There has been a slowdown in the real estate recovery due to negative factors such as rising interest rates, declining purchasing power, high household debt levels and rising house prices. However, noteworthy condominium housing transfers of less than 3 million baht slipped 12 per cent year-on-year.

Vichai, director of the Housing Bank of Thailand's Real Estate Information and Research Centre, warned that Thailand's real estate market would be under pressure to slow down under the influence of multiple negative factors, with the latest data showing a negative growth in the rate of transfers.

He believes it is necessary for the Seta Cabinet to inject new life into the weak property market, including the introduction of preferential stimulus measures for ordinary households to purchase homes in the last quarter. Thai households have less incentive to buy homes due to rising interest rates and higher prices pushed up by the cost of materials and workers.

The Home Builders' Association of Thailand (HBA) has suggested that the Seta cabinet introduce tax credits for home building, which would ease the financial pressure on consumers while helping associated small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and, crucially, boosting the contribution of real estate to the economy.

For example, an investment in building a house of one million baht is eligible for a personal income tax offset of 10,000 baht, up to a maximum of one million baht. Due to the rising cost of building materials and other factors, the second quarter of this year, house prices are expected to rise 5-10 per cent time.

The slowdown in Thailand's domestic property investment is also manifested in the number of newly approved development and construction units year-on-year decline is expected to fall in double digits this year, with the total number of applications approved at 80,643 units. And next year, it will rise slightly by 3 per cent to 83,062 units.

As for housing transfers, there is a decrease in the number but an increase in the value of transactions, for example, in the second quarter of this year, the total number of transfers was 91,085 units, a decrease of 4.4 per cent year-on-year, but the value of transactions was 258,149 million baht, an increase of 0.5 per cent year-on-year. Among them, the number of high-rise residential transfers increased by 13.6 per cent.

When broken down by price point, the number of transfers increased by 16 per cent and the value of transactions was 17.5 per cent higher at 7.5-10 million baht, followed by housing above 10 million baht, where the number of transfers increased by 12.4 per cent and the value of transactions was 10.3 per cent higher. But notable condominium housing under Bt3 million saw a 12 per cent year-on-year decline in the number of closings.

And official data showed that as of the first half of 2023, housing for sale across Thailand totalled 321,848 units valued at Bt144.187 billion, a decrease of 1.3 per cent and an increase of 0.3 per cent year-on-year; however, there were 291,384 remaining units for sale valued at Bt130,678.8 billion, an increase of 2.4 per cent and 4.2 per cent year-on-year, respectively.