Real estate in Thailand

2023: Russians and Chinese bought half of apartments for sale in Thailand

In 2023, Russians and Chinese jointly acquired more than half of all real estate for sale in Thailand. Among the key factors in sales growth are the visa-free regime with both countries and the formed geopolitical situation. This is stated in the materials of the Thai Real Estate Information Center (REIC), published in early April 2024.

In total, 14,449 real estate objects worth 73.2 billion Thai baht ($2 billion at the exchange rate as of April 9, 2024) were sold in Thailand in 2023. This is 25% more than the previous year. Chinese buyers purchased 6614 apartments and other objects, or almost 46% of the total: their total cost was 34.1 billion baht ($0.93 billion). The Russians took second place with 1,260 objects purchased. This is followed by buyers from the United States and Myanmar, who took third and fourth places, respectively.

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It is said that the most popular region for buying real estate was Chonburi Province in eastern Thailand, where many beaches and industrial zones are located: about 41% of the total number of objects sold was purchased here. The Thai capital Bangkok accounted for 38% of sales. The contribution of all other regions amounted to approximately 21%. In general, objects worth no more than 3 billion baht ($82.11 million) accounted for almost 50% of total sales.

According to RBC, for Russians, the UAE with a share of approximately 21% became the most popular country for buying housing in 2023. Thailand is in second place with 20%, Turkey is in third with 15%. Irina Mosheva, CEO and Managing Partner of Intermark Global, notes that the interest of Russians in Thailand is due to the fact that they accept payment in both rubles and cryptocurrency. Investment attractiveness and rental income from local housing are cited as other reasons.^[1]

2022: Thailand entered the top 10 countries for the first time in buying real estate by Russians

Thailand for the first time entered the top 10 countries for the purchase of real estate by Russians. This became known on September 20, 2022 following a study conducted by the Prian.ru portal (specializing in foreign real estate) in January-August 2022.

During this period, the demand for the purchase of housing Thailand in quadrupled compared to a year ago, when Thailand ranked 20th in the ranking of countries in terms of the popularity of real estate among citizens. RUSSIAN FEDERATION An increase in demand for real estate in the country by 50-60% is also noted in Intermark Real Estate. Thailand, along Turkey UAE with and entered the top three countries, where the interest of Russians in acquiring real estate in 2022 began to grow rapidly, analysts explain.

Deprived of the opportunity to buy real estate in European countries, Russians are reorienting to new markets

According to the information center for real estate of the State Bank of Thailand (REIC), Russians occupy the second place among foreign buyers of apartments and apartments in the kingdom - - in the first quarter of 2022, they accounted for 6.4% of all transactions. The first place is occupied by citizens China (45%). This is followed by citizens USA (5.4%), Great Britain (4.3%) and (Germany 3.8%).

The Prian.ru noted that if before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, about 85% of transactions in Thailand were for investment purposes, and the rest were for objects for their own residence, then by September 2022, the share of requests was almost equal.

In addition, property prices in Thailand remain relatively low by September 20, 2022. According to Intermark Real Estate estimates, the cost of a furnished studio with an area of ​ ​ 30-35 square meters. m in the popular tourist area of ​ ​ Phuket starts from $110 thousand (6.62 million rubles). Private villas with two bedrooms cost from $200 thousand (12.03 million rubles). But Henley & Partners spokeswoman Polina Kuleshova warns that there are no immigration programs in Thailand that qualify for permanent permanent residency or citizenship status.^[2]

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