Residential sector 'first' to recover

       The property market for foreign buyers and investors will continue falling the rest of this year, but demand for residential and other types of Property will improve next year, real estate agencies told a seminar yesterday.
       Aliwassa Pathnadabutr, managing director for CB Richard Ellis (Thailand), said demand for grade A office space in the central business district slid 5.7 per cent in the second quarter from the same quarter last year.
       Most multinational firms cut costs and suspended their expansion plans in Thailand when they faced the global recession, she said.
       Longlom Bunnag, are executive at Jones Lang LaSalle (Thailand), said political uncertainty has crippled the economy and property market.
       Demand for industrial estates has withered this year. Some manufacturers also shifted their plants from Thailand to other countries in the region, which promise lower labour costs and greater political stability than Thailand.
       Phanom Kanjanathiemthao, managing director of Knight Frank Charter (Thailand), said villas and resorts for foreign buyers and investors have gone through a tough time this year, when most foreign buyers froze their investment plans.
       If the government wants to stimulate this market, it has to revise the act that limits foreign holdings of land and property in thailand by extending the lease term from 30 years to 90 years, and allowing them to apply for a mostgage loan from a local bank, he said.
       Patima Jirapath, managing director of Collier International Thailand, said the total supply of Bangkok retail space as of June 30 was 5.13 million square meters, of which 59 per cent was shopping malls, followed by hypermarkets with 13 per cent and community malls with 8 per cent.
       When the global recession struck the local economy last year, retailers were left high and dry, as both local and foreign shoppers cut their spending.
       But now the company sees a bright outlook for the retail market, when consumers regain their confidence in the last quarter of this year, he said.