What has always perplexed me is the fallacy that investors outside a falling property market will usually remark that the investors are not savvy. The reason parties are losing monies in certain property markets is due to miscalculation and miscalculation is a result of poor financial sense and probably a lack of financial education. Today, property markets in China and Hong Kong are taking a beating. Morgan Stanley expects home prices in Hong Kong to continue to fall for another two years. Mainland China is currently in a 23-month home price slump. The interesting take that certain investors ..read more

The new year is here! 2023 was an exceptional year. I have had several people asking me what I had been up to for the past few years. I was extremely busy with my business which I started and it eventually took a huge, and very positive, grip over almost all my time. Just about six years ago, I chanced upon the corporate secretarial business. This consists of the work of incorporating companies and managing the corporate compliance matters of companies. I had the fortunate opportunity to take over a corporate secretarial practice. At that time, the business only focused on corporate filings an ..read more

Sansiri is a brand that is synonymous when it comes to properties in Thailand. Sansiri is right front and centre now that its previous CEO, Srettha Thavisin, is the current prime minister of Thailand. This perhaps displays the fact that developers in Thailand have rather significant political clout. Sansiri is one of the most if not the most aggressive, developers in marketing to overseas buyers. Foreign buyers in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia should be familiar with the Sansiri brand if they are familiar with the Thai property market. Shush Ratchathewi is Sansir ..read more

The Onnut area has been a very popular area in recent years. It is very close to the upscale neighbourhoods like Thong Lor, Ekkamai and Phrom Phong but in many aspects, substantially cheaper. On Nut is 2 BTS stations away from Ekkamai, 3 from Thong Lor and 4 from Phrom Phong. It is an area that is well stocked with amenities like a huge Tesco Lotus and a Mall, Century The Movie Plaza, right next to Onnut BTS station. Increasingly this is growing to become a very popular area with not just the locals but foreigners living in Bangkok as well as tourists. Ekkamai, which is a mere two BTS train st ..read more

The Thai property market is gradually picking up. While the pace of recovery is healthy, it was hampered by the fact that the Chinese had not returned in full force to Thailand as tourists and property investors. A lot has happened since the pandemic. The Bangsue Grand Station has been completed and is now operational. This is essential to China’s One Belt One Road initiative. Bangkok is slated to be a central interchange that links Kunming, China to the rest of South East Asia. Thailand has a new government. One that is pro-business. The Prime Minister was the former CEO of one of Thailand’s ..read more

Investing these days can be very daunting. Investors need to understand what they are investing and the first port of call would be the Internet. While the Internet is the bearer of information, it should not be equated with the bearer of accurate information. Let me break this down for you…   When the Singapore government raised the Additional Buyers’ Stamp Duty for foreigners purchasing residential property from 30% to 60% on the 27th of April 2023, many property analysts were up in arms. Many considered that such a move was draconian and that the government failed to understand the nua ..read more

Speculation is a very dangerous thing. However, truth be told, much of the market, be it real estate or equities, is involved in speculative activities. To understand speculation, we first need to agree on a set definition.   Speculation is difficult to define. However, I believe that the definition can be broken down into a few parts: Speculation is when one purchases something with the intention of selling it for a higher price in the future; and The purchase is largely premised on the belief that the market will continue in an uptrend; and The purchase is largely premised on the purpo ..read more

Back in 2017, I posted a blog article on the good locations for property investment in Bangkok. Since then, which was six years ago, many other factors have come into play. This blog article is an update to that previous article. I intend to take stock of what I mentioned back in 2017 to determine whether the same applies in 2023 as well as to bring up some new locations which I believe may be worth considering if you are looking to invest in a property in Bangkok.   So what has changed and what can we take away from the last six years? For starters, the Bangkok metro network has expanded ..read more

The Bangkok property market has been adversely hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on DDProperty’s Thailand Consumer Sentiment Study, 75% of consumers delayed their property transactions, 32% felt higher uncertainty about property prices and 31% had difficulties securing home loans. It is important to note that the changes to the loan-to-value (LTV) requirements by the Bank of Thailand did put a damper on home buying. There was a slight relaxation of the LTV requirements in early 2020 but it was not sufficient to support demand. The fallout from the pandemic not only hit the property market bu ..read more

Singapore is not immune to recessions. We are on the brink of a technical recession. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contractions. As the health of the economy is determined by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers, this would mean that a contraction in such numbers for two quarters would fulfil the definition of a technical recession. However, as Singaporeans would already realise, the health of the economy does not always commensurate to what is happening on the ground. Just last month we received the news that new private home sales jumped 80% in Apri ..read more