Violent protest in Bangkok may still have effect on property market, but no dramatic effect so far

 
But it may take months for the true effects of the streets being blockaded and whole parts of the city being shut down in a stand off between the government and red shirt protestors, they warn.
   
Even so there has been no dramatic impact on on sales and letting volumes, prices and rents, according to CB Richard Ellis.
 
‘We do not believe there will be a sudden a dramatic downward movement in prices or rents,’ the company said.
 
Its latest update report shows that the total supply of expatriate standard apartments in downtown Bangkok increased 2.3% year on year. Occupancy was 88.2%. Rents rose in some locations such as Central Lumpini but fell in other locations.
 
Despite the increase in the Bangkok hotel supply, Bangkok occupancy rates and REVPAR increased but the Average daily rate decreased in the first quarter of the year.
 
International Tourist Arrivals increased by 27.1% on the first quarter of 2010 but because of the violent stand off numbers for the second quarter are expected to be very poor and the report says it remains to be seen how long it will take for business and tourist arrivals to recover.
 
The majority of new condominium launches in the first quarter were mainly small one bedroom units.
 
The office market remained weak. There was no increase in supply. Take up grew by 17,481 square metres. Grade A CBD rents fell by 3.8% year on year. Retail Occupancy increased to 93.4%. Rents remained at similar levels. A number of shopping centres were closed in Central Bangkok for much of April and May.
 
There was, however, a 175% increase in townhouse completions on quarter on quarter but developer built single detatched house completions fell by 74% quarter on quarter, the report shows.
 
The first three months of the year saw a decrease of 20.5% in SDH land allocation permits from the Land Department, a drop from 760 to 604 for the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. In Bangkok the majority of land allocation permits were located in the northern and eastern zones due to the completion of the Airport Rail Link (ALR) which is scheduled to be fully operational by July 2010.
 
There were 26 projects in Bangkok Metropolitan Area (BMR) that received land allocation permits and 23 % of the construction of the SRT Light Red Line (Bangsue – Taling Chan) has been completed.
 
Furthermore, there has also been visible progress on the MRT Purple Line (Bangyai – Bangsue) progressive. ‘This will increase the demand for the projects around western area but the main impact will be on completion of these lines,’ it says.
 
Overall sales performance of TH projects also improved. All segments for townhouses and SDH have sold over half of their units, while most of newly launched projects have an average of 20% to 40% sold of total units, it also shows