Of the eight months of 2018, 63,098 units were launched with a total value of USD 8,293 billion and with an average price of USD 131,438 per unit.  It is expected that the number of development would be down for 10% from last year.

Dr.Sopon Pornchokchai, President, Agency for Real Estate Affairs (www.area.co.th) which is the first and largest real estate information centre in Thailand since 1994 released the AREA latest findings that during January to August 2018 (eight months), there were 63,098 units of new housing units including detached, semi-detached, townhouses, shophouses, condominiums (owner-occupied apartments) and land subdivision plots in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region with a total value of USD 9.032 billion (Baht 33 to USD 1).  On an average, a housing units in Bangkok is worth USD 131,438 per unit.  An average size of a housing project is around 261 units.

It was estimated that for the first eight months, there might be some 5% of the projects unfound during the monthly survey and would be found during the quarterly surveys.  In addition, it was hypothesized that the size of the launching in the last four months would be some 10% more than the average in the first eight months.  This is because there might be more projects launched prior to the end of the year which is considered a high season for new housing developments.

Therefore, Dr.Sopon estimated that there might be some 102,692 units launched in 2018 in 394 projects with a total value of Baht 445.421 billion or USD 13.438 billion.  Compared to 2017, there would be a shrinkage of 4% in terms of projects and 10% in terms of units launched in 2018.  However, the amount of value would be similar to last year.  This implies that the economy of Thailand was not recovered in 2018.

The average price in 2018 at Baht 4.337 million (USD 131,438) was higher than the one last year at Baht 3.858 million (USD 116,911) for some 12% also implied that the higher priced units could be in a better market condition compared to the cheaper ones.  Foreigners occupied around 20% of the total markets.  Of the total value of housing purchasing in 2017 at Baht 576.396 billion (USD 12,422 billion), 20% or Baht 113.280 billion (USD 3.433 billion) were bought by foreigners (https://goo.gl/fpbv6m)

If there is no control over the shopping of housing in Thailand by foreigners, local Thai people would be in trouble in the future because the growth of their income would be a lot slower than the growth of house prices pushed by foreigenrs.  Some measures should be adopted such as higher stamp duty for foreigners and the like.