EXCLUSIVE: The rise of Chinese property buyers and investors in Thailand during the last six months has been confirmed by an Index produced by the largest property portal in the country that specialises in overseas property.
The Juwai.com Chinese Purchasing Intent Index for Thailand has revealed how the Kingdom has outperformed many larger countries.
Over the past year, the Thai Index has soared 180 percent; by comparison the combined Purchasing Intent Index for the five most popular countries with Chinese buyers during the second quarter of 2015 (the United States of America, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand) rose by just 37 percent.
On a quarterly basis, the Thai Purchasing Intent Index rose by 51 percent, significantly better than the 1 percent drop in the top five countries average.
In other good news for Thailand, average prices for properties that Chinese buyers were looking at has also increased by 39 percent over the previous quarter, and by 111 percent over the previous 12 months to a new high of US$611,062.
In summary, Juwai.com is seeing a picture of rapidly increasing interest in Thailand property and real estate from China, with many new buyers more well-heeled than their predecessors – and purchasing more expensive property.
Andrew Taylor, co-Chief Executive Officer of Juwai.com, told Dot Property Group: “Chinese buyers are taking advantage of their strong currency and proximity to Thailand to invest in vacation homes and investment properties. Over the past five years, the Chinese currency, the Renminbi, has gained 19 percent on the Thai Baht.
“Chinese businessmen with commercial interests in Thailand were among the first buyers of local residential real estate. Now, you see vacationers and investors joining their ranks.
“The top destinations in Thailand for Chinese property enquiries are Pattaya, Koh Samui, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
“Thailand could greatly profit from the projected massive increase of Chinese international property investment in the coming decade. It could easily displace other countries that are currently more popular with Chinese buyers.”
Taylor added that Thailand has advanced from the 10th most popular country with Chinese buyers to currently occupy ninth place in the ranking of most popular overseas property buying destinations.
The Juwai.com Purchasing Intent Index seeks to measure the change in Chinese buyer interest for a given location. It does this by tracking their online property hunting activity on the portal, such as property-focused inquiries, page views, property searches, clicks to reveal agent phone numbers and more. The portal believes it is an accurate indicator of future transaction trends.
Juwai.com is the only entity capable of providing an accurate and current portrait of Chinese international property hunting behavior, because of our unique role as the intermediary between Chinese property buyers and international property marketers.
Juwai.com is the number one Chinese international property portal, with 2.6 million monthly visits from consumers and 2.5 million real estate listings from 89 countries.
The challenge now for most Thai developers and real estate agents will be to firstly understand the way that Chinese buyers buy property, and secondly to communicate with them successfully in their own language. 
