Thais gobble up London real estate

[PeteC]

Oh great oracle, what say ye? "The day will come when all Thais will be in the UK and all British will be in Siam".


Thais gobble up London real estate

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/eco ... eal-estate

Published: 27/10/2012 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Business

Property in London is continuing to attract Thai investors, reaching nearly 10 billion baht in investments year-to-date.

Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, the chief executive of Asia Plus Securities (ASP), said mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been active in many sectors.

Property prices in London remain high, as it is the prime location for foreign investors, unlike continental European countries, which have experienced a sharp drop in asset values due to the deep impact of the EU financial crisis.

The UK kept the pound and so has not been much affected, said Mr Kongkiat, adding that London property has a distinctive quality that attracts investors from all over the world.

"Even with asset prices in Britain remaining high, buyers are willing to pay. Asian businessmen, especially from the Middle East, are buying London assets mainly and not those in the rest of Europe," said Dr Kongkiat.

He said buyers are afraid of uncertainty, currency fluctuations and property laws in continental Europe.

Investors from all over Asean are taking the opportunity to acquire foreign assets, and cross-border trading and listing activities are increasing.

Apart from real estate, Thai investors are also buying assets in hotels, health care, media, processed foods, construction and materials, and automobiles.

The Thai auto parts sector has benefited from the economic slowdowns in China and Japan, with production bases transferring here, likely leading to more M&A activities in the automotive sector.

The Asean Economic Community slated for 2015 should also open up the healthcare industry, as Thailand and Malaysia offer similar quality to Singapore at much lower prices, said Mr Kongkiat.

But Thai small and medium-sized enterprises as well as state enterprises must prepare for intense competition from regional integration.

ASP plans to list a new holding company on the Stock Exchange of Thailand this year, as holding firms are a new sector that can be used to raise funds for investment abroad.

The client is a Thai company that invests in China, said Dr Kongkiat.

[deepee]

Such a contradiction isn't Pete as many of those who are making these purchases are the very people who make up and support the Thai laws restricting foreigners owning property in THEIR Thailand.

[caller]

Thats about £200m. That isn't actually very much with London prices, even in some suburbs, houses are £1m plus (and more). Theres an averagely nice street in Richmond, with about 20 houses, all similar 4-bed detached, all at about 1.5m, thats £30m done straight away.

Not to be sniffed at though.

[Name Taken]

Such a contradiction isn't Pete as many of those who are making these purchases are the very people who make up and support the Thai laws restricting foreigners owning property in THEIR Thailand.

It's the same situation in the U.S., foreigners buying up land and real estate with no restrictions at all.

[Siani]

I really think it is wrong that Thai's can buy our land property and property. I am not opposed to foreigners buying land, but seems a trifle unfair when we cannot own property (land) in Thailand. Apparently the Thai goverment are planning to revise the "nominee ownership" arrangements and now wants to crack down on it.
Charoenpanij has also proposed a reward – of 20 per cent of the land’s value when sold – for those providing information about illegal ownership. His plans also include penalties for lawyers or consultants who advise foreign buyers on nominee structures. I read this report in The Telegraph By Joanne Christie, back in July.

[margaretcarnes]

Love your new pic Siani - did you watch Lady and the Tramp this week as well? But therein lies the answer I think - 'We are Siamese if you please - we are Siamese if you don't please'. In other words take it or leave it!
Fact - the UK is in deep recession and London properties will sell to whoever can pay the asking price regardless. If I had a Belgravia mansion to sell (dream on) I would sell to the highest bidder and the UK government couldn't stop me.
Thailand has retained - quite rightly IMO - a policy on land and property ownership which fits with the countrys' deeply rooted sense of independance.
It might be irritating sometimes for Thai landowners who are unable to sell land lock stock and barrel to foreigners, but at the end of the day they probably all prefer to retain the Thai line of ownership, rather than succumb to a load of foreigners gaining any form of rights in their country. Which is exactly what many of us in the UK complain about all the time.

[Siani]

Love your new pic Siani - did you watch Lady and the Tramp this week as well? But therein lies the answer I think - 'We are Siamese if you please - we are Siamese if you don't please'. In other words take it or leave it!
Fact - the UK is in deep recession and London properties will sell to whoever can pay the asking price regardless. If I had a Belgravia mansion to sell (dream on) I would sell to the highest bidder and the UK government couldn't stop me.
Thailand has retained - quite rightly IMO - a policy on land and property ownership which fits with the countrys' deeply rooted sense of independance.
It might be irritating sometimes for Thai landowners who are unable to sell land lock stock and barrel to foreigners, but at the end of the day they probably all prefer to retain the Thai line of ownership, rather than succumb to a load of foreigners gaining any form of rights in their country. Which is exactly what many of us in the UK complain about all the time.

No..did not manage to watch Lady and the Tramp.
A lot of property in Belgravia is leasehold, much of it, known as the Grosvenor Estate, is still owned by a family property company, the Grosvenor Group, owned by the Duke of Westminster. There are freeholds to be had though.
I would have thought that by changing certain policies on land ownership in Thailand would be beneficial, e.g. make it easier for children to inherit your land/property in the event of someone dying. I do not know much on Thai laws etc when it comes to property buying, all I know was it did scare me enough not to invest in a property there.

[margaretcarnes]

Between you and me Siani I don't blame you at all for being scared off buying there.

