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Real Estate in Hua hin
What attracts people to Rent or buy property in Hua Hin?
There are several factors, but we can say:
- The climate, long sandy beaches, good shopping options, the local &
international restaurants as well as visiting the night markets and Its
relatively competitive prices on houses and condos compared to BKK, Phuket,
Koh Samui or Pattaya.
- Distance: it is only 2-to 2.5 hours drive from Bangkok on mostly multi
lane highways
- The town’s atmosphere - being Royal and kind of “low key” so people who
don’t like active nightlife such as in Phuket and Pattaya will find Hua Hin
a suitable destination
- Safety, on account of the Royal presence, and Hua Hin being golf
paradise. There are 8 international golf courses within 25 minutes drive
distance from Hua Hin
- Close to Sam Roy Yod and Kaeng Krachang national Parks
Can Hua Hin’s infrastructure cope with an increase in long term stay
residents from overseas and tourisme?
However a continuous improvement programs will also need to be implemented. Hua
Hin already has English speaking hospitals, supermarkets which sell a variety of
local/foreign foods and goods, but to further absorb new developments there is a
requirement for improvements in areas such as water supplies, sewage system,
flood prevention system, etc… The good news is that these projects are part of
the election platform of the newly elected mayor of Hua Hin. Therefore we are
expecting some improvement in the town in this area.
Who is currently buying property in Hua Hin and why?
Hua Hin has been very popular among Scandinavian buyers. Other nationalities
include Germans, English, Dutch who are looking to purchase retirement and
holiday homes. Many of them also query about possible investment programs for
those times they are not here.
There is also a large market for Thai purchasers who see Hua Hin as a close
week-end getaway from Bangkok and an excellent opportunity for the purchase of a
second home.
Furthermore, we see some new trends – in the past few months quite a few
inquiries have been received from ex pats living in Middle East, HK and other
South East Asian countries. People are starting to look and search for Thai
properties outside of the traditional Phuket or Samui alternatives.
Effect from rising oil prices on the performance of the property
market
2 - 3 years ago, the factors to increase property prices were mainly
due to appreciation of land price or speculative reasons. However, recently, the
developers are compelled to increase the price due to high construction costs (mainly
cost of steel).
From a tourism point of view there has been an increase in the costs of airfares
which on the whole has an effect of reducing the number of times the client
visits Hua Hin. For example, clients who used to come to Hua Hin 3 times a year,
now have reduced their trips to twice a year.
There are a number of trends in effect suitable for all budgets and
tastes.
One trend is the emergence of luxury villas. Hua Hin used to focus on low - mid
range properties such as 2 -7 million area however, we see some new luxurious
villa/condo over 15 million recently launched.
Another trend is the emergence of middle to high end condominium projects which
offer ‘freehold’ status which is the a ability to get title to the unit compared
to villas which you can only lease on a 30-30-30 year basis. Furthermore many of
the condo and some villas offer “rental guarantee/management”, or offer full
resort facilities/services. Adding to the ‘condo momentum’ is the fact that
before it was either “beach front condo” or “very reasonable house in land”, but
the laws have changed and we cannot build beach front condos any more, and the
customers found some drawbacks to housing which is far away from facilities
without any services. So many new projects tend to offer more facilities and
services, compared to before.
The future of the property market progressing in Hua Hin in terms of
type of developments and target market?
Some new types of properties appear in Hua hin such as, serviced apartments,
condos with full rental management, resort ownership with rental income
guarantee, fractional ownership, etc…
Many of the clients are in their 40s and 50s and still working, They can only
spend a few weeks of the year staying in their properties, but require some kind
of rental income to absorb on going maintenance costs and perhaps make a bit of
additional monies to pay airfare and out of pocket expenses.. So the concept of
serviced apartment or properties with rental income would be a very attractive
choice for them.
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