Thai developer expects brisk home sales to mainland buyers
Sansiri forecasts China to becomes its biggest foreign market in 2018
Sansiri, one of Thailand’s top property developers, said it expected to be kept busy by Chinese investors looking to diversify their assets by buying Thai properties for both personal use and investment.
The company forecasts that home purchases by the mainland citizens would account for 40 per cent of their international sales next year, with China to surpass Hong Kong to become its largest foreign market.
“It could happen this year, that China becomes our largest foreign market,” Srettha Thavisin, president of Sansiri, told the South China Morning Post. “But it will definitely happen next year.”
Wealthy mainland Chinese are increasingly looking to buy flats and houses in Southeast Asian countries, with a proportion of them expecting to use the properties for personal residence, rather than just for investment.
Sansiri said a rising number of Chinese citizens, lured by the inexpensive properties and low living costs in Thailand, were making plans to live in the country when they retire.
Properties offered by Sansiri to mainland buyers range from 500,000 yuan (US$75,900) to more than 4 million yuan a unit.