And having now incurred the certain wrath of assorted Realtors (although I know there are good ones in HH, and the ownership laws aren't their fault) the issue of inheritance does seem to be a minefield.
As far as Leuk Kreung children are concerned - ie half Thai half farang - you would think inhertance of a property would be pretty straight forward. But I remember Buksida posting about wills etc a while back, so maybe there are some pitfalls.
For farang couples with farang children in the LOS I'm pretty sure there ARE legal problems of inheritance, but would be interested to hear any expert views on that. Isn't it something to do with the recognition of wills, particularly if they are drawn up in the West?
Also - for the few farang who obtain residency status - are their farang children protected? I would doubt it, unless the children themselves are granted residency as well on their own merit. So another question (again I doubt this happens) but do those children get automatic residency inherited from their parent(s)?
But back to the original question, and personally I'd much rather see Thais buying London real estate than the nationals of some other countries which it is probably best not to mention!

[charlesh]

A guess there is a better return on London property (increasing real estate prices) than there is in Thailand where they seem to remain static or go backwards.

[Siani]

Between you and me Siani I don't blame you at all for being scared off buying there.

And having now incurred the certain wrath of assorted Realtors (although I know there are good ones in HH, and the ownership laws aren't their fault) the issue of inheritance does seem to be a minefield.
As far as Leuk Kreung children are concerned - ie half Thai half farang - you would think inhertance of a property would be pretty straight forward. But I remember Buksida posting about wills etc a while back, so maybe there are some pitfalls.
For farang couples with farang children in the LOS I'm pretty sure there ARE legal problems of inheritance, but would be interested to hear any expert views on that. Isn't it something to do with the recognition of wills, particularly if they are drawn up in the West?
Also - for the few farang who obtain residency status - are their farang children protected? I would doubt it, unless the children themselves are granted residency as well on their own merit. So another question (again I doubt this happens) but do those children get automatic residency inherited from their parent(s)?
But back to the original question, and personally I'd much rather see Thais buying London real estate than the nationals of some other countries which it is probably best not to mention!

I did go into it a little as we intended buying first a villa, then a condo, the latter because of the land ownership problems. We rented a house for 3 months and tested the water. We finally decided against it as we could not see an good investment in it, plus there was not enough for me to do there, living permanently. We love spending time there, so it seems a better option to rent when we need to. As charlesh mentioned, there seems to be a good investment in London properties, IMO they will always go up, recession or no recession. I just hope that the properties are not sold to too many foreigners.

[margaretcarnes]

A guess there is a better return on London property (increasing real estate prices) than there is in Thailand where they seem to remain static or go backwards.

Do they though? (remain static etc.) Or do farang investors expect too much? I do think that the best approach to buying in the LOS, for a farang, is to be prepared to view it as living rent free for the rest of their days (or for 30 years - whichever is soonest!)
And how much of the London property boom is simply down to foreign interest. OK - it's a pretty safe bet kind of place, unlike many other parts of the UK where property values are still quite static. And of course London has the kind of large high end properties once occupied by Brits who could afford the kind of lifestyle which we don't see now, as well as some high end new developments which, you have to admit, have raised the stakes a lot.
The more I think about this the more I'm drawing similarities between the UK/London and Thailand/Bangkok!

[charlesh]

A common investment for quite a number of malaysian/Singaporean/HK (for those that could afford it) in Oz was to buy a place in a good suburb, send the kiddies to high school and then onto Uni. After graduation sell the property - hey presto have just got your money back AND paid for the kiddies schooling. Bloody smart. Thank you Australia and the rising property market.

[Siani]

A guess there is a better return on London property (increasing real estate prices) than there is in Thailand where they seem to remain static or go backwards.

Do they though? (remain static etc.) Or do farang investors expect too much? I do think that the best approach to buying in the LOS, for a farang, is to be prepared to view it as living rent free for the rest of their days (or for 30 years - whichever is soonest!)
And how much of the London property boom is simply down to foreign interest. OK - it's a pretty safe bet kind of place, unlike many other parts of the UK where property values are still quite static. And of course London has the kind of large high end properties once occupied by Brits who could afford the kind of lifestyle which we don't see now, as well as some high end new developments which, you have to admit, have raised the stakes a lot.
The more I think about this the more I'm drawing similarities between the UK/London and Thailand/Bangkok!

I think if you do not have children or family that you want to leave your property etc to after your death, buying in Thailand is not such a problem. You can relax... spending the rest of your days there However, if you have a family. children etc back in your home country, it must be considered that the property that you buy in Thailand may or may not be inherited by them in the event of your death. It is something that must be looked into by a lawyer. There are many Farangs who have married second wives, have children in Thailand and also children from the first marriage in their homeland. I would imagine that in the event of the Farang dying, the child of the second marriage would inherit. What would happen if the Thai wife was to die before the Farang? I do not know the answer to that one
I suppose the less complicated option would be to buy London real estate, let it off...even if just a one bedroom flat and use the rent obtained to rent a place for yourself in Thailand. Sounds a better option?
I have just read a post in the legal section written by Mr Dumb...Getting divorced, HELP....this could apply to anyone with a property in Thailand, maybe?

[buksida]

Thais snap up London real estate

The British developer Land Securities expects six of its London condominium units to be sold to Thai buyers during a second visit this year after seeing 200 units worth over 10 billion baht snapped up by Thais buying UK property in the last 24 months.

Residential director Tom Eshelby said Thailand has emerged as the centre of Southeast Asia for London property projects seeking to tap the region's wealthy buyers over the past few years.

High-net-worth Thais have shown a strong interest in buying a London property as an investment, vacation home or residence for their children studying in one of the world's premier education destinations.

"Thais visiting London are the highest spenders in the world," he said yesterday during a four-day event that runs until Sunday showcasing the company's Kings Gate project in Southwest London.

Full Story: Bangkok Post

[hhfarang]

I submit that Thais are moving to London because the climate is better there...