Urgent. Dr.Sopon Pornchokchai, President, Agency for Real Estate Affairs (www.area.co.th) announced that in 2018, housing markets in Bangkok will decrease for 13% in the number of newly launched units.  In terms of projects and value, the decreases were both 6%.  However, the price per unit will increase for 7% to USD 133,336.  This implies that most of the new developments catered to the well to do families; whereas, the lower income groups had limited affordability.

The shrinkage of housing markets were due to the slow growth in the economy.  Although the government announced the new economic growth rate of 4.1%, it was the lowest rate in the ASEAN Region (except Brunei and Singapore who had their per capita income 5-7 times higher than that of Thailand.  Thai economy was driven mainly by public investments in infrastructure.  Thus, that 4.1% was not the real growth enjoyed by the vast majority of the people.  Nowadays, perhaps, only the public servants enjoy their lives due to their privileges among others.