Thai Developers Looking To Compete With Britain, Australia As Real Estate Investment Destination#
The number of Chinese tourists heading to neighboring Thailand may be steadily increasing, but if some real estate developers have their way, we'll see more wealthy Chinese looking to resort towns like Phuket as destinations not only for R&R but their cash as well. Whether that cash is "gray" or plain old red is secondary to salespeople in Thailand, who hope the country's proximity to China and natural beauty are enough to convince wealthy Chinese to look beyond the country's simmering political issues and invest in Thailand rather than popular countries like Britain or Australia.
Today, Property Reportlooks at one Thai property developer -- the Ocean Villas Group -- that's currently trying to add more Chinese HNWI clients to its roster:
Sales Director Rebecca Smith said: “China has been on our radar for some time now as the wealth in the country is increasing at a rapid rate, and new HNWIs are being created all the time. China currently boasts over 477,000 millionaires and 64 billionaires, up from last year’s 28. Additionally, the Chinese invest 30 per cent of their wealth in real estate.”
China is now the world’s number two luxury goods market, with sales up 12 per cent in 2009 to US$9.6 billion, accounting for 27.5 per cent of the global market, according to figures from consultancy Bain & Co. This figure is expected to grow further to US$14.6 billion during the next five years, making it the world’s top luxury market.
The first port of call for Rebecca and her team will be Shanghai in September, culminating with a visit to Beijing in December.
“We hope to bring in more buyers for our developer partners and we are extremely optimistic based on our market research on China. Shanghai alone had 116,000 millionaires, and it’s not just the Chinese as there are more than 800,000 expats living in there too. The Chinese have been heavily investing in places such as London and Australia over the last year, and we are looking to introduce new opportunities that have previously not been available in the country.”