The Information Center has published information about real estate purchased by foreigners in Thailand throughout the country in the first quarter of 2022. In total, foreigners acquired ownership of 2,107 properties, which is 10.3% less than in the same period last year. But this number is higher than the average for 2 years during COVID-19 (2020-2021), when an average of 2,061 properties were bought per quarter.
The total cost of transferring real estate purchased by foreigners in the first quarter of 2022 is 10,262,000,000 baht, which is 6.1% less than in the same period last year. But this is more than the average for 2 years during COVID-19, when the cost averaged about 9,683,000,000 baht per quarter.
It is noted that more and more foreigners are buying secondary property. In the first quarter of 2022, 65.1% of the total number of properties purchased by foreigners were properties in new buildings, and 34.9% were secondary housing. In the same period last year, the ratio was 80.3% to 19.7, which demonstrates a trend in increasing the popularity of second homes among foreign buyers.
The most popular properties by area among foreign buyers:
- Area 30-60 m2 (one-two bedrooms), total 970 apartments (46%);
- Area of no more than 30 m2 (studio or one bedroom), a total of 796 apartments (37.8%);
- Area of 61-100 m2 (two-three bedrooms or more), total 202 apartments (9.6%);
- Area of more than 100 m2 (three bedrooms or more) – 139 residential units (6.6%).
Chinese citizens are still the leaders among foreign buyers of real estate. 949 purchases of real estate with the participation of Chinese citizens were registered, which is 45% of the total number (a decrease compared to the 4th quarter of 2021, when this figure was 53.7%).
It can be seen that the share of Chinese transferring ownership of condominiums has fallen to less than 50% for the first time as a result of the fact that Chinese cannot leave the country due to restrictions related to COVID-19.
The second place was taken by Europeans – citizens of this country bought 134 properties in Thailand (6.4%), the USA – 114 residential units (5.4%), the UK – 91 residential units (4.3%) and Germany – 81 residential units (3.8%).