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Thailand overcomes US as preferred real estate destination for local buyer

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Thailand has overcome the United States in 2020 as the number one destination for Macau real estate buyers, the Executive Chairman of real estate sales and media company Juwai IQI, Georg Chmiel, told Macau News Agency (MNA).

“In 2020 […] Thailand jumped four places to become the most popular destination for Macau buyers[…] It has been a top-five destination for each of the last two years. The United States, the United Kingdom, the UAE and New Zealand are all still popular with buyers from Macau. They round out the top-five list,” Mr. Chmiel stated.

Juwai IQI is a privately held real estate sales and media company created by the merger of IQI and Juwai.com an online platform that promotes real estate in over 90 countries to Chinese buyers.

“The popularity of Thailand reveals a new-found focus on nearby, inexpensive property that none-the-less offers an attractive lifestyle. In the time of coronavirus, many Macau buyers want to avoid the risk of high-priced overseas homes in far-away markets”

According to the group, a survey conducted before the pandemic indicated that the top five countries where wealthy Asians intend to purchase residential property are the US, UK, Singapore, Australia, and Canada.

Cross-border buyers – mostly from Asia – purchased 500,000 homes in the
G7 countries alone in 2019, worth an aggregate value of US$250 billion, with Juwai indicating that while the largest number of cross-border property buyers do originate in mainland China, significant numbers also come from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and from Singapore, India, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia.

However, the Juwai IQI Chairman warned that despite the popularity of Thailand as a real estate market for local buyers there were still practical obstacles to closing transactions due to travel and other restrictions related to the pandemic. 

The United States topped the list of reported worldwide Covid-19 cases at 1.57 million and with the most deaths at 93,533.

Thailand, meanwhile, has reported 3,034 Covid-19 cases, with 2,888 recovered and discharged from hospitals, but with 56 deaths.

The Southeast Asian country has begun to relax internal restrictions this month but has also extended a ban on international passenger flights until the end of June.

“The Coronavirus outbreak is unprecedented, but I think you can make a handful of assumptions about the impact. In the short-term, you can expect fewer transactions and more bargain hunting. The number of completed transactions will be down from forecasts made before the Coronavirus outbreak. Buyers who are able to transact will be aware of their leverage and will expect developers to offer bargains and incentives,” Mr. Chmiel told MNA.

The real estate expert even considered that after pandemic Macau cross-border buyer demand will not be dented and “may even climb significantly” with Thailand remaining being well-positioned to attract local investment

“Thailand can win Chinese buyer market share from other Asian countries that are not as successful at handling the coronavirus outbreak or that don’t have the same high-level medical care,” the Juwai IQI Executive Chairman noted.

Source: Macau Business

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