Drop in overseas interest

After being ranked as the fourth most-searched destination by British overseas property website themovechannel.com in June, interest in Thailand property investments dropped significantly during July – by an astonishing ten places to be the 14th most-searched country on the portal.

This was only the second time in the last eight months that Thailand had failed to record a place inside the Top 10 in the website’s Top of the Props monthly survey (below) of most popular destinations for overseas property purchases by predominantly buyers from the United Kingdom.

A spokesperson for the website told Dot Property Group: “Thailand still remains a sought-after destination on TheMoveChannel.com.

“The country has been in the Top 10 countries for six out of the previous seven months this year and appeared within the top five in three of those.

“During July, though, the number of properties in Thailand listed on TheMoveChannel.com fell by 39 per cent compared to the previous month, which led to the decrease in inquiries.

The spokesperson added that demand for Thailand property was still high enough to keep the Kingdom in the 15 most popular destinations, but it was held back by a lack of opportunities being advertised on the portal for international investors.

The Top of the Props survey is more than just a single snapshot of overseas demand for Thailand property; viewed on a month-by-month basis it gives one indication of how Thailand’s property industry is comparing versus its global competition.

In recent years Thailand’s overseas buying demographic has changed dramatically to the point where, although there are no official figures, it is understood that most of its foreign property investors now come from elsewhere in Asia.

The number of buyers from Europe and the Middle East could well pick up, especially given the current weakness of the Thai baht and the rising cost of investment properties in other parts of the world.

The Kingdom still remains the most-searched Asian destination on the website, although now only five places ahead of the Philippines.

Spain remained the most popular destination in July, with its share of enquiries up from 6.68 percent to 9.36 percent on the website.

TheMoveChannel.com is a leading independent website for international property, with more than 800,000 listings from more than 100 countries around the world.

Top of the Props July 2015