POST REPORTERS

The amount of new condo supply launched in Greater Bangkok in the first quarter returned to normal at about 10,000 units as developer confidence has returned.

Surachet Kongcheep, associate director of the research department at property consultant Colliers International Thailand, said the quantity launched in the first quarter this year was close to that in the first quarter of 2015.

Colliers reported that the number of condo units newly launched in Greater Bangkok totalled 10,379 during the first quarter of 2017, an increase from 7,353 units in the first quarter last year and about flat from 10,000 units for the same period of 2015.

"The drop in new condo supply launched in the first quarter last year was derived from developers shifting to focus on selling completed condo units to benefit from the government's property tax incentives, which ran from October 2015 to April 2016," said Mr Surachet.

He said developers used attractive promotions to boost condo sales in the first quarter, resulting in a sales rate of 60%, an improvement from 57% and 55% in the fourth and first quarters of last year, respectively.

According to the Real Estate Information Center (REIC), its housing developers' sentiment index in the first quarter this year improved to 54.2, up from 53.5 in the fourth quarter last year.

That was the first rise following three consecutive quarters of decline from the second to fourth quarter last year.

Colliers' SET-listed developer sentiment index was higher at 61.2, up from 60.2. The sentiment index of non-listed companies remained below the median (50) at 43.8, representing their lack of confidence in the property business, despite a slight increase from 43.6.

          The index of housing developers' sentiment over the next six months also rose to 65.1 from 60.2, the first increase after a decrease for two consecutive quarters.

According to Colliers, the majority of newly launched condo supply in the first quarter was located in outer Bangkok.

Some 70% were priced between 50,000-100,000 baht per square metre or between 1.5-3 million a unit.

Mr Surachet said newly launched condo supply in Greater Bangkok would total some 40,000 units, the same amount as last year.

According to REIC, the Sukhumvit area saw the biggest condo price hikes in Greater Bangkok, jumping up 11% in the first quarter, compared with an average rise of 5.8% across the city.

The centre's residential price index in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan said locations in lower Sukhumvit had seen the highest year-on-year increases at 9-11% in the first quarter of 2017, followed by locations in middle Sukhumvit, where condo prices rose 7.2-9.2%.

The third-highest price increases were in the Phaya Thai-Ratchathewi area, up 3.2-5.2%, followed by the Huai KhwangChatuchak-Din Daeng area (1.3-3.3%) and Nonthaburi (1-3%).

The condo price index in the first quarter of 2017 was 124.9, up from 118 in the same period last year and a marginal rise of 0.6% from the fourth quarter last year.

The highest quarterly increase in condo prices was in middle Sukhumvit at 4.6-6.6%, followed by Huai Khwang-Chatuchak-Din Daeng (1-3%), Phaya Thai-Ratchathewi (0.6-1.6%) and the lower Sukhumvit area (0.2-1.2%).

But condo prices in Nonthaburi dropped 1-3%, largely due to oversupply.

Source: BANGKOK POST