www.property-report.com

Property Market Overview
With its great weather, fine food and world-renowned beaches, Thailand continues to enter the sights of savvy property investors looking for new opportunities away from the traditional European and Caribbean markets.

Much like the country itself, Thailand's property market is incredibly diverse, offering buyers everything from high-end villas in Phuket overlooking the Andaman Sea to luxury high-rise condominiums in the playground of Bangkok executives – Pattaya. Also rising in popularity among investors is the Gulf of Thailand-based island of Koh Samui, fast becoming a preferred destination for those seeking holiday homes as its infrastructure develops and word of its natural beauty spreads. Bangkok, meanwhile, remains a key investment location for regional and expatriate executives, drawn to the city's affordable market that offers much better value when compared to markets in other Asian capitals, such as Singapore or Hong Kong.

Major property investment regions
Pattaya, Phuket, Bangkok, Koh Samui

BANGKOK
Over the past decade, Bangkok's residential property market has diversified immensely, emerging from the shadow of the 1997 financial crisis. Luxury condominiums in central Bangkok sell for a third of the price of those in Hong Kong, and less than half the price of those in Singapore, making them a relatively cheap option in US dollar terms.

PHUKET
With a thriving property market and a growing marine industry fuelling it, Phuket remains in the sites of savvy international investors and developers. The price of real estate on this Andaman island remains attractive to international buyers who recognise the potential of a burgeoning economy, combined with incomparable coastal beauty and an international lifestyle. Luxury property continues to attract a fair share of investment as well, with the island attracting more and more interest from the incredibly wealthy. Phuket has overcome the tsunami of December 2004. The island, attached by a causeway to the mainland, in the southwest corner of the country is one of several resorts on the Indian Ocean.

SAMUI
When it comes to market trends, in the last five years Koh Samui has followed a similar development path to some of Thailand's more established resort destinations - most notably, Phuket. In the early days, raw land purchases dominated the market, while the housing sector mainly comprised of modest developments aimed at long-term travelers rather than those looking for high investment returns. Today a different scenario can be found. The fast-paced development now underway throughout Samui that mushroomed after the millennium can be attributed to international security issues and regional natural disasters that prompted a popularity boom that quickly made the island one of Southeast Asia's more lucrative investment options. Success in the tourism sector led to an explosion in the construction of medium- and top-end hotels, as well as the emergence of an impressive range of fine dining choices around the island. Such services began to attract a new breed of visitor, and little by little luxury properties started to spring up around the island, closely followed by gated residential developments and more recently, large-scale commercial projects. This diversification has opened up new choices for investors and one of the more recent trends on Samui has led private investors away from raw land purchases, with buyer focus shifting more towards finished, residential properties.

CHIANG MAI
Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city and has been dubbed “the rose of the north.” In the last six months, the Chiang Mai skyline has changed quite significantly. A 15 storey construction site now dominates the commercial area around the popular Night Bazaar on Chang Klan road and is the most ambitious of several new developments in the city centre. It is the latest in a string of five star hotels under construction and signals a bullish confidence in the city's future. With a long-standing reputation as a laid-back tourist town that was more backpacker than boutique, Chiang Mai has been steadily going upmarket in many respects and this can most noticeably be seen in the gentrification of selected areas such as the Night Bazaar, Thapae Gate area and suburban Nimminhemin street. The arrival of chic looking franchised coffee shops, plush shopping arcades and modern shop fronts have changed the character of this historic town. The net effect has been a sharp rise in commercial property values in the town centre and a subtle vote of confidence in Chiang Mai's outlook.

PATTAYA
Pattaya, located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, is certainly the jewel in Thailand's eastern development crown, but it's by no means the only diamond in the rough. Developments in locales surrounding Pattaya such as Jomtien, Sahathip, Pratumnak Hill and Mabrachan Lake are providing good investment opportunities. And with the new international airport - Suvarnabhumi - just an hour away, one could say that the sky is the limit for the sheer size and scale of future Pattaya property developments, and the international agents that wheel and deal them. Spotlighted in countless local and international publications, the potential for property investment on the eastern seaboard is attracting an increasing amount of attention. With the bursting of Thailand's property bubble in 1997, the market was pretty cool for several years thereafter, but the past half-decade has seen some tremendous growth potential.