, the real estate market is anticipated to follow suit. Thailand developers are closely monitoring this in order to benefit from this increased interested and to attract even more investors from mainland China.