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Pattaya land investment seminar puts
positive spin on real estate and tourism
Ariyawat Nuamsawat
A seminar titled “Approaches to Bolster the Tourism and Real Estate
Sectors in Pattaya”, organized by Pattaya City Hall and Raymond Land Group, and
held on March 27 at the Amari Ocean Tower, summarized the economic situation for
this area and took a positive look at the prospects for improvement.
 Weerasak
Kowsurat from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), addresses the audience at
the Amari Ocean Tower.
The results of the meeting indicated that the Thai tourism market is
continuously improving, and real estate developer Raimon Land confirmed its
intention to continue investing and building in Pattaya from the middle of next
year, as the company sees both the city and the eastern region as having a high
potential for growth.
Mayor Itthipol Khunplome chaired the seminar while Weerasak Kowsurat from the
Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) outlined government policies and measures to
stimulate Pattaya’s tourism and real estate. Representatives from hotels and
local communities also attended the seminar.
 Raimon
Land’s Henry Young (left) and Pattaya City Mayor Itthipol Khunplome (right) were
both keynote speakers at the seminar.
Weerasak said the economic slowdown saw a decline of tourist arrivals at the
Bangkok international airport but said that many visitors still entered the
country by land from southern China, using cars and public transport to Chiang
Mai before traveling further south to Pattaya. There were also tourists from
Singapore and Malaysia entering through the southern provinces bound for Pattaya
for their holidays.
The recent visit to Laem Chabang Port by the big luxury cruise ship Queen Mary 2
with 4,000 passengers and crew onboard also holds the promise of many more such
visits in the future.
Weerasak said the government is currently drafting a countrywide marketing plan:
The northern part is already complete and in May work will begin on the plan for
the Eastern Seaboard tourism market before tackling other parts of the country.
TAT itself has analyzed the current tourism market and divided it into four
marketing groups.
Visitors from Scandinavia, India, Russia, Indonesia and some Middle East
countries form a group that is ready to resume travel to Thailand again. There
is still a negative impression regarding the political stability but Thailand
remains an admired country. Economic problems have also not affected the
purchasing power of this group very much.
Visitors from Germany, England, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain,
Italy, US and the Middle East have not lost their trust in Thailand and retain a
lot of satisfaction with visits to Thai tourist destinations.
China, Singapore, Vietnam and Australia form a market group that is lacking a
lot of trust in Thailand in terms of the safety of traveling here.
Japan, Korea and Taiwan form a big market for Thai tourism, and this group has
been the most adversely affected by a lack of trust in Thailand and also the
bite from the world economic downturn.
Henry Young, Sales and Marketing Director of Raimon Land, affirmed that Pattaya
still has high potential for investment and real estate development as it is
located close to both the Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate and the airport,
and so warrants vigorous support for economic development.
He said his company had recently invested heavily in the North Point project,
which will be completed around the end of this year, and that new investment
will be forthcoming for “The Edge” project.
He also commented that the Eastern Seaboard is, in many ways, similar to Florida
State in the USA and he believes it will remain the economic center of the
country from an outside investor’s point of view.
Many local business owners and
private real estate
investors attended the meeting.
Super-rich still confident
about property investment
The recently published Knight Frank/Citi Private Bank Wealth Report 2009 reveals
some surprising facts about the attitudes of the world’s wealthy to property
investment in the face of the global economic crisis. The report shows that
despite the fact that luxury house prices have fallen around the world, there is
still a healthy appetite for property investment among the ranks of the world’s
super-rich.
Of the 2,000 high net-worth individuals who took part in the Attitudes Survey,
as many as 55% of them plan to increase their residential property portfolios
over the next two years, despite the fact that the majority have seen their
property portfolios drop in value during the last year. Many still regard
property as a crucial part of their portfolios and only 5% said they were “very
concerned” about the fall in property values. Property experts predict that
prices will start to stabilise within the next couple of years and many
investors hope this will put the market on a firmer footing.
Seasoned investors are watching the market closely, particularly in regions
where property values have been the hardest hit. They know that the bottom of
the downturn is just around the corner and are beginning to reinvest, but they
are looking for bargains in the form of heavily discounted properties,
particularly in the commercial and new-build sectors.
Knight Frank reports that a number of those who responded to the survey said
that their clients were actively looking to take advantage of distressed sales
to acquire stable assets with good yields as cheaply as possible.
Around 50% of the survey respondents said that they planned to increase their
investments in the commercial property sector, which has been affected by the
global economic problems. It is clear that shrewd investors with spare funds see
this sector as one offering a considerable amount of growth potential,
particularly the good quality property in prime locations.
Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said, “Even though
our Attitudes Survey, which monitored the decisions and attitudes of 2,000 of
Citi Private Bank’s richest clients, shows that the vast majority of high-net
worth individuals’ property portfolios has fallen in value, the rich seem less
concerned about this than the decline in other investments.”
The survey also showed that confidence in equity and hedge fund investments has
declined significantly. Almost 100% of those represented by the survey had
reduced their exposure to hedge funds.
James Gonzalez, Market Analyst at Obelisk Investment Property, says that the
survey results are good news for movement within the property market. “As Knight
Frank discovered, it is the tangible nature of property which makes it still
attractive to investors, despite everything. Even though values have dropped,
investors still have confidence in property as a good long-term investment. That
is positive news all round.” (Source PR/Log)
Lease land for your lifetime
David Tan
Except in rare cases, a foreigner (a non Thai person) cannot acquire
land ownership title in Thailand. As a result, leasing a plot of land for 30
years and registering this long term lease of land contract at the local Land
Office is one of the ways known and practiced by foreigners.
Please note that I do not recommend a 30 years lease of land contract plus
promises by the landowner to renew the lease of land contract at the end of the
30 years. (This is explained in my article – Does a 90 years Lease of Land
Exist in Thailand? published by Pattaya Mail newspaper on October 24,
2008)
Foreigners are commonly advised to enter into a risky 30 years lease of land
contract with promises by the landowner to renew the lease. However, these
foreigners may not be aware that a lease of land contract can be made and
registered for the lifetime of the foreign lessee. Leasing land for the
lifetime of the lessee or of the landowner is expressly provided by Section
541 of the Civil and Commercial Code: “Lease contract can be made for the
duration of the life of the lessor or of the lessee.”
The lease will be registered as a lease for the lifetime of the foreign
lessee. This registered right on the land or “real right” is binding on
any third party for the lifetime of the lessee, this would include the
landowner’s heir(s). In other words, no one, not even the landowner’s heirs,
will have any rights over the leased land unless and until the lessee dies.
A Land Office rule, effective since December 2008, confirmed that a lifetime
lease registration made for the lessor’s (landowner) or for the lessee’s
lifetime is only applicable to individuals or “natural persons”. The
Land Office cannot proceed with the lease registration if the foreign lessee is
a company, a partnership or any kind of juristic entity.
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Tip
The lease registration fee payable at the Land Office is calculated
based on the rental amount for the first 30 years lease period. The
foreign lessee’s responsibility here is 50% of this fee, unless
agreed otherwise between the landowner/ lessor and the lessee. Also,
there is a stamp duty payable. |
David Tan is a lecturer of Business Law at Asian
University and author of the book – ‘A Primer of Thai Business Law’,
available online at www.chulabook.com and at all Asiabooks bookstores. Any
questions to David regarding land leases should be sent to
[email protected]
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