Southeast Asian Property Market Mirror: Chinese Buyers Temporarily Off The Field To Reduce The "Gold Rush" Can Continue?

"Two weeks later, the epidemic is not over yet. Today, we decided to buy Printers and use paper for small children. We formally converted from guerrilla warfare to positional warfare." In February 14th, Liu Fan (a pseudonym) sent a circle of friends on WeChat. In Shenzhen, in the printing business, the whole family flew to Japan in the Spring Festival every year, but an outbreak disrupted their plans and decided to fly to Thailand temporarily.

In February 3rd, he flew to Bangkok, Thailand with his wife, 5 year old son and Filipino maid. "Before the rumor that heat helped to alleviate the epidemic, we chose to go to Thailand to avoid the epidemic, but the epidemic has not yet ended, and the date of the opening of the son's school has been delayed. We plan to return to Hongkong by March 10th." He told reporters. Despite not knowing Thai, the whole family's holiday life in Thailand is still very comfortable. He takes his son to the club every day to swim and accompany his wife to the shopping mall. In order not to affect his son's studies, he and his wife are beginning to pick some short-term international school courses for their son in Bangkok.

Liu Fan has invested three sets of small apartments with a total price of about 5 million Hong Kong dollars in Bangkok, two sets of 30 square meters of small apartments, and a set of 60 square meters of medium-sized units. "Compared with the first tier cities in the mainland, such as Shenzhen, Thailand residences are better in decoration and materials, although the increase in Bangkok may not be as good as that in the mainland, but the rate of return on rental is quite optimistic. This epidemic has made people more aware of the importance of diversifying investment and not putting eggs in one basket. He concluded.

In recent 10 years, Bangkok's housing price has been increasing by 5%-10%, and the net rate of return of residential rent in the center is about 4%. During the short stay in Bangkok, Liu Fan strengthened the plan of providing for the aged in Thailand. "There are more Chinese in Thailand, so it is easy to form a life circle. Moreover, as a Buddhist country, the tolerance of Thailand society is relatively high. The pace of life in the capital Bangkok is relatively leisure compared with that of Hongkong, Shenzhen, Tokyo and other international metropolises. In the future, we plan to sell all the apartments with small apartments for families or three rooms that are more suitable for the whole family to live together. He said.

Data show that during the Spring Festival of from January 24th to 31st this year, 143 thousand Chinese tourists went to Thailand, a decrease of 200 thousand compared with the same period last year, a drop of 58%, which caused 9 billion 156 million of the Thai baht (about 2 billion 42 million yuan) to the local economy.

In recent years, Thailand has become one of the main destinations for Chinese outbound travel. Last year, Thailand received about 39000000 passengers, nearly 1/4 of whom came from China, and more than 220 flights between China and Thailand daily. Data show that tourism contributes about 20% of Thailand's gross domestic product (GDP).

Because of the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, investors, especially those who buy overseas property as holiday homes or pension funds, take the local public health infrastructure and medical hospital factors into consideration. Thailand's cost-effective medical service has attracted many retirees. Johns Hopkins University studies show that Thailand's health and safety status is sixth among the 195 countries and regions in the world, ranking first in Asia.

Thailand apartment buyers apply for an extended delay?

For Southeast Asia's largest real estate brokerage network IQI Thailand broker Guo Haojie, the epidemic did not change her busy life as usual. Many Chinese customers can't go to Thailand because of the epidemic. She helps clients who have completed their transfer to get their deed, buy household electrical appliances, install curtains, and then rent them for them every day. "Every day with a pile of keys on hand, I am surrounded by a bunch of workers. I feel like a chartered woman and a contractor. Wu Yi is eighteen." She mocked herself in her circle of friends.

Guo Haojie settled in Bangkok in 2007 and moved his family to Thailand. In the gap between the work, she enthusiastically gathered around Thailand, such as masks, hand sanitizers and other scarce supplies, and sent them back to the mainland. "Many customers had to come over to handle the procedures, but because many cities in the mainland had implemented closed management, they had to postpone it." She told reporters that at least 30 Chinese buyers need to apply for an extension. "According to the company regulations, some projects will be confiscated if customers fail to complete the payment and transfer procedures at the end of February, but now they are postponed to May according to the epidemic situation."

