Miss Risinee Sarikaputra, Director of Research at Knight Frank Thailand, revealed that the condominium market in Hua Hin has returned to a balanced state, as developers have slowed down the launches of local condominium projects. This follows the opening of a large number of development between 2011 and 2012, which caused demand to fall behind the surging supply.
Data from Knight Frank’s Research Department’s showed that, at the middle of 2019, the supply of condominiums in Hua Hin totaled 26,886 units. Over the past 3 years, from 2016 to 2018, there were an average of 1,120 new condominium units launched for sale per year. Operators thus began to delay the launch of condominium projects in the Hua Hin area due to the large number of newly launched supply from 2011 to 2012. During those years, the new condominium supply reached up to 6,000 units per year, resulting in the reduced sales rate of 45 per cent in 2011. In 2012, the sales rate was 56 per cent due to such events that caused operators to engage in price wars to devise various promotions to boost sales. Many operators had to delay the launch of their projects; some projects were canceled altogether.
Graph 1
Supply of Condominiums in Hua Hin, 2008 to Mid-2019
There have been 22,219 condominiums sold in the Hua Hin area out of a supply of 26,886 units, which represents a sales rate of 83 per cent. The lowest sales rate was in 2011, at 45 per cent due to the new supply entering the market that year, which reached 6,079 units. The sales rate increased to 71 per cent in 2015 and 78 per cent in 2017. It was the highest in mid-2019, at 83 per cent. The area with the most supply remaining includes the Cha-am area, with about 3,376 units available for sale. The sales rate in Cha-am is 78 per cent. The areas with the least amount of available supply are the Hua Hin and Khao Takiab areas, with only 254 and 295 units remaining, respectively. The sales rates in Khao Takiab and Hua Hin are 92 and 89 per cent, respectively.
Graph 2
Supply, Demand, and Sales Rate of Condominium in Hua Hin, 2008 to Mid-2019
Miss Risinee said that the main buyers in Hua Hin are still Thai people looking for a holiday home for their weekend breaks, and they may rent the units out when they are not there. Foreign customers who buy condominiums in Hua Hin only account for 10 per cent of all buyers; this buyer group consists of foreigners from Scandinavian countries, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. In terms of the price of condominiums in Hua Hin, the average selling price of a condo with sea views is currently 131,494 baht per square metre. This increased 2 per cent from the end of 2018. The price of a sea view condo falls within the range of 107,000 to 176,000 baht per square metre. Lower-priced units are usually those that have only partial sea views or are not directly facing the sea. The average selling price in Hua Hin tends to be higher than other areas. For units that do not have sea views, the prices range from 60,000 baht to 90,000 baht per square metre. In the first half of 2019, the average selling price of units that do not have sea views was 73,685 baht per square metre, reflecting an increase of 2 per cent from the end of 2018.
Graph 3
Average Sales Price of Condominium in Hua Hin, 2009 to Mid-2019
