International demand for transferring and leasing increases

• The overall market sentiment has continued to improve, with domestic demand currently dominating the condominium market. A recent launch achieved an outstanding pre-sales rate. Overseas buyers concentrated on transferring their reserved units; however, there were few additional bookings or sales.
• The rental market continued to improve, contributed to by both Thais and non-Thais. In addition to being one of the most important sources of leasing, tenants from Western nations have steadily returned. As a result, the apartment vacancy rate decreased swiftly to 7.9%, or by 310 bps q-o-q.

Supply shortages compress stock in the pipeline

• Five condominiums were completed in 4Q22, including The Chapter Chula Samyan, Cocoparc, The Estelle, The Reserve Sukhumvit 61 Hideaway, and Scope Promsri. Prime stock reached about 72,800 units, while future stock declined below 6,000 units.
• Future supply shortages in prime condominium markets have been exacerbated by low new supply. Only 1,585 units from four projects were launched throughout 2022. A few postponed sales indefinitely. Similar to the single-owned apartment market, Sylva Sukhumvit 61 was the sole new apartment building constructed in 2022.

Rents surge to a new record high

• Similar to apartment trends, condominium rents jumped by 4.2% q-o-q, reaching THB 584 per sqm per month, an all-time high. The occupancy rate continued to rebound despite rentals trending upward in almost all areas.
• Condominium capital values rose progressively to THB 131,966 per sqm, an increase of around 5 bps as a result of market improvement. Local (non-listed) developers also boosted the selling prices for some of the last units from old inventory, such as Klass Siam, Magnolia Ratchadamri, and Renesu Thonglor 5.

Outlook: Ultra-luxury trend starts to take off

• In the next twelve months, 1,517 units are expected to be completed. The majority of them were top-tier units introduced in 2019. In the meantime, other project launches are also anticipated in the first half of 2023.
• In 2023, the government will be providing subsidiary policies for real estate transactions, including mortgage fees and transfer fees. In addition, the new appraisal value will be enforced with an increase of approximately 8%, which would increase property taxes and have an impact on development costs and effective net rent.