Data from Shanghai-based overseas housing market data platform juwai.com shows that Thailand is now the third most popular destination for Chinese homebuyers – after the United States and Australia – while Malaysia is also becoming increasingly popular among Chinese investors.
“Thailand saw its real estate market rise later than Malaysia and Singapore, and now investors consider Thailand an emerging market,” Yan Yuejin, a research director at the Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, told the Global Times.
A top financial publication in China, Economic Observer, also reported on Sunday that Chinese investors wanted to tap into countries along the route of the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative, and that Southeast Asian nations were a top draw.
Thanks to the B&R initiative, as well as progress in the long-awaited Thailand-China railway project, plenty of Chinese home-buyers are optimistic about the real estate market in Thailand, according to a staff from a real estate agency specialising in properties in Pattaya, a resort city in Thailand.
“In some major cities like Bangkok, the investment returns can reach 4-5%, which is high,” he told the Global Times.
Aside from the high returns, Global Times reported that another key factor for the increase in demand for property in Southeast Asia were the beautiful islands that can be found across the region.
“I am always attracted by beautiful islands, and it would be nice to stay there occasionally,” an investor named Huang from Changzhou, was quoted as saying.
He added that he had already reserved two apartments in the Philippines and Thailand.
A woman named Gao, who goes on holidays sailing in Southeast Asia, told GT that she was considering buying an apartment in Cebu, the Philippines.
“The market is super hot now. Many Chinese people are coming to Southeast Asia to buy houses,” she was quoted as saying.
She added that one apartment in Cebu she intended to buy last year had surged in price by 15% because of an increase in potential buyers.