Bangkok’s Big Housing Boom (& Bust)

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[tsbrownie]

Thai friends of mine were just telling me they are looking for a house in central Bangkok. Land is so expensive that the house sitting on it can range from a falling down wooden structure (literally) to a concrete and brick mini-mansion with tile or wood floors, fully furnished in built-in teak, and the price hardly flickers because of the house. The price will be based 95% on the size of the land.
Fun fact: A 4000 square foot mini-mansion built by a house construction firm with good quality components, concrete and brick with aluminum windows, tile floors, etc. is around 5M to 7M baht ($150k to $200k).

[laughing]

The vacancy rate can be misleading in Thailand. Thailand has some of the highest number of foreign owned condos that they are not actually living in simply due to being somewhere else in the world at the moment. To complicate things, foreigners must own less than a majority of the units (or it might be floor area, I don't remember) of condo units.

[kalui]

I have been binge watching your videos all weekend... and gotta say, I found it interesting and inspiring noticing the development and incremental improvements that can be seen in your videos chronologically. Your videos have undergone Kaizen. I like every single one of your videos.
Thank you for furthering my education. Love from USA

[learneconomics]

The book by Robert Swiller " Irrational Exuberance " depicts extremely well how real estate bubbles are repetitive, predictable and surprisingly unforeseen

[IdeaStudioBKK]

Amazing video, and you did pretty good with most of the names, but if you ever want a hand with Thai pronuciations feel free to hit me up I can make a reference recording for you. A lot of the time the romanized spelling of Thai names isn't phonetically accurate. This particular video is so well timed for me, I am about to release a short documentary about the Sathorn Unique ghost tower and how the financial crisis of 97 played a role in creating it! cheers.

[SamDeanismyname]

I watch/listen to your videos often. I never comment as I’m here to learn. I have however lived in Thailand (BKK) and have some understanding of the country. Whether coups or short sighted thinking in economic decisions, it’s still a very volatile country. It regularly repeats the same mistakes and the people often don’t have the motivation to expect more or do more to change it. Most just go with the flow. Compound that with corruption, lack of tax payers, low cost of living and materialism it’s no wonder that there’s a sense of live for today and no thoughts for tomorrow. They are often keeping the door wide open to be taken advantage of and not very many want to stand up and be a driver in change. I don’t see much different than everything you laid out from how it operates today. Nor do I see much changing tomorrow. Lovely place. Lovely people. Often short sighted and left holding the bag though. Good work on this essay. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.

[royfpga]

You do a really good job and I’m interested how you do the research to make your videos. You have a knack for presenting economic and political topics in a way that you can’t pick up just by reading the WSJ or Financial Times and similar publications. You might consider a video on how you build your videos and economic analysis. You’re on to something with this channel and keep up the great work!

[jaredspencer]

The vacancy rate is almost certainly higher in the up-scale high-rise condos. I'm always amazed at these tall, beautiful condos that clearly have just a few occupants per floor. The families with money will just buy as many as they can, but can rarely rent them out.

[GoigD]

It's bound to happen again, for years there's been a build spree of huge condominium complexes and housing states. There's a shopping mall I go to every 4 or 5 months about 5km from where I live and it feels like every time I go there there's a brand new condo tower on the way. A lot of it, from what I've heard is catering to Chinese buyers investing in real estate., it's like a bubble inside a bubble.

[switzerland]

You should have a look into the Swiss housing market, it‘s constantly overheated and never busting. There is a lot of messing around going on. Most people are renters, which again changes the whole dynamics. I think it‘s interesting because it‘s strange. We also have a strong population growth. We also had many anti-city suburban waves due to stronger public transport trains. The heat is not only in the city, but allover.

[emilhuseynov]

Clicked the video immediately after I got the notification, love your videos

[JTA]

This guy's sideways comments & innuendos are something else...anyway...I like it. & I subscribed.

[djblackprincecdn]

I have been watching your videos for a few months now and I have to say I really enjoy the topics you choose, the amount of quality research you do and how neutral your reporting on these subjects are. Really excellent work my friends.

[AllocatorsAsia]

The update to the GHB logo at 09:58 is a tragedy in itself

[Bobafea]

Brilliant research and commentary. Thank you very much.

[ricardokowalski]

4:40 "just eight housing projects"
5:23 and yet they had FOUR separate housing government entities!
Government bureaucracies created to give salaries to friends, not serve the citizens.

[kevinbyrne]

Thank you for posting this video. USA news media don't cover stories outside of the USA, so I was completely ignorant of this financial debacle.

[connclissmann]

Great video, many thanks. Amazing how many times some of these mistakes were repeated later. Overexuberance in the financial sector seeking market share of lending on property strikes a particular chord.

[mson]

My favorite YouTuber love from America 👍🏿

[Hangover-rybo]

Excellent information and well presented.