Thailand-Property

Pandemic shows the need for Phuket’s property market to adjust

Cheyenne Hollis

Phuket is popular with tourists from all types of backgrounds. This explains why demand here was distributed fairly evenly between detached housing and condominiums

This article on Phuket’s property market appears in the Dot Property Group Report: How Has COVID-19 Impacted the Thailand Property Market? Click here to download your FREE copy.

Key Stats

Phuket’s property market was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with demand down 16.8 percent year-on-year since travel restrictions kicked in. There were a few interesting trends born from the pandemic that should allow the island to adjust moving ahead.

As we saw in Bangkok, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen more people put a greater emphasis on space. And they aren’t afraid to pay a premium for it. Demand for 4- and 5+ bedroom villas and houses actually increased between April 2020 and March 2021 when compared to the 12 months before the pandemic.

Demand for villas and houses priced at more than THB30 million jumped by 15.2 percent while there was a modest rise of 4.6 percent for THB10-30 million villas and houses during the pandemic. On the other end of the market, enquiries for houses and villas costing less than THB5 million plummeted by 19.8 percent.

Overseas property seekers eye villas and houses

Perhaps the biggest shift the Phuket property market must adjust to is the fact overseas property seekers are now more interested in villas and houses. Between April 2019 and March 2020, international interest in Phuket residential real estate skewed toward condominiums with these receiving 53 percent of all enquiries.

Those numbers were flipped in the proceeding 12 months with 53.1 percent of overseas demand focused on villas and houses in Phuket.

Demand remains for Phuket condo projects THB3 million and less

The bright spot for the Phuket condominium market was the THB3 million and less segment where demand declined by only 2.2 percent. This segment accounted for 53.4 percent of all condominium enquiries, a 10.1 percent gain on the pre-pandemic total.

However, demand for condo units at the THB3-5 million and THB5-10 million price points sunk drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic. The former dropped by 43.1 percent while enquiries for the latter fell 31.8 percent year-on-year.

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