First-time buyers are the main beneficiaries of the kickstarter package
In a bid to revive Thailand’s waning real estate sector, Finance Minister Sommai Phasee recently approved a stimulus package aimed for to increase the pace of property transfer in the country, the Bangkok Post recently reported.
These measures should be particularly helpful to first-time buyers and low-income households.
What will they get from it? There are three things to remember:
First-time buyers will be eligible to deduct 20 percent of their new home’s value from their annual personal income tax for five years (providing the home is worth THB3 million (USD84,000) or less and is bought by the end of 2016)
The state-owned GH Bank are now permitted to offer mortgages at 50 percent of applicants’ salaries, up from 30 percent. This is part of a THB10 billion (USD280 million) scheme
Both housing transfer and mortgage fees will be cut to 0.01 percent from 2 and 1 percent, respectively. These cuts will be in place and are only applicable on homes priced below THB3 million
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“Though the proposed measures are unlikely to boost new demand in the residential market, it should help incentivise homebuyers to accelerate the home transfer process,” commented Suphin Mechuchep, managing director of JLL Thailand.
“The policies represent a safe step towards helping the residential sector. Increased transfer activity should build developers’ financial strength, enabling new investment and helping Thai growth,” she concluded.
One developer going full steam ahead with investment and enabling the growth of the Thai residential sector is Sansiri and their joint venture with BTS Group, BTS-Sansiri Holding, which recently announced the launch of 10 residential projects in Bangkok in Q4 2015, according to Deal Street Asia.
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The newly announced projects are part of BTS-Sansiri’s plans to develop multiple residential projects on land plots along the routes of the capital’s BTS service between now and 2019. The initial ten projects will be worth a total of THB21.5 billion (USD598 million) and will comprise five condominium and five detached housing projects.
It was hoped these new projects would help the Sansiri group reach their target of THB33 billion (USD930 million) in pre-sales in 2015 – they had made THB20.5 billion (USD580 million) in the first three quarters alo.
The total value of BTS-Sansiri ventures is thought to reach somewhere around THB100 billion (USD2.8 billion).
Image is by Eustaquio Santimano and is used under a Creative Commons licence
Source : property-report.com
Read more…3 things to remember from Thailand’s property stimulus proposal
