Thailand property demand is rising – with investors from the United States leading overseas sales – and there is a marked shift to online real estate searches.
Leading real estate website DDproperty.com, part of the respected PropertyGuru stable, says it has enjoyed a 29% year-on-year rise in property searches in the nine months to September 2015.
The rise follows a series of government stimulus packages and the real estate sector is set to grow by up to 10% in 2015, says DDproperty.com.
More than one in four (42%) of the searches was for properties worth under Bt3 million, with 27% for property under Bt1 million.
Around half (49%) of searchers wanted detached houses, 29% condominiums and 25% townhouses.
DDproperty.com attracted 21% more property listings than last year and sales volume shows consumer demand is strong.
Its Emerging Markets Property Show in Singapore in October featured more than 20 condominium projects from Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand and elsewhere and attracted more than 500 attendees and generated sales of more than Bt100million for Thailand.
DDproperty.com’s Content Marketing Manager Patanan Neovakul explains to OPP.Today what is behind the rise in online property demand.
“Thailand is clearly better than during the political upheavals in early 2014, the military-led government is ramping up investments on mega infrastructure projects to jump-start Thailand’s economy. An extension of mass transit lines move more people from suburbs to the capital city where there are more job opportunities that offer higher income. For some who currently living in the city are looking to upgrade their property due to an increase in family members or to move closer to the work place or school in an effort of saving time and avoid traffic congestion.
“A rise of the middle class is another cause behind the rise in online property demand proving by the percentage of the population living below the national poverty gradually decreases every year.”
The market is now shifting from offline to online, she says. “Thailand internet penetration is account for 34.90% of the total population. Thai consumers these days have an access to the internet at a lower cost due to market soaring competition with the latest 4G auction that priced beyond expectation or over 250% of the reserve price. Mobile phone also becomes more affordable at wide range of selections.”
As the Thai Bath is weakening, it is a good timing for buyers or investors alike to purchase a property in Thailand.
“Most of the overseas traffic comes from USA (27%(, UK (13%), Australia (12%), and Singapore (11%). Singaporeans rank among the top four. According to the sentiment survey sent out to Singaporeans in 1H15, more preferred property type includes private apartment/condominium 56%, houses 43%, land 19%, and commercial properties 14% respectively.”
DDProperty.com expects its web traffic will grow 25% over the next year amid the government investment plan for 2015-22 which covers 59 projects valued at $60billion and an upcoming AEC.
“We are also exciting to launch a new responsive site early in 2016 that shall offer consumers a smarter experience to search property anywhere or on the go.
“After the government rolled out property measures to help boost the real estate sector, we see a significant increase in traffic over the last two weeks or a rise of 32% in October 2015 compared to September 2015. We also discovered a steep increase in leads from our platform particularly in new homes section. This is partly due to our innovation in property or project review.”
As Thai consumers are spending more and more time online, so the digital advertising spending in Thailand has been rising drastically over the past year.
“This shift even outpaces the growth in online penetration. For 1H15, mobile and tablet devices now represents 56% of traffic on DDproperty.com,” says Patanan Neovakul.
“According to Digital Advertising Association (Thailand) or DAAT, real estate sector recorded the highest increase in online advertising spending in 2015 by 388 million bath or a 51% increase compared with 2014. An increase in online spending also reflects that advertisers are longing to reach more targeted audience than traditional media at a fraction of the cost, looking for higher returns on the advertisement spending, and seeking for a more efficient way to track the results.”
As one of Asia’s leading online property portal group, PropertyGuru will continue to grow through acquisitions as well as innovation and we are simultaneously reviewing any available expansion options in the region with the aim of increasing our leadership position in which will be in line with our objectives of offering more marketing options and better platforms and services to the property seekers, partners, agents, and real estate developers, she adds.
“Since the large investment from notable investors such as TPG, EMTEK and Square Peg Capital in June 2015, we had acquired ePropertyTrack, a Singapore-based market leader with a compelling marketing solution for new projects.
Project reviews are available in Thai and English and their success is demonstrated by the fact that the number of page views has risen by more than 200% for the last two months.
The main picture, taken by Mark Konig, is from FreeImages.com.
Source: http://www.opp.today/why-thailand-property-searches-are-moving-online/