Two years ago, Zhu Maowen, founder of Ji You Jia (Shenzhen) Information Technology Co., moved to Thailand, where he started his real estate agency business. "Due to the impact of the epidemic, fewer mainland people came to see the house during the Spring Festival, but we found that structural changes had taken place. Most of the previous investments were for investment purposes, but many of them are now clients of self occupied demand. The Thailand government's entry policy on Chinese tourists and its support for China's epidemic prevention also led many of the wavering customers to invest in Thailand.

Data from the Department of disease control and prevention of the Ministry of health in Thailand showed that as of February 15th, 34 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed in Thailand, of which 14 had been cured.

Zhu Maowen found that the streets in Bangkok were as noisy as ever, and that daily life did not change much because of the epidemic. Some vendors even posted Chinese slogans, saying, "please encourage Chinese brothers and sisters to come to Wuhan to cheer up" to attract Chinese tourists.

Since the outbreak of the outbreak, a number of countries and regions have imposed immigration restrictions on tourists from the mainland of China, especially in Wuhan. However, Thailand is one of the few countries that still open the door to Chinese tourists, and there is no restriction on the entry of tourists from any part of China. Pifat, Minister of tourism and sports in Thailand (Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn), said publicly: "Thailand should not cut off intimacy only because friends are sick." King Vajiralongkorn and queen and the Thailand government donated medical materials to the Chinese side. The Prime Minister of Pakistan made a video recording. He shouted, "unity between China and Thailand, together with refueling", and cleaned up social media.

So far, Thailand continues to issue visas to Chinese citizens. In February 9th, the Chinese Embassy in Thailand quoted the Thailand Immigration Bureau as a notice. It pointed out that before the Chinese tourists staying in Thailand due to the closure of airports in Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou, Thailand had been relieved of the fine. Since February 9th, the policy has been extended to all Chinese citizens who are staying in Thailand because of the impact of the new coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

Zhu Maowen told reporters that a couple from Guangxi recently spent 1 million baht (about 224 thousand yuan) to purchase ten years of Thailand elite visa and plan to fly to Bangkok after the epidemic. "My husband is a retired University Professor, and I have been in contact with it for almost a year or so before. They are also considering investing in Europe and America, but this epidemic has made them feel the good intentions of the Thailand government and the folk towards Chinese tourists, so they decided to come to Thailand to buy houses for their old age."

The elite visa is a visa issued by the government of Thailand for high net worth individuals. Elite visa holders enjoy the right to stay in Thailand for 5 years, 10 years and 20 years. In addition, it can enjoy multiple VIP services: special fast entry channels, multiple private car pick-up machines, airport VIP lounge, discount or free service in nearly 200 high-end hotels, golf courses, SPA and restaurants in Thailand.

As an international metropolis, there are more than 3 million expatriates in Bangkok's 11 million long lived population. The low cost of living has led many expatriates to Bangkok. However, due to the increasing supply of apartments in recent years, the Bangkok property market, especially apartment buildings, has cooled to a certain extent.

For this reason, many developers have slowed down the speed of new sales and shifted the main force to the ordinary apartment market with a unit price of 100 thousand baht (about 22 thousand and 400 yuan). According to the statistics of CBRE, in the fourth quarter of last year, 11362 new apartments in Bangkok were newly supplied, with a decrease of 20% in the ring. 55% of the new apartments were priced below 100 thousand baht, and the overall selling price was below 3 million baht (about 672 thousand and 400 yuan).

However, Guo Haojie is still very determined about the prospect of the Bangkok property market. She believes there will be a wave of outbreaks after the outbreak. "Before it was mainly YISHION investment demand, mainly investing in one bedroom apartment, but now customers want to buy a home overseas, and the demand for two rooms and large apartments will increase."

IQI Thailand real estate director of China market Diao Jing Jia told reporters that over the past month, more than 5000 mainland Chinese travel visa or landing sign to Thailand to prepare for the end of the epidemic and have a long-term residence plan. "Since January 23rd, our Thailand company has received about 110 consulations from the Thailand visa holders for a long time, and has bought 32 places, five times higher than usual. About the volume of consultation and volume.

Developers miss Kampuchea gold selling season

For the sales director Liu capital of Kampuchea developer Peninsula capital, this year's new crown epidemic has caught him by surprise. Although he is in Phnom Penh, Kampuchea, he has been closely monitoring the development of domestic epidemic. "Every Spring Festival, there are many Chinese tourists traveling in Kampuchea, and also the golden period of our real estate sales. In the past, we usually had seventy or eighty groups of customers during the Spring Festival, but only one or two groups of customers were received during the Spring Festival. According to our understanding, the exhibition hall of some Chinese funded developers has basically been suspended." He told reporters.

