By Shabnam Muzammil:
Property in South East Asia is becoming popular with investors from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, according to Arno Maierbrugger, Editor-in-Chief of news portal Investvine.
He noted that GCC countries are facing too much liquidity and a property supply glut despite their booming economies, while the property markets in some ASEAN nations appear to be promising.
Excluding Singapore, all the ASEAN countries are expected to record a GDP growth of four to eight percent in 2013 and remain at this level for at least two years. In the process, their property markets are forecasted to grow at a similar pace due to rising demand, investment activity and reasonable pricing.
“In the past, Singapore was the first choice for property investors in ASEAN. The city state’s property market is still robust, but has decelerated due to a slowing economy and tighter regulations on lending,” noted Maierbrugger.
“Thus, investors looked elsewhere and identified Malaysia and Thailand as new emerging real estate havens.”
Malaysian properties are very attractive, with metropolitan prime real estate priced at US$3,500 (S$4,330) psm and US$5,000 (S$6,186) psm. The country also has high potential as Muslim investors find themselves at home there.
Similarly, property prices in Thailand are more affordable with prime real estate at US$3,000 (S$3,711) psm. Demand for condominiums in the capital Bangkok is also expected to grow, especially for one-bedroom units near mass-transit stations.
In contrast, "Vietnam is currently going through a real estate slump, Myanmar has no clear regulations yet for private property investors and Brunei is too small", he added.
Shabnam Muzammil, Senior Journalist at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact her about this or other stories email shabnam@propertyguru.com.sg
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