Sam Sethi, founding member of the Phuket Real Estate Association (PREA) and president of Phuket-based developer The Onella, recently spoke to the Phuket Gazette on an emerging trend in central Phuket and the way forward for investors and developers on the island.
Sethi reflects that, although the property market in Phuket largely grew from tourism-based industries, inevitably turning coastal areas into prime plots of real estate, “reliance on the fickle mass tourism industry alone is not the way forward.” Instead, mixed-use commercial and residential properties are more stable options. In this context, Sethi views central Phuket as the ideal locale for such multi-purpose developments, “especially with the inevitable influx of commercial diversity in 2015 and beyond, with Thailand’s inclusion into the Asean Economic Community.”
Like many of the island’s coastal areas, central Phuket is being defined as a luxury destination due to extensive government and private sector investment. The area encompasses ongoing infrastructure improvement projects, as well as massive investments by Thailand’s largest retail corporations, which are aimed at the growing luxury lifestyle market. Also, central Phuket houses excellent facilities, such as international schools and hospitals.
The above will, in turn, draw “more executive types from around the region” to central Phuket on a long term basis. “They will need the convenience of a central location for their lifestyle needs, as well as accommodation of a certain standard, in private home-like living environments, ” says Sethi. Therefore, “this makes now the best time to invest in order to capitalize on central Phuket’s growth in the years ahead.”