Like Thailand, Kampuchea does not currently restrict visitors to any part of China. Hong Sen, Prime Minister of Kampuchea, attended a local event on the 11 day. He said that the new crown pneumonia restricted the entry of Chinese tourists in the very limited period, prohibiting Chinese from staying in hotels, and taxis refusing to carry Chinese people, that is, discrimination against Chinese people. However, the epidemic still affected Chinese investors to invest in the property market.

Earlier, since 2011, Phnom Penh's real estate market has entered a rising cycle. From 2018 to the second quarter of last year, the price of high-end apartments in the core of Phnom Penh has reached $2500-3500 per square meter. A number of Chinese property developers including Fuli real estate and agile housing have also entered Kampuchea.

Binjiang's Denton is located on the Mekong River near Phnom Penh. It is a 38 story high-end apartment project, adjacent to the city hall and golf course. It is expected to be delivered by the end of 2022. The project is equipped with many luxurious facilities such as boundless swimming pool, air garden, sauna room, executive lounge and so on.

In 2015, the Kampuchea government launched the "China Ready for Cambodia Tourism" policy to attract Chinese tourists. In the first half of last year, Kampuchea received 1 million 290 thousand Chinese tourists, an increase of 38.7% over the previous year, accounting for nearly 40% of the total foreign tourists in the country. The influx of Chinese tourists has also brought a large number of Chinese investors to Kampuchea.

In 2017, Liu began to shift his focus to the real estate market in Kampuchea, and witnessed the start of the local property market. "Compared with other overseas markets, Kampuchea has a relatively low threshold for the purchase of real estate, with a threshold of only about 500000 yuan for Phnom Penh to invest in a one bedroom apartment. However, the median price of some high-end residential units is about 2700 dollars per square meter, while the core unit price is often more than 4000 dollars. Domestic investors are mainly buying some apartments with minimum size, which are used to collect rents. The current rent return is about 8%, and the rate of return is higher than that of the first tier cities in the mainland.

During the Spring Festival, he received seven or eight groups of Chinese customers who cancelled their participation in the delegation because of exit restrictions. According to the information provided by reporters to reporters, these three days and two nights' tours are very rich, including visiting The Grand Palace, Phnom Penh, the SPA experience, shopping, and the Binjiang Denton project. The price of airfare is only 980 yuan.

However, Liu Fan's experience of "gold rush" in Kampuchea was not pleasant. In April 2019, he and other business partners invested more than 20 coastal apartments at Sihanouk port in Kampuchea at the same time. They planned to rent these apartments to local gambling companies executives in the Western Harbour gambling boom. However, in August of last year, a ban issued by the Hong Sen administration made him lose his wishful thinking.

In August 18th last year, the government of Kampuchea announced that the gambling industry should be rectified. The government of Kampuchea will stop issuing various forms of Internet gambling licences and fully consolidate the online gambling industry. This has dealt a heavy blow to the gambling industry in western port. West Port is the largest port city in Kampuchea. In recent years, many Chinese investors and developers have come to the region, and the local economy has seen blowout growth. As of June 2019, there were about 50 built casinos and dozens of hotels in the West Port, which was once known as "Macao in Southeast Asia".

Earlier, in the exploding development of gambling industry, it also promoted the local high-end residential and consumer market. "I find that local consumption is very malformed. It may cost $two hundred or three hundred to eat in a restaurant, and it costs more than $1000 to rent an apartment, which is totally out of line with the local income level." Liu Fan said.

In fact, this is closely related to the real estate intermediary industry that is still in its infancy. "At present, the real estate agency in Kampuchea is still underdeveloped. Many times, it is difficult to get the information of the housing source, so tenants often have to spend more money and energy to find suitable housing sources. For those who purchase real estate rents, they need to be psychologically prepared. They may not be able to rent the house immediately. Liu pointed out.

According to a report released by CBRE, the high-end residential market in Kampuchea is likely to become saturated due to the substantial increase in apartments. Last year, the supply of high-end apartments increased by 243%, while the supply of affordable apartments and mid price apartments increased by 100% and 78% respectively.

"We have already paid 30% of the down payment. Now we are still communicating with the developers. We hope to reduce the number of investment apartments and do not plan to invest any more. "Liu Fan said helplessly.

?